Two passengers aboard a Juneyao Airlines flight from Guiyang in southwestern China to Shanghai on Saturday locked a crying toddler in an airplane bathroom.
20.08.2024 - 20:52 / cntraveler.com
In a part of Cairo known as the Garbage City, Magada Bamy’s hands move so swiftly that they nearly blur as she sifts through a bag of trash. “Grade A, grade B,” she mutters to herself, placing the plastic into piles based on thickness. Bamy, a middle-aged woman with a stern face framed by a bright-orange headscarf, sits on her doorstep as she half watches her grandchildren playing amongst the towers of trash filling the street. The youngest pulls a pair of swimming goggles out of a pile and puts them on, making the other children giggle.
Bamy is a resident of the Cairo neighborhood of Mansheyat Nasir, the home of a Coptic Christian community who have handled the city’s garbage for generations. Despite discrimination and poverty, the Zabbaleen—meaning “the garbage people,” in Egyptian Arabic—have developed one of the world’s most efficient recycling systems, as measured by the percentage of waste recycled. They sort everything by hand and use simple machinery to prepare raw materials for reuse: Upcycled products like jewelry, rugs, quilts, and stationery made in this neighborhood are shipped internationally, and some locals run tours to show visitors their working methods.
“The men collect trash from around the city and bring it back for the women to sort and recycle,” Bamy tells me as she points down a garbage-filled alley in Mansheyat Nasir. High buildings of raw brick and stacks of waste loom over us on either side, giving the feeling of being stuck in a maze. On the narrow street, many women just like Bamy are sorting through sacks while sitting cross-legged on the pavement.
Once the bags’ contents are sorted, some materials will be reused locally, Bamy explains. Oil canisters become tin roofs; organic waste is fed to pigs. Others are shipped further afield. Are any of your clothes made of synthetic fibers? If so, there’s a chance that they come from Mansheyat Nasir; the plastic Bamy collects is sent to a recycling workshop a few blocks away, fed into a machine, broken into pellets, and sent to textile factories in China.
The Monastery of Saint Simon, also known as the Cave Church, sits in the district of Mokattam Hills where the Zabbaleen—literally “garbage people”—have developed one of the most efficient waste reduction systems in the world
Bamy gestures to a door behind her and points out that the first floor is a workshop, and the Zabbaleen live on the upper floors of their houses. This explains the low whirring sound of machinery that pervades the street. “There are different machines for different materials. We mainly handle plastics on this street, but elsewhere, people take care of metal, glass, and everything else,” she explains. As we walk through the neighborhood, I peer past open doors
Two passengers aboard a Juneyao Airlines flight from Guiyang in southwestern China to Shanghai on Saturday locked a crying toddler in an airplane bathroom.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, August 28, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Travelers don’t tend to linger in Cairo once they’ve seen the sights — the city can be notoriously tricky to navigate. But a new collection of serviced apartments from the team behind the luxurious Set Nefru dahabiya boat on the Nile, as well as Al Moudira, a charming hotel in the southern city of Luxor, is giving visitors a reason to stick around.
Travel research and events leader Phocuswright has released its Global Travel Market Report 2024, revealing an impressive 24 percent surge in 2023, with gross bookings reaching $1.5 trillion.
Sri Lanka is set to launch a six-month pilot program on October 1, offering free 30-day tourist visas on arrival to citizens from 35 countries, including the U.S., UK, Russia, India and China. The initiative, which temporarily waives the typical $50 visa fee, aligns with the island nation’s peak travel season, lasting from December to mid-April. This move is part of a broader strategy to revitalize tourism, a sector crucial to Sri Lanka’s economy.
Ukraine's military says it used high-precision US glide bombs for strikes in Russia's Kursk region and that is has recaptured some territory in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv that has been under a Russian offensive since spring.
Skift’s State of Travel 2024 report highlighted that the Middle East and Africa are seeing a surge in international tourism, driven largely by Saudi Arabia’s push in recent years.
China brought in over 17.25 million foreign tourists from January to July this year, a 130% increase compared to 2023, according to latest data from the National Immigration Administration (NIA). The influx is set to generate over CNY 100 billion ($14 billion) in consumer spending, with per capita daily spending nearing CNY 3,459 ($485).
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Simon Cockerell, a manager at the travel agency Koryo Tours. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Branded hotel room signings in India during the April to June quarter surged by nearly 40% from the same period in 2023, according to data by real estate services company JLL. During the quarter, over 9,700 new keys across 82 branded hotels were signed, while another 50 hotels opened during this period.
Aug 20, 2024 • 13 min read
International Geological Congress Returns after 8 Years as an In-person Event The 37th International Geological Congress (IGC 2024) will be held at BEXCO in Busan from August 25 to 31, under the theme “Great Voyagers: Sailing Toward a Unified Earth.” As the “Olympics of Geological Sciences,” IGC 2024 is a global event for geologists and Earth scientists who explore the secrets of the Earth and study planetary geology. The 36th IGC in 2020 was conducted online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this year’s congress will return as a large-scale, in-person event for the first time in eight years.