Adventure Travel

Treasure hunting is a rather contagious pastime. For some, it can become an

obsession (in the best sense of the word!). People worldwide are fascinated with the hobby of treasure hunting.

Coming across a valuable item in your treasure hunt can be a real thrill. Even an

item that may not have monetary value could be personally attractive to the right hunter.Part of the thrill is in the chase; not knowing what you may find lends a sense of mystery and intrigue to the treasure hunt.

In years past, a treasure hunt could have been a very dangerous quest. Pirating

was rampant, with several competitive and devious hunters often after the same prize. Quite often, the myth or rumor of a valuable buried or sunken treasure led to bloodshed and fighting between hunters.

Before airplanes became the preferred method of worldwide travel, those in

search of life in a new land would travel by ship to their new destination. As it could take months to sail from one continent to another, passengers were unsure if they would even return to their home land. They would pack up all of their worldly possessions to take with them to the ‘new world’. One might pack several trunks of furs, coins, jewelry, dishware, and other valuable goods to take with them to their new life.

These ships laden with valuable items were prime targets for pirates.

Ships were always on the look out for pirates that may try to board and rob, or

even kill, the passengers onboard. While this high seas robbery is certainly not

called treasure hunting, it demonstrates just how vulnerable these ‘treasures’ were. People traveling away from home were not only vulnerable to theft while sailing; these pirates had no qualms about robbing a ship after a natural disaster struck.

Ships sailing far from home had to endure terrible storms, barrier reefs,

extremely high waves and more as they slowly made their way from one point to the next. Unfortunately, many ships succumbed to the dangers they faced, and sank.

Before GPS and radio, it was really anyone’s guess where they ship may have gone down. Tales and fables would develop about the location of the sunken ship and its possible contents. For example, if a royal family member or businessman was on board, one might assume that quite a bit of valuable merchandise sank with the ship.

If the ship was not immediately located, an air of mystery would develop around

the tale as it was passed down through generations of curious people. Those will the

resources and desire would undoubtedly go in search of the ship in an effort to recover some of the ‘treasures’ on board. These expeditions were treasure hunts in the truest sense of the word!

A treasure may also be something that a person unfortunately lost. Of course, if

you find a valuable item, you should make every attempt to return it to its rightful owner. But in most cases, the owner is never found, leaving the treasure hunter as the new owner. We’ll discuss great places to find this kind of treasure a little later on, but some items that you could expect to come across include watches, rings, coins, or necklaces.

Other treasures may have been worthless when they were disposed of, but have

now become so rare or desirable that they have increased in value. Arrowheads from battles past; carvings; certain stones, etc can all prove to be valuable finds.

Before there were designated garbage dumps, unwanted items were often buried or simply thrown into the bush. Over time, these items were long forgotten. However, finding a rare dish, for example, that can be traced to a certain crafter or era could be a real treasure.

Some treasures may have absolutely no monetary value at all, but could be very

sentimentally valuable to the right person. Old family photos, a favorite teddy bear, or a letter from your first love would all be great treasures to find. It would rare to stumble across a sentimental treasure unless you were specifically looking for it, but it can happen!

Whatever your reason for treasure hunting; whatever you are searching for, you

are sure to find a few surprises along the way! Treasure hunting is truly a hobby for anyone to enjoy.

gold dredge

This article is about the H1N1 and China travel. You can find some useful information in it if you are planning your China vacations now.

The A(H1N1) quarantine policy (from several big Chinese web sites) in China:

1. If you don’t have a fever when getting off the plane in the airports of China, you don’t need to worry about quarantine policy of China at all. If you do have a fever, you will need to do a medical examination in the city where you enter China. This is to make sure that you don’t get the A(H1N1) flu.( more info about “Travel To China, H1N1,China vacations” at Travel2ChinaInfo Dot COM )

2. If there is some people having a fever in your plane to China and your seat is very close to him/her (less than 3 meters away), you will need to do the medical examination in the hospital when this people is confirmed as a A(H1N1) flu patient. The Chinese Malaria Control Center will contact you when they find some confirmed A(H1N1) cases in the plane you take. If you sit far away from the A(H1N1) patient (more than 3 meters away) in the plane, you don’t need to worry about this issue at all. No one is going to ask you to do a medical examination even when there is some confirmed A(H1N1) cases in your plane to China.

3. Some people did the quarantine for a week in Beijing and Jiangshu when they got to China. They only did this voluntarily. One one is going to ask you to do this. But in my point of view, this can be good both for your family and your friends. You don’t wanna your close people to be threatened by the A(H1N1) flu too, right? ( more info about “Travel To China, H1N1,China vacations” at Travel2ChinaInfo Dot COM )

Some personal experience when people arrived at the airports of Beijing,Shanghai or Hongkong:

1. My parents traveled to China last Monday. All they got in the Beijing Capital Airport is to go through a Temperature Monitoring Device. That’s it. When they stayed in the hotel, the Malaria Control Center didn’t contact them. Now there are more than 200 A(H1N1) cases in China and the Chinese people don’t pay so much attention to this flu as they used to be. (I think it is very natural for the Chinese people to be very nervous about this A(H1N1) flu. The SARS was such a disaster here in the year of 2003. )

2. I flied to China last week and I am in China now. I am not very familar with the A(H1N1) quarantine policy in China. I will only talk about my personal experience here. I entered China in the Shanghai Pudong Airport. In the plane, the airhostesses helped us to do the body temperature check once. When we arrived at Shanghai, some “astronauts” checked our body temperature again. When I left the U.S., my body temperature was about 37 Centigrade. (because I was sleeping poorly these days) But they didn’t find me out. Maybe I was not having a fever when they checked my body temperature in the airport. I then transfered to another plane. No one contacted me about the A(H1N1) flu issue any more. I can do whatever I like in China. By the way, I left my address in China and phone number in the Shanghai Pudong Airport of course.

3. I visited Hong Kong last week. All I did is to fill out some forms. No body temperature check at all. When I arrived at Shenzhen, some people asked me to go through the Temperature Monitoring Device and fill out some other forms. ( more info about “Travel To China, H1N1,China vacations” at Travel2ChinaInfo Dot COM )

By 06/13/2009, there are 293 A(H1N1) flu cases in China. ( Beijing: 38, Guangdong: 37, Fujian: 25, Shanghai: 17, Sicuan: 15, Hubei: 9, Zhejiang: 6, Tianjin: 4, Shandong: 3, Hunan: 2, Henan: 1, Jiangsu: 1, Shanxi: 1, Liaoning: 1, Guizhou: 1, Jiangxi: 1, Hainan: 3, Hongkong: 84, Taiwan: 44 )

By Shane Lee. Date: 06/14/2009.

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Vaccine for H1N1