Vacation in Sweden

We have been on vacation in Sweden now for two weeks and have still one week to do before returning to Beijing. Spending most of the time seeing friends and family and just relaxing enjoying the clean air and the birdsong...

Staying in my daughters apartment at Fågelhundsvägen in Lund.

The second day in Sweden we joined the "Studentparty" for my youngest son, Mats.
He just graduated from "Filmgymnasiet" in Visby and we had a party for him with friends and family at his mothers home.

Beginning of this week we went to Stockholm for some "instant tourism"...

The Royal Castle is a "must" and also the "Old City" (Gamla stan) with it's small streets and alleys. So we spent the first evening walking around enjoying this part of Stockholm.

Second day we started by taking the Djurgårds-ferry to Skansen.

This is an "Outdoor museum" with a nice collection of Swedish history, culture and animals. It is another of those places the you must visit when you are in Stockholm.

And after ending the day with "Regalskeppet Wasa" in the Wasa museum we where quite tired.

Our last day in Stockholm we spent by doing a cruise in the archepelago of Stockholm, going out to Sandhamn. A really nice day crusising around among some of the 24 000 islands in the archepelago - must be one of the most beautiful in the world.

Beijing's petrol and energy prices go up - and maybe cabs?

There were long lines at Beijing's gas stations last night as cab drivers and other motorists rushed to fill up the tank before a 16% increase in fuel prices came into effect at midnight.
The price hike, which was decided upon by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and announced by Xinhua at about 7pm last night, will see the price of the regular #93 fuel increase from the current RMB 5.34 to RMB 6.2 a liter.
Energy prices will also go up as of July 1.
This is the first price rise since last October when prices rose 10% from RMB 4.9 to 5.34 a liter. To that we're not sure of is how this will affect taxi prices in the capital. Last year's price hike was accompanied by an increase in the subsidy paid out to cabbies, rising to RMB 780 a month, but, as of this morning, no announcement has been made about changes to subsidies.

The Beijing News quote a driver as saying that "without increased subsidies, it will become very difficult for Beijing's taxi drivers to endure the price rise." At the time of last year's price rise, People's Daily quoted the municipal development and reform commission as saying it does not plan to raise the taxi fares before the gasoline price hits 6.1 yuan per liter - they've just hit 6.2.