Chinese museums exhibit candor

In China’s Sichuan province, a complex of new, privately owned museums dedicated to the Cultural Revolution (1969-76), the War of Resistance against the Japanese (1937-45) and 20th century Chinese folk culture reflects increasing openness about the way recent history is viewed in China. Fan Jianchuan, a Chinese industrialist and Communist Party member, collected 2 million historical artifacts displayed in 25 galleries, including a Gallery of Women’s Tiny Shoes on foot-binding and a kitschy Cultural Revolution Porcelain Art Gallery. Noteworthy are displays on the role America played in the Sino-Japanese War and the Plaza of Handprints of 3,000 Soldiers, a rare recognition that Nationalist soldiers as well as Communists gave their lives in the long struggle to liberate China from the Japanese. The Jianchuan Museum Cluster is about 20 miles west of the city of Chengdu, in the town of Anren; www.jc-museum.cn.

-- Susan Spano

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Bound for glory

Martin Gray, the photographer and anthropologist behind “Sacred Earth: Places of Peace and Power,” has spent more than 20 years shooting hundreds of sacred sites around the world. He created www.sacredsites.com to share his work, and now he’s given us this 276-page coffee-table tome. Many of the hundreds of color images in it are arresting and inspiring, although not every reader will be ready to swallow all the high-flown, semi-scientific prose about how these places differ from the rest of workaday Earth. (I could have used more information about exactly how and when he made some of these striking pictures, but there’s none of that.) Ah, well. It should be enough to see these places, to learn a little about them, to be reminded how they have inspired humans to all sorts of actions, including raising the megalithic stones of Stenness, Scotland, and sculpting the boulders at Kalasasaya Temple in Tiwanacu, Bolivia. The book, $35, is from Sterling Publishing, www.sterlingpublishing.com.

-- Christopher Reynolds

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Airbus amenities

When Singapore Airlines flies the first regularly scheduled Airbus A380 flight on Oct. 28 between Singapore and Sydney, Australia, passengers will travel in comfort. They’ll be able to choose from 100 movie selections, 180 TV shows, interactive games, CD albums and audiobooks, personal monitors and USB ports. And that goes for those flying economy class too. Yes, passengers in first and business class will get bigger monitors, 23- and 15.4-inch screens in first and business, respectively, but some perks from the airlines’ $360-million investment in innovation will trickle down to econo fliers. Passengers on Singapore’s L.A. to Singapore service, launched in July, already are reaping the in-flight benefits aboard new B777-300ERs. Among them: some of the largest seats in the sky (35 inches wide in first, 34 inches in business and 19 inches in economy). Info: www.singaporeair.com.

-- Celeste Moure

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Now that’s hot

Need a place to blow off some steam? How about glass-blowing for a hot apres-ski activity? The Canyons Resort in Park City, Utah, will open a hot-glass studio in mid-January and offer classes in creating glass art. The 2,000-foot studio, the brainchild of glass artist Peter Roberts, will offer lessons in glass casting, stained glass and . If you don’t want to get your hands dirty, it will have a viewing gallery.warm up and watch. Info: (435) 940-1425.

-- Vani Rangachar