Provides feature articles, news, photos and images.
Updated 8th March 2026
In 2023, my article displayed a satellite image of an aircraft carrier at Jiangnan shipyard and asked the question: “Is this China’s fourth aircraft carrier Type 004 under construction at Jiangnan Shipyard, Changxing Island, Shanghai?” Was it, and what’s the latest news on the Type 004 aircraft carrier?
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A while ago, pre-Covid days, I had the opportunity to visit the Shenfei Aviation Expo Park, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China. The park is located at Lingbei Street, in the Huangqu district of Shenyang, located in Northeast China. Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) is an alternative name for the Shenfei manufacturing plant.
The Shenfei Aviation Expo Park covers an area of 25000 sq metres, which includes a museum dedicated to the history and development of Chinese fighter aircraft and aviation science. Outdoors, there is a fighter planes display park area showing important landmark fighter aircraft.
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In 2017, I sought out the site of the Mukden POW Camp in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Northeast China. Mukden Camp, also known as Hoten Camp, was located on the outskirts of Mukden, present-day Shenyang. The former POW site, at Di Tan Street, in the Dadong district of Shenyang, is now the location of the Shenyang WWII Allied Prisoners Camp Museum. It has one of the best preserved examples of an Allied POW camp. At the time of my visit, the new museum had not been completed.
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The London Wine Fair 2019 revisited. A look back at a selection of wines and spirits from exhibitors at the 2019 London Wine Fair. This annual UK wine fair proved once again, why it is the best!
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The novel coronavirus, now designated SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), was identified in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on the 7th January 2020. This specific coronavirus causes the disease COVID-19, and there have been unofficial reports of confirmed cases going back to 17th November 2019. Subsequently, the world has seen a race to identify which medications could stop or alleviate the symptoms from this highly infectious disease.
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For some time the UK, under pressure from the US, has dillied and dallied about the installation of Huawei 5G equipment in the UK. Lack of leadership, a UK conundrum or a US false flag? Should it bow to US pressure and ban outright Huawei 5G equipment on national security grounds, or allow Huawei’s 5G more advanced and cheaper technology?
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I recently travelled along the Shenyang-Dalian Expressway (also known as the Shenda Expressway) in Liaoning province, China. This is a 400km motorway from Shenyang, in central Liaoning province, to Dalian, which is at the southernmost tip of the Liaodong peninsular. My destination was the beautiful Jinshitan scenic area of northeast Dalian and the Golden pebble beach, known as Jinshitan (金石滩).
Having some knowledge of Dalian’s historical past, I was equally keen to track down and visit Japanese, Russian and Soviet historic buildings. My search began at Zhongshan Square, in the centre of Dalian city.
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The 38th London Wine Fair, with over 14,000 wines from 40 countries available for tasting, was a truly fantastic wine event for buyers, sommeliers and anyone involved with the wine industry.
This year, the event seemed somewhat physically smaller. Nevertheless, there were still many exciting wine (and spirit) discoveries to be made.
Here are some highlights from the Fair – the tastings that I enjoyed and the good experiences. As a matter of course, I am not providing any tasting notes as these can be found on the relevant winery/merchant website. Of course, many wines demanded to be matched with food, which really is another dimension and demands another article!
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The London Wine Fair, with over 10,000 wines to sample, is always an event of fascinating wine discoveries. From the chalk downs terroir of Hampshire, England to the arid lands of the Turpan Valley, Xinjiang, China; and from the chalky-clay and gravelly soils of Bergerac, Dordogne, to the sandy, chalky, limestone-rich soils of Valencia, Spain – there were some amazing tasting experiences.
For the first tastings, I decided to concentrate on the numerous smaller French producers of Champagne. I was particularly impressed with the high standard from these lesser-known producers. Naturally Champagne tastes vary, and if food matching is normally a case of complementing the food against grape (varieties) and added sugar. So I am just going to list those champagnes that I enjoyed the most.
Continue reading “37th London Wine Fair 2017”