In our roundup of travel stories this week: The world’s best cheese for 2026, the world’s highest bridge, plus a new feature: CNN Postcards.
CNN is also following the FAA ground stop affecting flights.
The spectacular Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge towers 625 meters (2,051 feet) above southwestern China’s Beipan River, in one of the country’s most mountainous provinces, making it the world’s highest.
Since opening last September, it’s not only slashed journey times across the canyon from roughly two hours to just minutes, but it’s transformed the region economically.
Tourism is booming, with more than three million visitors turning out in its first year. Visitors can enter the structure itself, stepping onto glass observation platforms offering dizzying views of the canyon below . For those with even more adventurous tastes, there’s the bungee jump, along with an exposed walkway beneath the road.
Guest accommodations, shops and cafés are popping up in the village below and new cellular base stations have been added to improve mobile phone coverage.
Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar is one of the world’s largest and oldest covered markets, dating back to the 15th century. Behind the vibrant and brightly lit world of the market floor, with up to 400,000 daily visitors, is a hidden network of craftspeople in tiny workshops who are masters of age-old techniques.
Beating the bazaar in scale but not age, Shinsegae Centum City is the world’s largest department store, clocking in at 3.16 million square feet. And here at this mall in Busan, South Korea, visitors can enjoy a jjimjilbang , a uniquely Korean take on the spa experience.
Meanwhile, the sprawling Mall of Asia on the edge of the South China Sea is one of the biggest shopping and entertainment complexes in the Philippines. It’s home to the newly opened Museo del Galeon , which tells the seafaring tales of the Manila galleons and the people that crewed them, and is an unexpected and tranquil respite.
A new feature debuts this week: CNN Postcards. Brief but vivid stories capturing the wonder, joy, humor or drama of travel:
They flitted onto the jungle gym beside me — first one child, then two. We hung silently, like crows gathered in “The Birds.”
I’d faced challenges on this, my first French camping trip, but handled them with the full courage of my seven years. An explorer in a strange land, I’d hammered tent pegs and said “merci” to the ice-cream man.
Alien sounds shot out of the boy’s mouth. The little girl stared, waiting for my response. I leapt off and ran back to the safety of my family. My cheeks flared hot with deep, enduring shame. I wasn’t cosmopolitan yet. —Maureen O’Hare
To read more CNN Postcards or to submit your own postcard-sized travel story, click here .
Check the back of your cupboards. If you’ve got some dairy products that have been sitting there since 2024, you might well have the makings of a world-class product. A 24-month-aged Comté — a nutty, crumbly and deeply complex creation from France’s eastern border — has just claimed the top prize at this year’s World Cheese Awards in Spain.
Farther south in France, Tony Shalhoub traveled to Marseille last year for his CNN series “Tony Shalhoub Breaking Bread.” There he explored his family’s immigration story, connecting with the city where his father had stopped en route from Beirut, Lebanon, to New York’s Ellis Island. CNN subscribers can watch here .
While the vessel is even larger than the Titanic, it took the SS United States mere hours to sink to the ocean floor in Destin-Fort Walton Beach, Florida. This once luxurious ship hosted presidents and celebrities and will now host turtles and fish as the world’s largest artificial reef. Subscribers can read about the ship here .
The world’s longest and deepest underwater road tunnel is under construction.
At its deepest , it’ll be more than 1,200 feet below sea level.
Singapore Airlines launches “largest double bed in the skies.”
It’s another hit for the “world’s best airline.”
The best Brazilian beaches you’ve probably never heard of.
A tech shakeup. A midterm upset. A building collapse.
What do you remember from the week that was ?
