The best new cars on Shanghai Motor Show 2011

For us Europeans, the biennial Auto Shanghai show used to be a mere blip on the motoring calendar. However, with China now the biggest emerging car market in the world, it gets more relevant with each passing year.

That's demonstrated by this year's line-up, which features a handful of world debuts that would stop a major European show in its tracks - including a brand new VW Beetle. Here are the sexiest new arrivals showing some eastern promise.
  
Volkswagen Beetle
Why Shanghai?
Perhaps it's because Volkswagen couldn't wait any longer. At 13 years-old, the Beetle is officially the oldest new production car on sale in the UK. The styling of the new car isn't a radical departure, but the new Beetle is both more practical than the outgoing car (longer and wider), but also sportier (it's lower). The quality and dynamics have improved too - it has the clever 'XDS differential' from the Golf GTI for faster cornering.

 Kate Middleton is a natural beauty and she’s often seen without wearing any makeup. That’s how you know a woman is pretty. It’s all about how good she looks when she’s not dolled up.

Thanks to cheap flights and the internet, the world’s not as mysterious as it used to be. Many of us have travelled to far-flung areas of the globe that would have been totally alien and unreachable to Brits even a couple of generations ago. However, there are still parts of the planet that – no matter how many tourist blogs you read – are still (almost) off-limits to tourists. Here are some of our favourite forbidden travel destinations.

1. Poveglia
Where is it? The Venetian lagoon, Italy
Why can’t I visit?: Because it’s haunted! According to legend it was used to isolate plague victims during Roman times, and then as a giant Black Death grave in the Middle Ages. As if that wasn’t scary enough, it’s also home to spooky abandoned building – complete with bell tower naturally – that was apparently a mental hospital. These days it’s off-limits to visitors unless you bribe a gondolier to take you there.