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You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Air China has launched its first-ever non-stop service between Beijing and Honolulu in Hawaii in the United States.
The new service provides three flights each week using A330-200 aircraft.
It allows Chinese visitors to access the airline's extensive network, serving the Hawaiian Islands and U.S. Mainland.
The Hawaiian Islands have become an increasingly popular destination for Chinese visitors in recent years. In 2012, the number of Chinese tourists who visited the archipelago increased 64 percent year on year.
Now from the Pacific to central Europe. The first chocolate salon in Brussels is held this week in the Belgian capital.
The salon is attended by about 90 Belgian and international chocolatiers.
At the salon, visitors can not only follow the great masters and sample their recipes, but also try their skills at the workshops.
The event also includes a parade of chocolate dresses, fashion creators and chocolate masters' ordinary work.
Famous Belgian chocolatier Leonidas's colossal chocolate sculpture measures almost four meters high. It was created to mark the chocolate maker's centennial this year.
A work by Jean-Luc Decluzeau, the sculpture is an effigy of the king of Sparta, the emblem of the brand Leonidas since its creation.
It is created to pay homage to its founder Leonidas Kestekides who bore the same name as the Greek King.
Chocolate is considered as one of the three specialties of the small kingdom Belgium, along with diamond and beer.
Belgium is now the second largest consumer of chocolate in the world, behind Switzerland, with an average of nearly ten pounds per year per person.
Belgian chocolate is known for its original and diverse tastes.
Chocolate is a major player in Belgium's local economic development.
The pentagon of Brussels alone has 32 companies specializing in the manufacture of cocoa and chocolate.
Between 2004 and 2009, the turnover of the chocolate rose 53 percent in Brussels, while investment rose in the same period by 50 percent, from 10 million to 15 million euros, or almost 14 million to 21 million U.S. dollars.
