Moreintelligentlife.com is the website of Intelligent Life magazine. Articles about Arts, Lifestyle, Travels, and Ideas

Being There: Fiona Maharg-Bravo reports on life in a city that never sits down to a meal until it has to ...  read more »

Tonci Bibic and his family have been fishing off the islands of the Dalmatian coast for six generations. But that may be about to end. James Hopkin reports from Hvar ...  read more »

~ Posted by Rebecca Willis, December 23rd 2011

It's snowing in the Rockies. A bit. They're still waiting for the "big dump" that sets the resorts up for the whole season. Vail is the largest single mountain ski resort in America, and in Vail Village the trees are covered in Christmas lights, there are gas fires in the street and the pavements are steaming as the snow lands on them - they are heated from underneath.

Our hotel in Beaver Creek has an outdoor pool and five hot tubs, all exhaling moist warmth into the freezing air, uncovered during the day and mostly unused until après-ski time. There are patio heaters outside restaurants, heated underground car parks, and of course the ski lifts churning away all day and the piste-bashers grooming all night... It's all a stark reminder that downhill skiing holidays are high energy as well as high altitude.
 
In our room, though, there is a slice of a tree with the word "CONSERVE" scorched into it, ranch style. We are invited to participate in "helping preserve and protect natural resources" by placing this sign on our rumpled bed in the morning. If we do so, the staff "will prepare it using [our] existing linen". That is to say, they won't change the sheets. For a night, anyway: "a full refresh of all linens and towels will be provided after the second night". A snowflake in a snowdrift, you might say.

Rebecca Willis is Intelligent Life's associate editor, and a former travel editor of Vogue

Some hotels have their very own skating rinks. Claire Wrathall laces up her boots...  read more »

In our September/October issue, a panel of Economist writers set about answering the first of our Big Questions: what is the capital of the world today? The Economist's globalisation editor, John Parker, awarded the gong to London. Others spoke up for New York, Beijing, Delhi, Singapore and Washington, DC. On our website, we launched a readers' poll. What followed was a heated discussion and impassioned defence of many cities, from the obvious to the obscure.  read more »

When Marc and Nick Francis came across Chinese workers building a road in the Ethiopian countryside in 2005, they felt like they were seeing the future. China’s footprint on Africa's soil was expanding in front of their eyes.

The film-makers had been interested in China since the 1990s, when Marc lived in Shenzhen. But it wasn’t until they encountered fast-growing Asian investment in Africa that they knew which story they wanted to tell, and how. “When China met Africa” follows three men in Zambia, who help to illustrate the Afro-Cino relationship: the country’s trade minister, Felix Mutati; a Chinese farm-owner; and a project manager for a Chinese multinational. The film explores the daily dependency and friction between them in their jobs.

China has recently become Africa’s largest trading partner, lending more money to the continent than the World Bank, so the film is a timely observation of geo-political change. “China’s foray into Africa is indicative of a wider shift in power from West to East,” says Nick, “and something we all need to try to understand”.

The brothers are drawn to deconstructing big global issues. Their last film, “Black Gold”, which premiered at the Sundance film festival, was about the struggle of one man against the multi-billion dollar coffee industry. It brought the topic to the attention of thousands. “When China met Africa”, now available on DVD, continues to travel on the international festival circuit.

More Intelligent Life  interviewed the brothers over e-mail, and asked them about some of the challenges and revelations involved in making this film.  read more »

It’s vast, daunting, and far from safe. But after moving her family there, Helen Joyce has found that inside this teeming modern city is a village trying to get out ...   read more »

In the September/October issue of Intelligent Life, John Parker, The Economist's globalisation editor, explores what makes a capital of the world in 2011. His "Parker Scale" sets out five criteria: power and influence, income and wealth, education, global connections, and culture. Weighing the evidence, he picks London. But other Economist correspondents have different ideas. And so do you.

We opened a poll, and so far more than 3,000 of you have voted. New York has been making the running, with 38% of voters agreeing with The Economist's Adrian Wooldridge that the Big Apple is today's world capital. London is a close second, with 26% of votes. Lagging some way behind are Washington (8%), which Peter David argues is the only serious contender for the prize; and Singapore (7%), Edward Carr's choice—"not because it is the world's greatest city, but because it is the closest match to the ideal capital of an increasingly federal world". Perhaps Beijing, Shanghai and Delhi can hope for a late surge. At the moment they each have just 3% of your votes.    read more »

How hard can it be to buy a car in Sierra Leone? Simon Akam learns a few things about doing business in a poor, war-torn country ...  read more »

Some film-makers live in hotels, others end up owning them. Claire Wrathall focuses on six of the best ...  read more »