THE FINANCIAL TIMES
A tour of Vancouver’s Chinatown

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“My purpose is to educate and entertain from a culinary and cultural perspective,” Robert Sung announces when we meet him in the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver’s Chinatown. The garden was built in 1986 on the city’s 100th birthday to commemorate its Chinese inhabitants. More than 50 craftsmen came from Suzhou, China, to construct the Ming Dynasty garden, bringing with them nan, camphor and ginkgo wood, handmade tiles and stone pebbles. 

THE INDEPENDENT
The hedonistic, boho-luxe of 1970s Marrakech is back – here’s how to do it like Mick Jagger and Grace Jones

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In Marrakech’s dusk-hued medina, there’s a riad that opens a door to another world. The gilded home of the late interior designer and febrile socialite, Bill Willis, Dar Noujoum was once a royal residence, rented to Willis by a prince from the early 1970s until his death in 2009. Stood empty in the ensuing years, it was summarily ransacked – doors stripped of their hand-carved frames, copper piping wrenched from walls, baths hoisted out of windows to the street below. A decade later, Brits and best friends Tim and Neil would discover the riad and, with it, a slice of history.

THE GUARDIAN
‘It felt like we were in the 90s!’ HomeBass, the white van revving up UK rave culture

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In a public square in Dalston, east London, out the back of the kind of bog-standard white van more used to transporting fitted kitchens or cleaning supplies, a crowd of ravers are in a jubilant mood, all sweat-sheen and wide smiles. Inside the van DJs spin tunes characteristic of this itinerant party, dubbed HomeBass: garage, jungle, drum’n’bass. It begins to rain but they remain in place, arms upraised, waiting for the first drop from rising jungle star Nia Archives.

NEW STATESMAN
The witchcraft generation

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Netty has been practising magic for 16 years. She cast a spell to get her current job in banking. She credits other spells with securing subsequent salary raises. She once used a spell to make her boss like her more. Another bagged her the love of her life, seven years ago. She still has the honey jar she used for it – into which she put herbs, a petition and a Corona bottle cap he’d discarded. (She assures me he knows about it.) Raised a Catholic, Netty has not completely reneged on the faith, nor does she see any conflict in casting spells and praying to saints. You might call her a Christian witch. You might be surprised to know there are thousands of them.

THE FINANCIAL TIMES
Five of Vancouver’s best ‘sea to sky’ adventures

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“My purpose is to educate and entertain from a culinary and cultural perspective,” Robert Sung announces when we meet him in the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver’s Chinatown. The garden was built in 1986 on the city’s 100th birthday to commemorate its Chinese inhabitants. More than 50 craftsmen came from Suzhou, China, to construct the Ming Dynasty garden, bringing with them nan, camphor and ginkgo wood, handmade tiles and stone pebbles.