Naples is a picturesque city.

Members of the Special Committee join me in expressing our gratitude for the most gracious hospitality extended to us since our arrival in this most picturesque part of the beautiful Windward Islands.

Europeans are buying gemütliche Alpine ski chalets, glamorous condominiums with Mediterranean views in the South of Spain, and, increasingly, villas in picturesque sites in Turkey, Hungary, and Croatia. Australians are buying oceanfront properties at the Sunshine Coast and the Whitsundays.

Today, these little towns have become key destinations for visitors to Zhejiang who come to admire the natural scenery, savor Zhejiang culture, and feel nostalgic about Zhejiang. They will also become key drivers to help the Province create Picturesque Zhejiang , China s most beautiful tourist destination.

11 year old Birke Baehr presents his take on a major source of our food far away and less than picturesque industrial farms. Keeping farms out of sight promotes a rosy, unreal picture of big box agriculture, he argues, as he outlines the case to green and localize food production.

The Council of Europe, which for 60 years has promoted European integration through human rights and culture, includes Neuchatel among 10 intercultural cities that it is studying for best practice policies and governance in multicultural societies. In the case of Neuchatel, this includes the canton as well as the picturesque lakeside city.

In the West, Afghanistan and what Henry Kissinger calls Islamist Jihadists challenges the international order. In the East, a large number of Chinese troops have entered Pakistani held territory high in the mountain fastness of the Kashmir Karakorams, in the picturesque Gilgit Baltistan region, not far from the glacial battlefield of Siachen, where India and Pakistan confront each other.

On one hand, India is a democracy with a long tradition of allowing peaceful protest, including against foreign countries when their leaders come visiting. It provided refuge to the Dalai Lama when he fled Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959, granted asylum (and eventually Indian citizenship) to more than 110,000 Tibetan refugees, and permitted them to create a government in exile (albeit one that India does not recognize) in the picturesque Himalayan hill town of Dharamsala.