Fun with Pandas for A Sunday Evening...

The cutest and cuddliest animal in the world has got to be the Panda bear. 30% of the world's pandas can be found in the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuary in southwestern China and the place has been named a World Heritage site.

Visitor number to the Wolong Valley has skyrocketed from 200,000 people a year to 1.8 million.

Only about 1,600 giant pandas are left in the wild.

Recently, someone sent me some images of these cute darlings, shots of which were taken at the Panda Sanctuary in China. The captions add spice to the already-lovely shots. Take a look.






















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Penang World Heritage Site not in jeopardy, afterall

In my post several days ago about the possibility of George Town (Penang) losing its UNESCO World Heritage site status, we are now assured that "George Town’s World Heritage Site status is not in jeopardy as the upcoming high-rise hotels in the area were approved with UNESCO’s knowledge," said a former state exco member.

Last Saturday night, thousands of Malaysians and foreign tourists witnessed the official awarding of the UNESCO World Heritage Site to George Town and Malacca at a colourful ceremony at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur.

The award arrived on an elephant, was passed to UNESCO’s regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific Director, Hubert J. Gijzen, who then handed it to Malaysia’s UNESCO national committee president, Education Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammud-din Tun Hussein. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, then received the award from Hishammuddin.



All's well that ends well..

Source: The Star

Penang - A UNESCO World Heritage Site no more?

Two Malaysian cities were designated UNESCO World Heritage sites. One is the city of Malacca, the other is Penang. Now, Penang is in a dilemma of possibly losing the status should they go ahead with the approved plan of building four high-rise hotels which would be in the heritage core and buffer zones and which violate the guidelines approved by the World Heritage Committee (WHC).

Under stringent heritage guidelines, a maximum height of 18m or roughly five storeys was set for new buildings in the two zones.

Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng, said, “Now, we’re caught in a conundrum. If we allow the buildings to go ahead, we may risk the status, but if we stop the buildings, we could be sued for hundreds of millions which will definitely bankrupt the local council."

What are your thoughts? Should this building give way to a high-rise in the name of development?

An artist’s impression of the Rice Miller boutique hotel which will be built in Weld Quay, George Town. It is one of four projects to be carried out in the island’s heritage zone, a move that could threaten Penang’s World Heritage Site listing.

Source: The Star