(CNN) – In this week’s travel news, China is on the move as the Lunar New Year rush kicks off, a boy makes the catch of a lifetime, temperatures drop to minus 80F in the world’s coldest city, plus what it’s like to spend the night in an igloo in the Alps. (Spoiler: It’s absolutely frozen).
Tales from the sea
There has recently been an increase in rescues in the Florida Straits as cruise ships cross paths with Cuban and Haitian migrants trying to reach the United States in makeshift boats. Here’s the story of one such rescue, when the mega-luxury cruise ship Celebrity Beyond helped 19 people climb aboard to warmth and safety.
Late last year, a 28-year-old man managed to survive for 20 hours treading water in the Gulf of Mexico after falling off a Carnival cruise ship. Watch him here talking about his confusion and his encounter with an unknown sea creature.
A diver off the coast of Japan captured this extremely rare sighting of an 8-foot-long giant squid, while a 12-year-old boy hooked a great white shark during a family fishing trip near Fort Lauderdale. Watch the catch here.
It’s cold outside
Temperatures reached minus 80 F (minus 62.7 C) this week in the world’s coldest city, Yakutsk, in eastern Siberia. This is the coldest it has been in more than two decades. With frost a constant danger, “You either adapt and dress accordingly or you suffer,” said one resident.
What about people who choose to rest under these circumstances? Spending the night in an igloo in the Alps sounds pretty neat in theory, but with temperatures a few degrees cooler than inside a fridge, the reality is less than comfortable. CNN Travel’s fingers are now thawed enough to report on our stay.
All that said, you can have a day job where, cold and exhausted, you sit staring at a seal hole in the Arctic ice for 12 hours. But when you capture incredible wildlife photos like these, cool photographers say it’s worth it.
Lunar New Year
A popular dish in China, long-life noodles can be thick, thin, flat or crispy — but they’re always long. In Hong Kong, where fried e-fu noodles are king, one factory has increased production by 30% to meet Lunar New Year demand.
The Lunar New Year holiday begins on January 22 – that’s almost exactly three years after the first Covid-19 lockdown began in Wuhan. Today, flights from China are back to pre-pandemic levels and domestic Chinese flights are up 9.5% from January 2019, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. The newly opened high-speed rail link between Hong Kong and mainland China has been in high demand as the Lunar New Year travel rush picks up.
One of the dishes that people will fortify themselves with when they reach the end of the journey are long-life noodles. According to tradition, the chef must not cut the strands of the noodle that symbolize longevity, and each strand must be eaten whole. Schlurrrrpalicious.
Greener flight
The Air Company is on a mission: to help reduce the airline industry’s global carbon emissions with carbon-neutral jet fuel produced from the CO2 already in our atmosphere. CNN Business’ Clare Duffy visited the company’s facility in Brooklyn, New York to see if fuel made from thin air could power airplanes in the future.
NASA and Boeing are working on a new emissions-reducing single-aisle aircraft design that, if successful, could enter service by 2030.
It follows last month’s news that Virgin Atlantic this year plans to fly a Boeing 787 from London to New York, powered only by waste oils and grease, in what is being billed as the world’s net-zero transatlantic flight.
One company is even creating jet fuel out of thin air. Watch here to see how they do it.
Scientists are also working on ways to reduce contrails, those wispy clouds of ice that planes leave behind. A study has found they contribute more to global warming than aviation’s CO2 emissions, but there may be a straightforward solution.
And on a final positive note for the future of flying, for the first time in months, we don’t have any “misbehaving passenger of the week” stories. Well done everyone.
A dog’s life
Canadian Jess Stone was riding a motorcycle around the world with her German shepherd Moxie as a sidekick. The pair are 10 months into a mammoth tour that will take them to around 90 countries across North and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia.
Flying with children
Keeping younger children engaged, entertained and, most importantly, in their seats is a challenge on airplane travel. Our partners at CNN Underscored, a guide to product reviews and recommendations owned by CNN, have put together this roundup of 15 parent-approved activities to help your next flight go more smoothly.
In case you missed it
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A Finnish family moved to Sicily in search of sweet life.
Instead they left after two months, and the reasons why caused public outrage in Italy.
Pizza Hut just made a 14,001 square foot pepperoni pizza inside the Los Angeles Convention Center.
After the record-breaking achievement was documented for Guinness, 68,000 slices were destined for food banks.
