13 articles found
How prevalent is smoking in Turkey?
If you've spent any time in Turkey, you've probably noticed that there is a lot of smoking, and for first-time visitors, the prevalence can come as a surprise. But is it really as pervasive as it seems? The Numbers Are Real Turkey isn't just seem...
Singapore Culture Guide: Understanding the Lion City's Multicultural Identity
Singapore's population of 5.9 million includes Chinese (74%), Malay (13%), Indian (9%), and Eurasian and other communities (4%). These are not statistics about a melting pot where differences dissolve — they describe a genuinely plural society wh...
Uzbekistan: Language, Food, Culture, and the Most Amazing Places on the Silk Road
Uzbekistan is one of the most architecturally extraordinary countries on earth. The Silk Road cities that pass through it — Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva — were, for centuries, among the most important cities in the world: hubs of commerce, Islamic schol...
Are Filipinos Actually the Happiest People in Asia? The Story Behind the Smiles
In the Social Progress Index, the Gallup World Poll, and numerous academic studies on subjective wellbeing, the Philippines ranks as one of the happiest countries in Asia — typically ahead of South Korea, Japan, China, and far ahead of countries with...
The People and Traditions of Kyrgyzstan: Nomadic Culture That Still Lives
Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China. Approximately 94% of its territory sits above 1,000 metres elevation; 40% is above 3,000 metres. It has been a Soviet republic, ...
Armenia: The Oldest Christian Country in the World Is Also One of the Most Underrated in Europe
Armenia adopted Christianity as its state religion in 301 AD — over a decade before the Roman Empire. That fact is a useful introduction to what kind of country this is: ancient in a way that isn't metaphorical, shaped by history with a weight that's...
Do Chinese Cinemas Actually Show Hollywood Movies in English?
China is the second-largest film market in the world — in some years it briefly overtakes the US. Hollywood studios spend enormous energy trying to get their films into Chinese cinemas and to tailor content for Chinese audiences. But what does a Chin...
Georgian Hospitality: Why Guests Are Considered Gifts from God
There's a Georgian proverb that people quote here with genuine conviction: "სტუმარი ღვთის მიერ მოვლენილია" — "A guest is a gift from God." It's one thing to hear it. It's another to be on the receiving end of it at a Georgian dinner table where the...
How Many Languages Does China Actually Have — And Do People Speak English?
When travelers say they want to "learn Chinese before visiting China," they're opening a door to one of the most linguistically complex countries on earth. China doesn't have one language — it has dozens, possibly hundreds, depending on how you count...
Bihar, India: The Birthplace of Buddhism and One of the Most Overlooked States in Asia
Most people could not find Bihar on a map. This is a significant oversight in world cultural geography, because Bihar is where some of the most important events in Asian and world history took place — and where the physical traces of those events can...
Georgia's Street Cats: The Beloved Felines of Tbilisi and Beyond
Walk through Tbilisi's Old Town long enough and you'll notice them, they will be lounging on sun-warmed stone walls, drifting between café chairs, sitting in the doorways of ancient churches. Georgia's street cats are not strays in the ordinary sen...
What It's Actually Like to Be an American Walking Around Iran: Culture Shock, Hospitality, and Everything In Between
You land in Tehran. You walk out of the airport into a country where Western travel advisories urge extreme caution, where geopolitical headlines depict perpetual tension, and where government propaganda murals adorn city walls. You're nervous. Yet...