Word: meccas
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...factory. Still, while China had largely forgotten his heroic ancestor, Zheng says family legends kept his exploits very much alive. Tales of his voyages were passed down through the generations like a fragment of silken embroidery. "Zheng He's one regret," says his descendant, "is that he never reached Mecca." On the last voyage, by the time a few men from his fleet finally made the pilgrimage to Islam's holiest site, Zheng He had died. Both his father and grandfather had made the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca overland all the way from southwestern China long before their illustrious offspring...
...reaching Mecca a personal goal, a secret motivation driving Zheng He onward? In his various writings, left on stone stelae scattered about his travels, Zheng He makes clear that imperial hubris was best left ashore: the success of these voyages depended on knowing his place between heaven and earth, on paying homage to the many gods worshiped by people along the way, starting with the constantly burning incense to Chinese sea goddess Tianfei. I jot down a note to myself: when the next typhoon approaches, light incense for Tianfei aboard my junk - and be friendly to any woman...
...across Asia, risk awareness is thin, and no pan-Asian transport body exists to call for precautionary measures, as the European Commission did in January. During the Haj season when tens of thousands go to Mecca, Pakistan International Airways routinely refits aircraft to shoehorn in as many seats as possible. In China, Li Ru, spokeswoman for Air China, puts her faith in passenger size. "We are shorter and smaller than Westerners, so we're less uncomfortable in airplane seats," she says. For those airlines that are taking action, the mood is aggressively defensive. Following the WHO conference, the Association...
...tried the Tech 12s, I suddenly felt like a real deejay." Today, the former hippie haven of Haight-Ashbury, where the laid-back Chulada bunks with his brother, teems with hundreds of makeshift Mobys scratching out their living. Some, including Chulada, have made it to the coolest clubs, like Mecca where a weekly knock 'em down drag show packs in gays and straights alike. Others make do by spinning at cheesy chain eateries, where deejays provide little more than background noise. O.K., so it's not always glamorous. But, says Chulada, a sly grin creasing his boyish face: "Unlike...
...deep breath and hopped on a plane to Japan to hunt out the best deals. "It was the first time I'd traveled somewhere just to fulfill my toy fetish," he says of his trips down narrow Tokyo alleyways to check out tiny toy-shops. "But Japan is a mecca for robot collectors, so I knew...