Official Cosmotourist Blog

Only 2 months to go and the Olympic Games will be upon us. One of our Cosmotourists is lucky enough to be in Beijing at the moment (she will in fact also be at the Olympic opening ceremony) and has shared her impressions of the city in the run up to the event.

Here is a taste of what to expect from Yiwen’s Olympic travel blog:

Yiwen mentions the television screens that have been installed into every subway train in Beijing with information about the Olympics. “To date I’ve seen short documentaries on the construction of the Olympic stadium and village, introductions to sports events and Chinese athletes, and a barrage of Olympic-related commercials.”

Yiwen mentions the abundance of construction work going on in Beijing in time for the Olympics including the expansion of Beijing airport. Even the locals can’t keep up with the progression!

Yiwen then goes on to talk about the various advertising campaigns for the Olympics that include Jackie Chan, Yao Ming and Liu Xing but show no sign of “China’s very outstanding female athletes and celebrities.” She finds it interesting that the official Olympic song includes English verses and she sees this as an attempt by China to appease the Western world.

She also mentions the huge signs that have been erected all over the city with the “10 Dos and Don’ts of the Olympics.” Among other rules it is forbidden to purchase pirated or fake Olympic merchandise, to misuse the Olympic flag, to make trouble or create a scene during the Olympics or to act in any way to affect the country’s reputation. Apparently a new legislation has been enforced in a very short space of time that condemns every Chinese athlete caught doping to a life ban from competing.

You can find the travel blog in its extended version on www.cosmotourist.com. If you are interested in the Olympics you can also subscribe to her scout topic Beijing Olympics so that you don’t miss out on all her future postings.

Travel tips of specific interest can now be found on the Cosmotourist homepage. Here you will find a ranking list entitled Top Travel Tips showing the 3 most popular travel tips per month. The tips that appear here have received the most positive feedback by members of the community.  By clicking on MORE you will be directed to a full page of travel tips that have been rated positively by users in the corresponding month.

This new feature was launched with a competition in February. Nina 5 was the proud winner, taking away 300$! Her travel tip TABLA INDIAN RESTAURANT gained much acclaim. Her travel tip was rated by 136 people in February, who have no doubt now been inspired to to visit the restaurant themselves!

Our congratulations go to Nina and to all Cosmotourists who participated in the competition. For those who didn’t win there is no need for disappointment as there will be plenty of other competitions coming up in the near future-so stay tuned!

During Advent and the period leading up to Ephiphany we ran a competition looking for the top 3 Cosmotourist Scouts with the most subscribers to their postings. We now have our 3 King of Scouts who we would like to congratulate in celebratory fashion:

400$ go to Elizaoprisor (with 28 subscribers to her scout topic “Eastern Europe-the  good and the bad”)

250$ go to Jamaica Jane (with 33 subscribers to her scout topic”Jamaica in a Nutshell”)

80$ go to NOFXMike (with 23 subscribers to his scout topic “Exploring Germany from  a tour guide’s perspective”)

Our Scouts are an important part of the Cosmotourist concept. They make it possible for members to network with one another, sharing common interests, helpful tips and advice with one another. We are therefore thrilled with the more Scouts we get!

Many  people noticed that the ranking table changed just before the competition deadline. Unfortunately we discoverered that there were numerous fake registrations. We therefore had to sift out all false subscribers and this led to the ranking table changing to reflect only authentic sign ups.  

The Cosmotourist Team congratulates the winners and thanks all its Scouts for their interesting and exciting postings!

Over the last few weeks we have been running a Cosmostory competition and we are now happy to be able to announce the winners:
Kristen 5683 and AmberT!

They have both won airline vouchures which with any luck will inspire lots more Cosmostories! AmberT plans to put her prize towards a trip to Miami and Kristen5683 is considering a trip to Amsterdam! We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your fun, lively, personal and informative travel stories. Your Cosmostories are entertaining and provide interesting food for thought. A few examples are “Buenos Aires to lima, Peru…by Bus” by Soulchaser “My Blue Mountain Escape” by JamaicaJane, “My Puerto Galera Island Experience” by Orange Travel and “Costa Rica in the Rain” by Tamarin. Keep up the good work!

If you would like to see the entire catalogue of Cosmostories, simply go the homepage, then to the “Latest Cosmostories” and click on “more” at the bottom.

Have fun reading and adding more Cosmostories!

Your Cosmotourist Team