It was all work, work, work for the BBC Culture team and parties, alas, were few and far between. But the rest of Cannes was painting the town red. In 2013 we tried to calculate the amount of champagne consumed at the festival by contacting Piper Heidsieck, “the official drink” of the festival, but they declined to comment – though judging by the merry faces and staggering gaits of some on the Croisette, it's safe to assume a colossal quantity. At the party for Matteo Garrone's Tale of Tales on the first weekend, the champers flowed freely and the revellers stayed on until the early hours. When the BBC's Rebecca Laurence spoke to one of its stars the following morning and asked how many hours sleep he'd had before their interview, he simply narrowed his bleary eyes and held up two fingers.
China Everbright, the financial conglomerate that bought the Dah Sing Financial Centre for HK$10bn ($1.29bn), is just one of a number of mainland Chinese companies to have splashed out on headquarters in the city over the past year.
Taobao, subsidiary of Alibaba, came in second place, with a brand value of $42.9 billion, overtaking China Mobile, Baidu and ICBC.
Despite China's rise, an "innovation divide" persists between developed and developing countries amid increasing awareness among policymakers that fostering innovation is crucial to a vibrant, competitive economy.
8. Trang Islands, Thailand-The islands of Trang, a sleepy province in southeast Thailand, have remained under the radar. Wooden longtail boats can be rented to travel between the islands—and to see the endangered dugongs.