Qingdao, also Tsingtao or Ch'ing-tao, Shandong Province, eastern China. It is a major naval base, an industrial center, and a port on the Yellow Sea at the entrance to sheltered Jiaozhou Bay. The port, which rarely freezes over, serves the industrialized northern China Plain and was expanded in 1976 to include an oil terminal for large tankers on Huang Island. The leading manufactures of the city include textiles, railroad equipment, rubber goods, fertilizer, and chemicals.

Rockland is a coastal city in Maine on the western shore of Penobscot Bay, known for its working harbor, maritime industries, and connection to the surrounding Midcoast landscape. The city developed around shipbuilding, fishing, lime production, and coastal trade, and its waterfront remains an important part of daily life. Rockland Harbor is sheltered by islands and peninsulas, with commercial fishing boats, pleasure craft, and passenger vessels using its waters.

The Darvaza Gas Crater, famously nicknamed the “Door to Hell,” is one of Turkmenistan’s most extraordinary landmarks. Located deep in the Karakum Desert, this fiery pit has been burning continuously since the early 1970s, when Soviet engineers reportedly set fire to a collapsed natural gas field to prevent the spread of methane.

If summer means the beach to the inhabitants of Greater Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata is most often the beach they are thinking of. Situated on the northern Atlantic coast, 400km from the capital, beaches in this area sprawl for eight km, with sophisticated mansions (reflecting the area's upper-class origins) mingling with the new middle-class resorts. Sea lions keep an eye on the fishing activities around the wharves, and a replica of the grotto of Lourdes is a kitsch paradise.

Corning is a small city in New York’s southern Finger Lakes region, set along the Chemung River and known internationally for its connection to glassmaking. The city combines a compact downtown with historic buildings, museums, galleries, and access to the surrounding hills and waterways. Market Street forms the center of the Gaffer District, where shops, restaurants, cafés, and local businesses occupy restored storefronts.