Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is just a three hours journey from New Delhi, the capital of India. It has been one of the most attractive tourist spots in India for foreigners for years. Taj Mahal, the “best-ever symbol of eternal love” stands on the bank of river Jamuna at Agra, in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Taj Mahal, one of India's best architectural wonders was built by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan in 1631 in the memory of his second wife, Arjumand Banu who was later known as Mumtaz Mahal, (The meaning of the word Mumtaz Mahal is the Distinguished of the Palace).

Taj, the famous dome rests on a huge white marble terrace rising from a high red sandstone base (186x186 feet ) is flanked by four tapering minarets. Shahjahan consulted experts from the Middle East and Europe as he planned his legacy, which took Twenty Thousand people over Twenty-Two years to build. Cheap Travel modes are available to reach Taj Mahal, which used to serve as a wide moat defense of the Great Red Fort of Agra, the capital of the Mughal empire in those days.

Three names pop up as the designer of Taj Mahal, Geronimo Veroneo an Italian, Silversmith Austin de Bordeaux – French and Ustad Ahmad - the Persian Engineer cum Astrologer. It is heard that materials were collected from various corners of the world, like hills of Markana, Chinese Turkestan, Tibet, Burma, Afghanistan, Egypt and the Himalayas.

Cheap Travel Packages are available to intrude into the thrilling interior of this magnificent Mughal architecture, which comprises a domed ceiling, lofty central chamber, four octagonal corner rooms, the cenotaphs of Sha Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal in the center, an ever-glowing Cairene lamp.

Despite the controversy, whether it’s a tomb or a Shiva Temple, known as Tejo Mahalaya (acquired by Shah Jahan from the then Maharaja of Jaipur), Taj sparkles when the white marble basks in the moonlight. One may stay at cheap travel hotels to witness this mesmerizing beauty especially on a full moon night.

Plan your journey through cheap travel to visit one of the world's most famous monuments, Taj Mahal, which has just celebrated its 350th birthday.

Taj Mahal is said to express the different moods of a woman. It looks pinkish in the morning, milky white in the evening and golden when the moon shines. So, the travel freaks and romantic couples planning their trip to India through cheap travel should not give the Taj a miss!

Traveling > China

The Forbidden City, located at the center of Beijing municipality, was the seat of power for 24 emperors from 1406 to 1911. It took thousands of artisans and 14 years to complete the colossal complex spread over 720.000 square meters with 9.000 bays of halls and rooms which become a symbol of China’s monarchial grandeur built on the blood and sweat of its toiling peasantry. Significantly, however, the main entrance to the imperial city, Tiananmen or the Gate of Heavenly Peace, connects the past with the present in a curiously fatalistic manner.

Indeed, the wealth gap in Chinese society has increased phenomenally with the difference between the wealthiest and the poorest having risen from as much as four times in 1978 to almost 13 times today.

So, what we have in China today is tremendous economic freedom without political empowerment of the citizenry. Corruption and nepotism are logical outcomes of this situation. And the middle class is too tiny to influence the system. According to one estimate, middle-class groups with income ranging from 2,500 dollars to 10,000 dollars per year constitute less than five percent of the population. By contrast, lower income groups even in wealthier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou do not earn more than 900 dollars a year. About 60 percent of China’s population still lives in the countryside, with per capita income less than 300 dollars per year.

Having said that, one cannot ignore China’s huge population base of 1.3 billion people. Even at five percent, the country’s middle-income segment numbers at 65 million people. These people are the architects of the future China which, many observers predict, will be the major economic powerhouse of the world by the end of the decade. A glimpse of this can be had in Beijing’s scores of multi-storey shopping malls where customers literally trip over each other to move ahead. Its huge and fashionable hotels are crawling with guests, as are its eating houses, bars and discotheques.

And the Forbidden City is not so forbidden anymore. It is one of China’s major tourists’ attractions where hundreds of hawkers accost visitors and shove tourist books in their faces, quoting prices with huge margins for bargain. Finally, China is waking up from decades of slumber.