Examples of the objects that are put on auction at Gresham's in Hong Kong. (Credit: Gresham's) Tourists in Hong Kong now have the opportunity to take home more than just a Chinese teapot or fake designer handbag as a souvenir. Gresham's auction house is giving foreigners the chance to bid on rare antiques -- the sort that might be displayed in museums elsewhere -- at affordable prices. The pieces have withstood the tests of time for hundreds of years and...

Two pandas enjoy a meal of bamboo shoots in a enclosure at the Giant Panda Research Base in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan province on June 24, 2012. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) Pandas are among the world's rarest and cutest of animals, with only 2,000 left in the world, but for panda-lovers a luxury tour operator is offering the chance to get up close and personal with the creatures. Remote Lands, which provides customized trips in Asia for wealthy clients, is offering a...

Japan's Hashima Island, commonly called Gunkanjima (or 'Battleship Island'), was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility and housed thousands of workers in its heyday. When coal mining declined, operations at the facility ceased and the island was abandoned. (Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre) Commonly known asGunkanjima (or "Battleship Island"), Hashima Island floats off the coast of Nagasaki in Japan, surrounded by a concrete sea wall which gives it an armored warship appearance. The abandoned island's weathered...

Changing Waterways:Kanal Istanbul A view of Istanbul and the Bosphorus, a navigable channel of water which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara as seen from an airplane flying over Istanbul, November 2012. The Bosphorus is considered the physical and geographical boundary between Europe and Asia. (BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images) From the damages wrought by Hurricane Sandy along the East Coast in October 2012, to the construction of the biggest building in the world in China, every new year...

Great Wall of China - China Rain clouds pass over a section of the Great Wall at Jinshanling, Hebei Province on June 10, 2012. A recent archaeological survey found its total length to be 21,196 km or 13,171 miles. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images) The sight of a building being torn down or renovated is a common one in any big city, and we've become all too accustomed to seeing homes and businesses torn apart by the elements, from hurricanes to tornadoes....

Kandovan, Iran Perhaps nothing exemplifies the harmony of nature and human settlement more than the troglodyte and cave villages of the world. Many of these underground cities' structures were formed by natural processes such as erosion but man has taken advantage of these rock formations to carve out their own energy-efficient cave homes (they remain cool in the summer and warm in the winter) and permanent historical monuments. From ancient desert cities to modern European towns, we explore the incredible...

The idyllic sand beaches and fantastic rock formations on the Marieta Islands are a perfect example of happy chance that can sometimes occur when nature and technology work together. Located off the west coast of Mexico near Nayarit, the Marieta Islands were formed by volcanic activity and were later used by the Mexican government for military weapons testing, reported the Daily Mail. The bombs carved chunks out of the rocky landscape, creating caves and revealing hidden beaches. (MORE: Florida Beaches...

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by United Airlines takes off. (David McNew/Getty Images) Some United Airlines customers were lucky enough to get tickets for zero through $10 this week. The airline says it will honor the tickets it accidentally gave away for free. The decision is good news for people who snapped up the tickets on Thursday after United accidentally listed airfares at $0. Many customers got their tickets for $5 or $10, paying only the cost of the Sept....

Finnair planes on the ground at Helsinki Airport. (MARKKU ULANDER/AFP/Getty Images) HELSINKI (AP) — Would you board flight 666 to HEL on Friday the 13th? For superstitious travelers, that might be tempting fate. But Finnair passengers on AY666 to Helsinki — which has the 3 letter designation HEL — don't seem too bothered. Friday's flight is almost full. "It has been quite a joke among the pilots" said veteran Finnair pilot Juha-Pekka Keidasto, who will fly the Airbus A320 from...

GIGLIO ISLAND, Italy -- Engineers on Monday succeeded in wresting the hull of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia from the Italian reef where it has been stuck since it capsized in January 2012, leaving them cautiously optimistic they can rotate the luxury liner upright and eventually tow it away. Never before has such an enormous cruise ship been righted, and the crippled Concordia didn't budge for the first three hours after the operation began, engineer Sergio Girotto told reporters. But after...

Inside an abandoned Soviet nuclear arsenal located underground in the town of Krasnokamianka in Crimea, Ukraine. (Sam Namos/SamNamos.com) Russian photographer and urban explorer Sam Namos traveled to the town of Krasnokamianka in Crimea, Ukraine to capture photos of a subterranean Soviet bunker that used to hold an arsenal of nuclear weapons. The results are eerie images of the bunker, now abandoned and left to decay. Most abandoned buildings crumble as weather does unrepaired damage and other life forms create new...

A Tibetan woman uses her cellphone to take photos of a flight that touched down at Yading airport. (AP Photo) BEIJING -- China has begun flight operations at the world's highest civilian airport in a bid to boost tourism and tighten political control over the country's restive west. At an elevation of 4,411 meters (14,472 feet) above sea level, Daocheng Yading Airport replaces the previous champion, Bangda Airport in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which sits at 4,334 meters (14,219 feet)....