During the past decades, in the wake of the rapid improvement of living standard, an increasing number of people attempt to travel once or even more times each year. Recently, an interesting discussion about how to know a city in a short time has caused wide public concern. From my point of view, visiting the historic sites of the city seems to be the best way. My reasons and examples are given below to illustrate my standpoint.
Historic sites, as is known to all, represent local culture and history best, which can undoubtedly assist visitors to know the core of the city. There is no denying that those well-preserved historic sites, to some extent, act as the symbols of the area. With time going by, so many events have these historic sites witnessed that the connotations accumulated in them are extremely plentiful. Tourists, especially those who are fond of exploring the inner charm of a city, are supposed to visit local historic sites to feel the cultural value. For example, when you travel to Beijing, only by visiting the Palace Museum can you experience the long history of this city, which is the capital of present and ancient China. The same is true of the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal, and other famous historic sites.
Shops and markets, however, are terrible choices if you intend to know a city. It is universally acknowledged that the majority of shops nowadays are chains, which means that they are the same in essentials while differing only in minor points. Suppose that you walk into a local store when you are visiting a city, most of the commodities that you see at the first glance are bound to be something that you are very familiar with, which results from the advanced contemporary manufacturing industry and international trade. Thus, it is not a wise method to know a city by going to local shops and markets.
Considering the increasing commercialization of the catering industry, there are fewer restaurants that can represent local specialties. To survive in the fierce competition, a lot of restaurants nowadays struggle to adapt to endemic diners, which leads to the similar flavor of different restaurants. As you can imagine, it is increasingly difficult to find a restaurant that can provide original local food. Hence, knowing a city through enjoying restaurants or cafes is obviously in vain.
To put it in a nutshell, among three ways of knowing a city in a short time, I still believe visiting the historic sites is the best. Thinking of those fascinating scenery, I hope everyone can have more opportunities to travel around the beautiful world, especially visiting all sorts of historic sites.
