Visit time: 2026-03-15 to 2026-03-17 Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is the most visited city, understandably. The most popular city for recreation tourists is likely Brasov. Bucharest has a long history. Like other Eastern European cities, many of its historic buildings were ruined by Romania's socialist regime during the Soviet era. Socialist residues, such as brutalist gray apartment complexes, are still everywhere. Bucharesters are just like Romanians in other cities - friendly, helpful, and engaging.  The traffic jams in Bucharest are as bad as those of any booming city.  If you fly to Bucharest and need to transfer to another city, such as Brasov, get on the Airport Express Train (OTP → Gara de Nord). It takes you from the airport to the main passenger train station in 20 minutes, immune to any traffic jams. You just follow the sign to walk to the end of the airport garage, then take an elevator to the above floor to get on a train. Both the food and service of B...

As the subtitle of this book, A Collection of Short Stories, suggests, it is a collection of the author's short stories. Escape from Crimea is the first, and probably the most important, story. That is also the primary reason for me to acquire this book. The story is about Tanya, a Ukrainian chemical engineer from Sevastopol, Crimea. She lived a peaceful, typical life as an employee at a large plant. The annexation of Crimea by Russia turned her life upside down. The story tells what a sham the so-called referendum on joining Russia is.  "On the day of the referendum, they gathered us all in the courtyard of the plant. Heavily armed men appeared, bearing no military insignia, led by a tall, strong, middle-aged man who called himself Chesnyakov. We later learned that he was a colonel in the Russian special forces and a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan War of the 1980s." "Remember that Crimea is and always will be Russian! Anyone who votes no may have to worry about where ...

In his post-Beijing trip interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, Trump laid the foundation to sell out Taiwan: He does like the pro-independence person in TW. Taiwan stole American chip technologies. He does not want to see Americans traveling 9500 miles to fight a war. China is VERY VERY powerful, only 59 miles away from Taiwan, a small island. Taiwan is a de facto independent country. It has its own democratically elected government and its military. A Taiwan passport is much more powerful than a PRC passport. It has de facto embassies in many countries. However, the Democratic Progressive Party has wanted to declare some sort of official independence, which the PRC loathes. The status quo has been one-China as follows: The PRC believes the CCP's government is the only legitimate government of China that includes both mainland China and Taiwan. The Republic of China (i.e., Taiwan) assumes it is the only legitimate government of China that includes both mainland China and Taiwan....

This is an AI translation of an excellent article by Shu Din in Chinese .  The estimate is from well-documented events. I believe the excessive deaths caused by the Cultural Revolution, one way or another, are many times two million.  The following is the translation of ChatGPT:   On June 10, 1966, just as the Cultural Revolution was beginning, Mao Zedong said during a meeting with Ho Chi Minh : “This time, large and small, perhaps several hundred or several thousand people will be brought down, especially in academic circles, educational circles, publishing circles, literary and artistic circles, universities, middle schools, and elementary schools.” He identified the primary targets of the movement, but deliberately understated its scope. In reality, not several hundred or several thousand people were “brought down,” but several million. The famous Guangdong writer Qin Mu once commented on the Cultural Revolution: “This truly was an unprecedented catastrophe. How ...