ADVENTURE/ New 7 Wonders of Nature

The Amazon rainforest, Vietnam's Halong Bay and Argentina's Iguazu Falls have been named among the world's new seven wonders of nature, according to organizers of a global poll. The other four crowned the world's natural wonders are South Korea's Jeju Island, Indonesia's Komodo, the Philippines' Puerto Princesa Underground River and South Africa's Table Mountain, the New7Wonders foundation said, citing provisional results. Final results will be announced early in 2012, said the Swiss foundat...

Jeju-do is a volcanic island located 130 kilometers off the southern coast of South Korea. It is the country’s largest island, smallest province and home to its tallest mountain, Halla-san, a dramatic-looking dormant volcano that rises 1,950 meters above sea level. The people of Jeju have developed a culture and language that are distinct from those of mainland Korea, and the island is famous for its matriarchal family structure, symbolized by the haenyeo (“sea women”), who make a living from de...

Table Mountain Aerial Cableway experienced a record number of tourists during December 2011, with a total of 116,000 visitors riding the cable cars during the festive season, with almost 80% of those making the trip being domestic visitors. Interest in Table Mountain has also been helped by extensive media exposure to both domestic and foreign markets after it made it to the provisional list as one of the "New 7 Wonders of Nature" in November, following a worldwide voting campaign. "Table Mo...

Amazon Rainforest (South America) The Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rain forest and river basin, is a vast region that spans the border of eight rapidly developing countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, an overseas territory of France. The landscape contains: One in ten known species on Earth 1.4 billion acres of dense forests, half of the planet’s remaining tropical forests 4,100 miles of winding rivers, the source of al...