Ray Moseley
London
It lacks the style of Paris and the historic associations of Rome. It has even grown a bit seedy in recent years, and its climate is nothing to boast about.
But London still ranks as one of the world`s most popular tourist destinations. Americans, who dominate the tourist scene, may be drawn in part by a weak pound and because they feel more comfortable with the language, which is something like American. But London`s special allure is that it offers something to suit every taste.
A great many people are drawn by the London theater, regarded by many as the best in the world. The 45 West End theaters are also an outstanding bargain, presenting plays at a fraction of the prices charged in New York.
London is also a great city for symphony concerts, chamber music, and pop music.
Some visitors, especially those here for the first time, come for the sightseeing. To most people, that means Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, St. Paul`s Cathedral, the National Gallery, the British Museum, the Science Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
New sightseeing attractions in the last couple of years are the Cabinet War Rooms just off Whitehall, used by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his cabinet during World War II, and the walkway above Tower Bridge.
Other visitors to London come solely for the pleasure of shopping at such emporia as Harrod`s department store; and Fortnum & Mason, which might be described as the world`s most elegant grocery store.
RON YATES
Tokyo
A dozen years ago, when the windswept plain just west of Tokyo`s Shinjuku train station still held modest houses and tiny gardens of bonsai trees and flowers, a Japanese architect stood before a crowd of dignitaries and announced that this part of Tokyo would never be the same again.
Within a year, the first of Tokyo`s most impressive array of skyscrapers had sprouted from soil that less than 100 years earlier had been somebody`s rice paddy.
Today, West Shinjuku, like Japan`s legendary Mt. Fuji, can be seen from almost anywhere in Tokyo on a clear day. Indeed, the skyline of Shinjuku so resembles that of Chicago that the Japanese refer to it as ”Little Chicago.” But West Shinjuku is also a metaphor for Japan`s ”new destiny” touted by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, for the Japan that many predict will eclipse the United States as the world`s predominant economic power in the 21st Century.
And yet, only moments away, the twisting alleyways and open-air markets of the Shinjuku on the eastern side of Japan`s busiest railway station provide a window to this country`s past.
Sometimes, among Japanese punkers with green hair, an old man wearing a grey kimono and wooden platform shoes will glide by like an apparition from the past.
Amid movie houses offering ”Ghostbusters,” Japanese participate in devil-ousting ceremonies in which roasted soy beans are thrown at costumed men symbolizing evil spirits. Along the narrow alleys of East Shinjuku are still some ”uranaishi” (fortune tellers). And beside the ”bifu wa, doko desu ka” (”Where`s the beef?”) ads of Wendy`s are traditional Japanese noodle shops and ”yakimo” men selling roasted sweet potatoes from pushcarts.
This is Tokyo, where somehow the past manages to coexist with the future. MICHAEL KILIAN
Washington, D.C.
Washington is the most American of cities, owned and operated by the American people. And every spring they come to take possession of it–school children in yellow buses, old folks in tourist coaches, families in station wagons.
It`s America manifest in T-shirts, Bermuda shorts, and sandals, flooding the Capitol and the monumental congressional office buildings, streaming along the Mall, crowding into its museums.
Washington is the only American city with truly grand boulevards. Europeans find it reminiscent of home. But it isn`t. Washington is America. One comes here to see the blood-stained bed where Abraham Lincoln died and the marble walls where his most memorable words are chiseled. One comes for the simplistic grandeur of both George Washington`s home at Mount Vernon and the towering obelisk that is his monument and the 19th Century`s most enduring architectual celebration.
John F. Kennedy`s eternal flame is there, hard by the graves of thousands of heroes and looking across the river to the compelling trench that is the Vietnam Memorial. The set from the TV series ”M+A+S+H” is here, as are tools used to bust the American sod two centuries ago and some of Fred Astaire`s earliest movies.
The theater is good. There are street musicians playing from the side steps of the Metropolitan Club.
The birds are flying. The warm breezes blow up the river. The flowers are blooming. And small school-children stare up into the stony yet very human eyes of statues of Andrew Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant. Come join them in this city. It is yours.
VINCENT J. SCHODOLSKI
Mexico City
Let the summer traveler beware that a visit to a city of 17 million people in the middle of its rainy season is not a task to be lightly undertaken.
A visit to this sprawling, crowded, and hectic capital can be rough going at the best of times, but compound the problems with daily rain, flooded streets, and constant damp, and the undertaking can be a true test even for the most seasoned traveler.
All that said, however, Mexico City should be on everyone`s list of places to see, and for North Americans it is close to home yet remarkably foreign. Autumn is in many ways the best time of the year to visit, but if that can`t be arranged, pack your umbrellas, rain slickers, and waterproof shoes and head south in summer.
Some of the rules about visiting Mexico City apply no matter what the time of year. For starters, pace yourself during the first few days. No matter how fit you may be, life at 7,500 feet is difficult. It will take a few days to adjust to air that contains about 25 percent less oxygen than that at sea level, and this adjustment is compounded by the Mexico City smog, among the worst in the world.
Traffic is difficult, so it is a good idea to stay in a centrally located hotel and walk to most of the sights. Organized bus tours or taxis can be used for trips to the Aztec pyramids just outside the capital, or to the nearby cities of Taxco and Cuernavaca.
While in the city and on foot, expect to be confronted by an assortment of people seeking money–either begging or offering some sort of service. Such entreaties are often necessary for survival in a city of vast underemployment. Temperatures will range from the mid- to low 80s at the hottest part of the day to the mid-50s in the evening; so bring appropriate clothes for both. JANET CAWLEY
Toronto
”Toronto,” says one American who has lived there several years,” is one of North America`s best-kept secrets.”
Although easily accessible from Chicago and most other major American cities, it`s not on the generally beaten tourist path, perhaps because of a perception that Canada is boring–the home of hockey teams and cold fronts and not much else.
Wrong.
Toronto is a vibrant metropolis, brimming with fine ethnic restaurants, theaters, films, art galleries, and fashionable shopping.
Perhaps as important to visitors used to keeping a hand on the wallet and an eye out for muggers, Toronto is safe. Something as ordinary to Chicagoans as a street mugging may rate a major newspaper story in Toronto. The subways, which run until about 1:30 a.m., are clean, safe, and fast–used without fear by everyone from schoolchildren to grandmothers.
The city also is tidy. People are serious about keeping things clean. One story making the rounds involved the filming of a television series for which the director ordered a huge pile of garbage to make the Toronto setting look more like New York. The crew broke for coffee, and by the time they returned all the trash had been cleaned up.
And if you decide you want to cool off while you walk or shop there`s another city, one that stretches for blocks under Toronto–a complex network of pedestrian walkways, theaters, retail stores, and restaurants all linked to some of the city`s major new buildings, City Hall, the train station, and at least three hotels.
JOSEPH REEVES
Peking
Earlier this year, a Chinese-language afternoon newspaper printed its blunt assessment of life in China`s capital city. Frankly, the paper said, Peking suffers from a plague of petty crime, greed, overcrowding, and filth.
All true. And the writer for the Beijing Evening News never got around to mentioning the terrible dust storms, the generally mediocre food, the virtual void of nightlife, or the nauseating habit many Chinese have of routinely spitting on the sidewalks.
Still, despite its drawbacks–in many ways because of them–Peking remains a magical, mystical, and wonderful place to visit.
As with any place, there are the obligatory sights for tourists. Here those include the Ming Tombs, the Forbidden City, Tianenmen Square, Mao Tse-tung`s Tomb, the Great Hall of the People, and the Peking Opera.
None should be missed, but trade any or all of them for a moment at the one truly mandatory spectacle in China: the Great Wall.
Few sites in the world live up to their billing as well as the Great Wall. The most calloused world traveler can`t help but be moved as he struggles to climb the steep stone blocks and gaze from the parapets where soldiers first stood guard 2,000 years ago.
It`s a tribute to the magnificence of the Great Wall that not even the tackiest tourist trappings dampen the splendor.
Ignore the guy who wants to take your picture on the back of a bent, slobbering camel at the foot of the wall.
Forget about ”The Great Wall Sovenirs (sic) Store.” The goods inside are as artificial as the building itself–a metal shed hidden behind a facade of bricks stacked in the shape of the Wall.
Don`t waste a minute. Stand on the Wall and savor a sight few in the West ever get to enjoy.
HOWARD A. TYNER
Moscow
Considering its size and its treasures for tourists, Moscow draws relatively fewer foreign visitors every summer than most other European capitals.
But numbers can be deceptive. Because facilities for tourists–hotels and restaurants, in particular–remain in short supply, and because droves of Soviet citizens come in from the countryside year-round, the city seems always to be swarming with outsiders.
This will be especially true during spring and summer of 1985, thanks to two big events. The first and probably the more interesting will be the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II. Soviet authorities have been building up to the celebrations for more than a year.
What exactly will take place on and around the May 9 Victory Day holiday has yet to be announced, but it is bound to be an extravaganza.
The other highlight of Moscow`s summer will be the World Youth Festival beginning July 27. Tens of thousands of young people from more than 100 nations will be here for what promises to be colorful, if overly stage-managed festivities.
Don`t avoid Moscow because of the rush. Just make reservations early. The special events should, in fact, benefit tourists. For one thing, they ought to bring out a more upbeat mood among the usually somber Russians.
Authorities also are likely to have the city spruced up. This can only be good as Moscow frequently is hot, dry, and dusty in summer.
