Desert Hills Premium Outlets has one of the largest collections of designer outlets in the U.S. Patrick Nouhailler / Flickr

Minutes after arriving by bus at an outlet mall in Cabazon, a dozen or so Chinese tourists hustled out to buy luggage that they planned to stuff with high-end clothes, shoes and bags.

But not Guoshing Cui, a Samsung supervisor from Guangzhou. He made a beeline for the Coach store, where he picked out three expensive handbags. He paid more than $800 from a wad of $100 bills.

The bags were gifts for family and friends in China, where Coach goods sell for two to three times the price in the U.S. “It’s a smart move,” he said of his purchases.

That kind of power shopping has made the Chinese tourist the highest-spending overseas visitor to the U.S. and one of the most valued customers for U.S. outlet malls, shopping centers and tour bus operators.

Chinese tourists spend an average of $2,932 per visit to California, compared with $1,883 for other overseas visitors, according to the latest statistics by the U.S. Office of Travel and Tourism Industries. A big chunk of their spending — about 33% — goes for gifts and souvenirs.

“What we know about Chinese visitors is they don’t like to lay on the beaches,” said Ernest Wooden Jr., president of the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board. “What they do like is shopping.”

The outpouring of Chinese money helped set a record for spending by foreign visitors to the U.S. — $168.1 billion in 2012, according to federal officials. Los Angeles is getting its share of the Chinese spending: Nearly 1 in 3 Chinese travelers to the U.S. makes a stop in the City of Angels.

“The Chinese middle class is growing and their No. 1 destination is L.A.,” said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has made two trips to China and will be in Beijing this week to promote trade and travel with L.A.

China’s relatively strong economy and its growing middle class means more Chinese citizens have money to travel and spend, according to tourism experts. The middle class in China numbered 247 million people in 2011, or 18% of the population, and is projected to grow to more than 600 million by 2020.

Visitors to California from China are typically professionals, executives or managers, with an average annual income of $66,900 — compared with an annual per capita income of about $5,000 for all Chinese residents, according to statistics from the U.S. and Chinese governments.

To draw in more Chinese spending, store owners, hotel managers and tour guides in Southern California are going out of their way to welcome Chinese tourists.

At the Desert Hills Premium Outlets in Cabazon, 20 of the 130 stores employ Mandarin-speaking salesclerks such as Jeffrey Hsu, who works at the mall’s Ugg Australia store.

“I think we understand their customs,” Hsu said. “When someone comes to a foreign country they want to bring back gifts for their family and friends.”

Spending by Chinese travelers has grown so fast in the last few years that it has surpassed the per capita outlays of other high-spending visitors, including travelers from Japan, Australia, Brazil and South Korea.

The customs and unique characteristics of the local economy shape how foreign visitors spend their time and money when visiting the U.S.

Australians, for example, share a similar culture with the U.S. and are more likely than other overseas travelers to visit museums, art galleries and historical sites.

“We are fascinated by peoples of different cultures,” said James McKay, an engineer from Melbourne, whose recent visit to the U.S. included tours of Alcatraz island in San Francisco, the Pearl Harbor memorial in Hawaii and ground zero in New York. He also took a historic tour of Disneyland with his wife, Karen.

Japanese tourists, according to travel surveys, spend heavily at restaurants because certain foods, particularly red meat, are much more expensive in the island nation.

That may explain why Morton’s steakhouse in Beverly Hills has become hugely popular among Japanese tourists.

“Don’t even put fish or chicken in front of them,” Joanna Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the restaurant, said of Japanese visitors. “They come for steak.”

But Chinese tourists tend not to shop for themselves. Most of their purchases — usually high-end clothes and accessories featured in American movies and magazines — are gifts for friends and family.

Chinese tourists in the U.S. target brands such as Coach, Ugg, Polo, Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Neiman Marcus and L’Occitane. Steep Chinese taxes make such brands two to three times more expensive in China, said Helen Koo, president of America Asia tours in Monterey Park.

“Many tourists feel that the savings more than pay for the entire trip,” she said.

Many Chinese visitors also stock up on vitamins in the U.S. because they are suspicious of the quality of supplements sold in China.

To stretch their travel budgets, Chinese tourists prefer shopping at outlet malls.

“We see many visitors head to the luggage store, get a suitcase and then it’s, ‘OK, we are going to fill the bag,’” said Michele Rothstein, a senior vice president at Simon Property Group, one of the country’s largest operators of regional and outlet malls. “The Chinese are definitely seen as speed shoppers.”

During a recent visit to the U.S., Ding Sheng, a tourist from Guangzhou, China, said he took a tour to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and was planning to see the casinos of Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. But he said a shopping outing to the Cabazon outlet mall was the highlight of the trip.

“These are gifts for my friends,” he said as he shopped for Ugg shoes, priced at $149 a pair.

Although Chinese tourists spend heavily on gifts and souvenirs, the travelers typically skimp on food and lodging, tour guides say.

For example, the tour group that chartered a bus to the Desert Hills Premium Outlets stayed about 75 miles away at an economy hotel in the city of Industry and ate at Chinese buffet restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley.

“Even when they stay at a cheap hotel, they spend a lot on shopping,” said Nathan Xue, a tour guide for TPI America.

In fact, the Chinese travelers spent so much during the visit to the outlet mall that it took Xue an extra hour after his recent tour bus was scheduled to leave to pull the Chinese tourists away from the stores.

And when the shoppers finally returned to the bus, it took another 20 minutes for them to stuff their bulging bags of clothes, shoes and luggage into the bus’ cargo hold.

(c)2013 the Los Angeles Times. Distributed by MCT Information Services.

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A sign seen at Everest Base Camp in Nepal. Rick McCharles / Flickr

Hindu scriptures say that in “a hundred ages of the gods” you could not do justice to the Himalayas. So where do mere mortals start? Knowing where to go in an area 10 times the size of France is daunting, especially when just getting there is expensive. Everest gets most of the headlines, but the Himalayas are vast, especially when you include mountain ranges west of the Indus – the Pamir, Hindu Kush and Karakoram.

This 4,000km crescent, stretching from Kyrgyzstan to Burma, is a geography of superlatives – the highest mountains, the deepest gorges, tracts of wild forest, the rolling high plateau of Tibet plus, in Bhutan and the Indian state of Assam in the eastern Himalayas, some of the greatest biodiversity on the planet.

Then there are the people. It is true that in some areas the Himalayas are wild and barely populated, but in most there is an incredible diversity of cultures that have adapted to surviving in an environment that can be exceptionally hostile as well as incredibly beautiful.

These huge peaks are also the meeting point for three of the world’s great religions: Islam in the west, Hinduism to the south and Tibetan Buddhism to the north.

It’s an incredibly dynamic region. New roads and airports are making some areas more accessible, while diminishing the appeal of others, like the famous Annapurna Circuit in Nepal.

Political change has also altered horizons. Mountains along the northern border of Burma have recently become accessible for the first time in decades, while visa restrictions and unrest in Tibet have made travelling there more difficult.

Trekking is also changing. Many assume walking in the Himalayas is only for rugged types who enjoy roughing it. That was true in 1953, when Everest was first climbed and trekking tourism didn’t exist. Now there are new ways to experience the Himalayas: luxury lodges for those looking to take in the views with a bit of comfort; treks that focus as much on culture as scenery; and new lodges and homestays for those who want to relax and get beneath the surface of Himalayan life.

The walking itself is usually not too difficult, no more so than in the Lake District – apart from the altitude, of course. It’s the altitude, along with problems of travelling in one of the least developed regions of Asia and fears about hygiene, that put some people off. Staying healthy in the Himalayas is certainly more difficult than it is at home, but if you’re used to walking and are cautious about gaining altitude then you’re unlikely to have any problems. And the rewards are spectacular.

Where, when and how

The summer monsoon is much heavier in the eastern Himalayas than it is in the west, and so the most popular trekking periods in much of India, Nepal and the region east of there are April and October. Skies tend to be clearer in the autumn, although it’s colder too, but that’s when Everest and other popular treks are at their busiest.

If you want to trek in the summer holidays, then look further west. Zanskar and Ladakh, largely Tibetan Buddhist in terms of its population but politically part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, are north of the Himalayan chain and enjoy much better weather in July and August. These are also the best months for K2 and the rest of the Karakoram, including Kashmir, and the Hindu Kush.

The most popular trekking areas – like Everest, the Annapurna region and Ladakh’s Markha valley – have a network of basic lodges to stay in, opening up these areas to independent trekkers who don’t want to carry a tent and are on a more limited budget. It’s also possible to reach Annapurna, or Nepal’s Langtang region, by bus, without the need for costly internal flights.

For those with a bit more to spend, there are off-the-peg itineraries from specialist travel agents in the UK. The best of these use good local outfitters and provide a guide, either western or a local who speaks good English. For those who don’t want the hassle of organising transport and accommodation, this kind of trip is perfect – and for camping treks in remote areas, they’re essential. You can also approach a local agent directly, which is useful if you have a group of friends who want to trek together.

Mount Everest

Since Nepal’s civil war ended in 2006, the number of trekkers visiting the Everest region has more than doubled to 35,000 a year. At the height of the season, around 60 flights land at Lukla airport each day. The Sherpa town of Namche Bazaar, the gateway to Everest base camp and used for altitude acclimatisation, now has better mobile coverage than much of Snowdonia. So if you go in peak season, expect a crowd. If you have a group of mates who all want to see Everest, most companies will organise a private tour.

World Expeditions is one of the biggest operators, running over 20 treks this year, with accommodation a mixture of camping and lodges on the classic standard trek to Everest base camp. An 18-day trek costs £1,650, which it can also arrange. Some of its autumn departures are already full, so hurry if you want to go in the diamond jubilee year of the first ascent.

If you prefer a bit more comfort, there are now two chains of luxury lodges on the way to base camp, Yeti Mountain Homes and Everest Summit Lodges. We’re not talking five-star spas here, but an en suite bathroom and a hot water bottle are a big step up from standard lodges.

Specialist trekking company Mountain Kingdoms offers a 19-day package starting at £2,245 that also offers nights at Kathmandu’s stunning heritage hotel, Dwarika’s.

If you’re looking to beat the crowds, trekking guide Bonny Masson has this advice: “If you’ve got the time, do the original trek the British expedition took in 1953.” This started in Kathmandu, but a bus will now take you to the end of the road just beyond the town of Jiri. The trail beyond is a tougher walk than the stages from Lukla, which most people now reach by air. “You’ll get a better slice of life in Solukhumbu and the trails are quieter.” Alternatively you can trek out of season, in December or February, when numbers are down and the trails are quieter. But you should be prepared for lower temperatures.

Adventurous types can trek to the little-visited east face of Everest inside Tibet via the Kama valley, one of the least known but most beautiful approaches to the world’s highest peak. Unlike the Nepalese side, this wild valley has hardly changed at all. In recent years, the visa situation in Tibet has been inconsistent, but that now seems to be settling down. KE Adventure Travel offers a 20-day trip out of Kathmandu, including nine days of trekking, for £2,995.

More than just trekking

Stunning views are what prompt many to go trekking, but the Himalayas is an incredibly diverse region culturally. For those who want to combine great walking with gaining an insight into how people live in such an extraordinary region, there’s now a wide range of holidays offering treks combined with other activities.

Wild Frontiers, known for its stylish approach to adventure travel, now offers some excellent journeys that include trekking. It is one of the few companies that will take you trekking in Kashmir, a wonderful place to walk in the summer, and then pamper you on a houseboat on Dal Lake (10 days from £1,690). It also runs an amazing trip, sadly full for 2013, to the Hindu Kush (17 days from £2,395) that mixes a visit to the Kalash area with trekking on the Pakistan-Afghan border, along the Wakhan Corridor.

At the other end of the Himalayas, far to the east, Mountain Kingdoms is one of the first to offer a trek in northern Burma (20-day trip from £2,645) through pristine jungle and along rocky outcrops to reach the snow-capped Mount Phongun Razi. Trekking here mixes the jungle appeal of other parts of south-east Asia with the high drama of the Himalayas – and the opportunity to explore Rangoon and the temples of Bagan. And if you’re looking for something a bit less strenuous, there is an alternative itinerary through the foothills.

Gentle trekking

If trekking was developed for explorer types who see disaster as a welcome change of pace, then the industry has done a great deal to broaden its appeal. Young backpackers have been wandering around the foothills of Nepal’s Annapurna range for decades now, arriving in Pokhara by bus and surviving on next to nothing. World Expeditions offers an off-the-peg 11-day equivalent for newbie trekkers from £990, which takes in the pretty villages of Landruk and Ghandruk. You won’t sleep higher than 2,500 metres but you’ll still get stunning views of the Annapurna range and the colossal pyramid of Dhaulagiri, seventh-highest peak in the world.

The Mountain Company offers an 11-day beautiful village walk in India’s Kumaon mountains in Uttarakhand. You stay in basic but homely accommodation en route, on easy trails between villages, and end with a few days at the luxurious and very relaxing Himalayan retreat Shakti 360° Leti (a 10-night package including accommodation in Delhi is £1,410pp).

Once kids get over the initial shock of the idea that a walk can last for days, not hours, trekking can be a brilliant family trip option. Exodus offers a great itinerary in Ladakh for families that takes in visits to Tibetan monasteries, rafting on the Indus and a three-day trek that crosses the Sarmanchan La, a pass that reaches 3,750m. Prices start from £1,899, including flights, and the trip is suitable for ages eight plus.

Nepal is also a great place to take children, combining a trek with a visit to Chitwan national park, close to the border with India, where they can see wildlife and ride elephants. Steve Webster is a long-time resident of Nepal who runs Escape2Nepal, a small travel company specialising in “soft” adventures that are just right for children – its 15-day family adventure trip costs £1,720pp. He also has a quiet guesthouse, Shivapuri Heights, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, away from the ever-increasing noise of Thamel, the city’s tourist district.

Wild trekking

Although tourism in the Himalayas is changing fast, it’s still possible to do a big trek in the wildest landscape on Earth. These really are for the hardier trekker, with weeks of camping and a tolerance for serious walking and high altitude. In Pakistan’s spectacular Karakoram mountain range, there are fewer villages in the high mountains, and treks feel remote and exploratory.

The jewel in the crown is the trek to K2′s base camp, taking you past some of the most beautiful peaks you’ve probably never heard of, like the Trango Towers and Masherbrum, before reaching Concordia, the confluence of two mighty glaciers with spectacular views of K2 itself. It takes around 15 days, walking eight miles a day, to reach base camp and leave via the Gondoro La, a pass of over 5,400m, into the beautiful Hushe valley. Previous trekking experience is essential. KE Adventure offers a 22-day itinerary starting at £2,495.

While the Annapurna massif is as beautiful as ever, the construction of a road up the Kali Gandaki, the world’s deepest gorge, to link Pokhara with the Tibetan border, has abruptly terminated interest in trekking the well-established Annapurna circuit. No one wants to trek beside a road. A new road is also being driven on the eastern side of the massif, towards the village of Manang.

Luckily for Nepal’s trekking industry, the long and arduous trek around Manaslu, higher than Annapurna and just to its east, is plugging this self-inflicted wound. Mountain Kingdoms offers a slightly different route in the early part of this increasingly popular trek that makes each one of the 18 days it takes to loop around the Manaslu Circuit‘s remote north side as culturally fascinating as it is spectacular. The trip costs £1,725 and is the perfect introduction to the wilder side of Himalayan trekking.

If those two aren’t enough for you, then consider the Great Himalayan Trail , which traverses the length of Nepal’s high mountains, broken down into 10 sections, each of which takes around two to three weeks. The Mountain Company is offering the first section – between the world’s third-highest mountain Kanchenjunga and Makalu – this October from £3,195.

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Sri lankan Airlines on its final descent to London Heathrow Airport. Dilantha / Flickr

Loss-making national carrier Sri Lankan Airlines has signed a provisional deal with Airbus worth $1.3 billion to buy six A330-300 and four A350-900 aircraft between 2014 and 2023 to replace ageing aircraft, the state-run firm’s CEO told Reuters.

The airline, seeking to modernise its fleet to cut fuel costs, will opt for Rolls-Royce Plc engines and use a lease-back arrangement to conserve cash, Chief Executive Officer Kapila Chandrasena said in an interview.

“The total cost altogether is going to be around $1.3 billion. But deliveries are progressively from 2014 to 2023 on a staggered basis,” he said. The carrier signed a memorandum of understanding on the purchase with Airbus last Friday, he said.

Sri Lankan Airlines now operates with a 22-aircraft fleet including seven A320-200s, seven A330-300s, six A340-300s and two Twin Otters.

Chandrasena said the national carrier needs to replace all six A340-300s with A330-300 aircraft and all seven A330-300s with A350-900s.

Sri Lankan, which had been managed by Dubai’s Emirates Airline for a decade until 2008, aims to achieve a modern and fuel efficient twin-engine fleet by 2023.

The A340 has lost favour with airlines due to the cost of running four engines in an era of high fuel prices. Airlines are switching to lightweight new-technology airplanes such as the carbon-fibre A350 and Boeing Co’s 787 Dreamliner, but sales of the older A330 have held up better than expected due to its availability and competitive pricing, aerospace analysts say.

Boeing offer

Chandrasena said the airlines considered offers by both Airbus and Boeing.

“We looked at who is giving more value for us. In that discussion, it was apparent that the Airbus offer of A330-300s in the interim and long-term A350-900 is much more favourable than the Boeing,” he said.

“Boeing did not have interim aircraft. They were only interested in the long-term offer, which was the 787.”

Sri Lankan Airlines estimates that it incurred a loss of $134.8 million in the 2012/13 financial year to March 31, similar to the previous year, and is finding it difficult to finance new aircraft purchases.

“We don’t have cash,” Chandrasena said. “So what we are doing is a sale and lease.”

He said the airline would work with either a financial institution or a leasing firm that would buy the aircraft and lease them back to the carrier.

He said the national carrier would be looking at a lease period of 10 to 15 years, with a shorter period for the A330-300s and a longer period for the A350-900s.

“We are talking to various (leasing companies) right now about the sale and lease-back on the six 330-300s,” he said.

The airline operates about 253 flights a week out of Colombo to European, Middle Eastern and Asian destinations.

Chandrasena said in February that, with fuel comprising half the airline’s costs, its ageing, inefficient planes were a heavy drain on profit.

It has the extra burden of having to operate unprofitable European routes, because the country’s economy, hard-hit by a 26-year war that ended in 2009, relies heavily on tourism.

The airline, which is 51 percent state-owned, is expected to break even, or be close to that point, in the 2015/16 financial year.

Additional reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris. Editing by Edmund Klamann.

Copyright (2013) Thomson Reuters.

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ANA said in a statement that it will run five commercial 787 flights in May, before regular, scheduled services begin on June 1. The first will be a commercial flight late Sunday from Chitose, on the northern island of Hokkaido, to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

Smoldering batteries on two 787s, one of them owned by ANA, prompted authorities to ground the planes in January. The failure of Boeing’s newest, flashiest and most important plane embarrassed the company and its customers.

ANA said it has modified all 17 of its 787 aircraft and conducted 170 proving flights.

Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Undated handout photo of paramilitary policemen, equipped with fire extinguishers, patrol on a street of Lhasa. Handout / Reuters

Tibetan campaign groups are launching a boycott of the InterContinental Hotels Group – the owner of Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and others – because of plans to open a vast 2000-room resort in Lhasa.

The campaign, led by Free Tibet and backed by Students for a Free Tibet, wants IHG to withdraw from the project in the Tibetan capital, arguing the hotel is a “PR coup for the Chinese government” given concerns about human rights in the region and will exacerbate Tibetans’ marginalisation.

Opposition to the InterContinental Resort Lhasa Paradise – which is due to open in 2014 and is currently under construction – comes amid growing concern about the impact of rapid development in the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

Officials believe tourism is essential to Tibet’s future and have set a target of 15 million visitors a year by 2015. China’s state news agency Xinhua reported that the number of tourists increased by more than 20% to 10.6 million in 2012, compared with the previous year, while revenue rose by 30% to 12.65bn yuan (£1.4bn).

But campaigners say the rapid growth is eroding the region’s heritage and culture and has benefited Han Chinese more than Tibetans.

In July, the authorities announced plans to build a £3bn theme park in Lhasa, saying it would reduce pressure on heritage sites.

More recently, a tourist posted photos apparently showing the construction of a shopping mall complete with underground carpark on the Barkhor, the route pilgrims take around the Jokhang temple, in the heart of the old city. In December the government of Lhasa said it was embarking on a 1.2bn yuan upgrade of the Barkhor area’s infrastructure that would help to preserve the city’s ancient heritage.

Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren, Free Tibet’s director, said: “The presence of an upscale multinational brand such as InterContinental gifts priceless PR to the Chinese regime responsible for gross human rights abuses throughout Tibet.

“InterContinental’s marketing portrays Lhasa as a paradise and trades on images of an ancient Tibetan culture which in reality is being systematically destroyed by China.

“IHG and China will take the profit: Tibetans will wash the dishes. InterContinental Hotels are parasites in their so-called paradise.”

IHG held a meeting with Tibetan support groups after the plans were first announced in 2010. Free Tibet declined an offer of a second meeting, saying it did not believe it would be productive unless IHG answered a detailed list of questions – such as how the economic benefits to Tibetans would be maximised.

An IHG spokesperson said: “We take our commitments to human rights and creating local economic opportunity very seriously. All IHG employees have signed on to our code of ethics and business conduct and our human rights policy.

“As a managed hotel, the InterContinental Lhasa will be held to our high operational standards and policies, which include recruiting, training and developing hotel staff. IHG’s hotels create jobs and drive tourism income in the communities where they operate, thereby helping to increase living standards in Lhasa and wider Tibet.”

There is already a 250-room St Regis resort in the Tibetan capital, but the new project is on a far larger scale.

Beijing says that criticisms of its human rights record in the region are “groundless” and that it has invested heavily to raise incomes and living standards. The average urban household income in the region rose from just under 12,000 yuan in 2007 to just over 18,000 in 2011, while the rural income rose from almost 2,800 yuan to around 4,900 yuan. Xinhua reported last month that the Tibetan economy grew 12.2% year-on-year in the first quarter.

The Tibet government office said it was not responsible for handling queries on the region’s tourism strategy. The Lhasa government office could not be reached and the Lhasa tourism office referred calls to the marketing department, where no one answered.

The new resort is being opened in partnership with the Chengdu Exhibition and Travel Group. A press spokesperson there, Wu Zhiming, said the resort was still under construction.

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The Boeing 787 lands in Everett, Washington travelling with crew only from Fort Worth, Texas February 7, 2013. Kevin P. Casey / Reuters

China’s civil aviation regulator on Thursday formally approved Boeing Co’s 787 Dreamliner for use in the country, clearing the way for Chinese airlines to start operating the aircraft, which has been plagued with problems.

The regulator made the announcement in a short statement on its website, without giving further details.

China Southern Airlines Co Ltd and smaller rival Hainan Airlines are among the global carriers which have ordered the aircraft.

The 787 Dreamliner was grounded worldwide in January after batteries overheated on jets owned by ANA Holdings Inc and Japan Airlines Co Ltd.

Investigators in the United States and Japan have yet to establish what caused the batteries to overheat.

Copyright (2013) Thomson Reuters.

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Tourists from Europe and the U.S. take a rest on the way to Mount Everest. Tianyake / Flickr

Reaching the summit of Everest – or, rather, returning alive from it – has to be one of the most exhilarating experiences life can offer. But what really matters is how you reach the summit.

It used to be a prize earned through a long apprenticeship. Chris Bonington’s 1975 expedition brought the elite of British mountaineering to the previously unclimbed southwest face. When I climbed the mountain in 1988 it was my tenth Himalayan expedition. We too pioneered a new route, with just four climbers, no high-altitude porters, and no supplementary oxygen. The journey was everything; the outcome never a forgone conclusion.

Now, Everest has become the ultimate tick on the global adventure-tourism circuit. But, as the famous Tyrolean climber Reinhold Messner observed recently, the very term “adventure tourism” is often an oxymoron. Adventure is all about risk, uncertainty and self-determination – not buying a predictable, packaged commodity: you pay me £40,000 and I’ll make your dream come true.

Last year more than 500 people reached the summit, and this year more than 700 are expected. Yesterday climbers reported scenes of chaos as around 100 people tried to read the summit in the space of a few hours, while lengthy queues formed below trickier sections.

Mark Jenkins, covering the phenomenon for National Geographic, reported “garbage leaking out of the glaciers and pyramids of human excrement befouling the high camps”. But what appalled him most, as an experienced mountaineer, was the total abdication of personal responsibility, as he was forced to take his place on the human conveyor belt, clipped to a handrail behind scores of less competent people.

To be fair to the guides, the best of them run a slick operation and try strenously to clear litter from the mountain. Faced with the huge numbers of people, they probably have no option but to fix ropes virtually all the way from base camp to the summit. In terms of deaths per number of people on the mountain, Everest is statistically a much safer place than it used to be. It just seems sad to me that the western cwm – that extraordinary glacial basin that the Swiss in 1952 called “the Valley of Silence” – has become such a crowded place.

It would be easy to reduce the numbers. Until the late 1980s the Nepalese government allowed only one expedition at a time on any route on the south side. The Chinese operated a similar system in Tibet. Reinstate those rules and Everest would be peaceful again. Even better would be to ban the use of supplementary oxygen. H W Tilman, the great explorer, travel writer and leader of the 1938 Everest expedition, said that in his view “there is a cogent reason for not climbing it at all rather than climb it with the help of oxygen”. Why devalue the summit by effectively lowering its altitude from 8,850 metres to nearer 6,500 metres, to suit human capabilities? Remove what the Sherpas used to call “English air” and there wouldn’t be too many people on the summit.

Of course none of this is likely to happen. The American and European guides who struggle to make a decent living on their routine home mountains earn much better money from their annual Everest season. Their Sherpa colleagues make the kind of sums most Nepalese can only dream about. And, with climbing permits averaging about $10,000 a head, the Kathmandu government is raking in the cash. Everest is a lucrative seller’s market, and who wants to give that up?

So I suspect that this fat milch cow of a mountain, along with the other so-called “Seven Summits”, will remain an anachronism, while the real adventurers seek their challenges, and the solace of wild places, elsewhere.

Stephen Venables was the first Briton to climb Everest without supplementary oxygen. His book Higher than the Eagle Soars is an Arrow paperback. See stephenvenables.com

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Central Dushanbe in Tajikistan. Chris Price / Flickr

“I like this atmosphere,” said Muzafar, a 20-something volunteer at the American Corner, an outreach program of the U.S. Embassy, as we walked along a boulevard in the Tajikistan capital city of Dushanbe. “I just remember the civil war, growing up, and now these days!”

It was Nowruz, the Persian New Year, celebrated on the first day of spring, and all of Dushanbe’s more than 1 million residents seemed to be out on the streets in a display of the smash-cut of folksy-traditional and trendy-metro that is its bipolar mood this decade.

Just as I was warming to mothers and daughters in brightly patterned village dresses and embroidered pillbox hats selling tandoor flatbread sprinkled with cardamom, I’d spy women sporting tiger-print wraps and black high heels on shopping sprees.

As I lingered to watch teenage boys performing somersaults, I was jostled by others next to loudspeakers blaring Googoosh or Shabnam, Russian and Persian versions of pop. I balked at following this crowd on their way to a packed stadium for an afternoon of the national obsession: gushtingiri (freestyle wrestling).

Yet I’d been feeling this energy not just on Nowruz, but as a low-grade thrumming during my week in Dushanbe and my travels in Tajikistan, if not throughout Central Asia. The trauma of the civil war was a consequence of the meltdown of the former Soviet Union in the 1990s. The bullet holes at the Vakhsh Hotel, a former rebel headquarters, are now covered in thick pink paint.

National identity

My cruising the ’stans over the past year had shown me how each of these former Soviet republics has struggled to segue into its new national identity. Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, is a freaky monument of conspicuous consumption, with scores of white Carrera marble buildings but few residents; a rarified ghost town.

Kazakhstan blurs in the imagination with Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat. Visas to Uzbekistan are hard to obtain but well worth the effort for its grand ancient cities of Samarkand and Bukhara.

Yet Tajikistan has been uniquely successful in its transition and has found an enviable equipoise — with hijab optional for women — akin to Turkey’s. A stroll along Dushanbe’s tree-lined main boulevard, Rudaki Avenue, feels like a lovely promenade in more cosmopolitan Prague or Vienna.

Easter eggs

Soviet neoclassical architecture lends an orderliness to the cityscape, with many buildings resembling Easter eggs dipped in pastel dyes: the lemon-yellow Firdousi Library; the baby-blue Russian academy; the Pompeiian-red National Bank; the beige Presidential Palace complex with its splashing fountains.

The Writers Union reflects a more 1920s revolutionary- modern mode, its Bauhaus curves fronted by busts of regional culture heroes, like Persian polymath Omar Khayyam.

Central to Tajik society are its choikhonas, or teahouses, and the grand example is Choikhona Rohat on Rudaki. Its two- story, neon-lit glass front is reminiscent of the old TWA terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, while the ceiling of its terrace is painted in an ornate Persian floral style.

It’s a popular venue for regional staples: lagman (lamb and noodle soup) with a salad of parsley, tomato and onion; shashlik kebab; or the ubiquitous plov (a one-pot meat-and-rice stew). The menus are still printed in Cyrillic, the national alphabet, and top picks are borscht, goulash and black kleb bread.

The ride up to pine-covered Victory Park, with its outdoor cafes serving local Simsim beer, afforded us panoramic views of the city and the 13,000-foot-high peaks of the Hissar Range, still snowcapped in spring.

Russian Jiguli

I took another short expedition, in a Russian retro Jiguli sports car, a beauty that I was told I could buy for $500 (shipping not included). The jaunt carried me 18 miles west of town to the Hissar Fortress, once a checkpoint along the ancient Silk Road, that was ransacked in turn by Cyrus, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Tamburlaine, and the Red Army.

Tajikistan was at the nexus of the 19th-century geopolitical “Great Game,” and so its capital remains. Sitting across from us later that Nowruz afternoon, in a blue-striped tented cafe kitty-corner to the grand neoclassical Ayni Opera and Ballet Theatre, a tableful of Saudis wearing red-and-white checked keffiyah scarves drank mint tea (always poured three times into the cup before serving). At the next table a Tajik guy and girl were making out, the boy’s T-shirt emblazoned on the back with the letters “F.B.I.”

Linoleum floors

The U.S. contribution to this Great Game, Dushanbe-style, often comes down to such “cultural exchanges,” though the code is occasionally lost in translation. Our last stop was the Morning Star Cafe, the only faux-American diner in town, complete with wood paneling, checkered linoleum floors, wrought- iron chairs, and a magazine rack with back issues of Time magazine.

Specialties on the big glossy menu included sweetened iced tea, pancakes and biscuits, and chocolate milkshakes. I even overheard two men speaking with a Texas twang, the only two Americans I’d encountered during my 10 days in the country.

But the reminder that we weren’t in Austin anymore was right there on the big chalkboard promising “New Stolrbuck Coffee.” Meanwhile, intending to pay a compliment, Muzafar leaned over his Nescafe and confided in me, “I wish most to be in the U.S. on Black Friday.”

Muse highlights include Jason Harper on cars, Rich Jaroslovsky on technology.

Editors: Frederik Balfour, Jeffrey Burke. To contact the writer of this column: Brad Gooch at Bradgooch@aol.com. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net. 

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An Airbus A380 aircraft sits at the São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport. mariordo59 / Flickr

There are 103 A380s in service as of early May-2013. Emirates has 33 and Singapore Airlines has 19, so when assessing network scheduling, these two and their hubs predominate: of the 1,048 weekly A380 flights, 402 are from Emirates alone. Dubai and Singapore airport see the most A380 flights.

But there are some less predictable statistics. The airport to see the most A380 operators is Hong Kong followed by Paris and Los Angeles. The largest A380 destination that is not (yet) an A380-hub is London Heathrow. The UK and USA are the most common A380 destinations after Australia, Singapore and the UAE. Asia, not the Middle East, sees the most A380 flights; South America sees none.

Guangzhou-Shanghai Pudong is the shortest A380 route at 1,202km while Los Angeles-Melbourne is the longest at 12,751km. Qantas and Lufthansa have the highest average sector length while Thai Airways is placing the most number of cycles – about two – on its aircraft per day. Qantas and Air France are placing the least (just over one).

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The Cheng family, which runs New World Group, made its fortune with the Chow Tai Fook jewellery shops. Its US$800m deal to take over the 18-property Rosewood luxury hotels group and buy five of its hotels is an example of the increasing power of Asian money in global property and hotel markets.

New World is one of a new wave of Asian family-owned groups seeking to take advantage of the huge growth in Chinese tourism, challenging big global groups such as InterContinental Hotels, Starwood and Marriott.

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