Taste of home in the Orient

7:27pm Tuesday 26th August 2008

YOU can read it on our website, but it is not often a copy of The Bolton News makes its way to China.

That all changed when Alistair McArthur took a trip to the People’s Republic.

The 20-year-old student from Heaton decided our hard-working newspaper needed a “holiday”, and he made sure it was photographed in as many exotic places as possible.

Armed with a copy, he got pals to snap him with The Bolton News on the Great Wall of China at Simatai, outside the Forbidden City in Beijing, in a new terminal at Beijing Airport, with the Terracotta Army in Xi’an and outside the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.

Alistair, who is studying computing and German at Leeds University, decided to do the stunt after a chat with his father.

He said: “My dad suggested it would probably be the furthest The Bolton News had ever been.

“I certainly think it had a good time, although we were laughed at whenever we pulled the paper out to take a snap.

“The Bolton News has seen some amazing places and I hope it encourages other people to take it on holiday with them and get some funny photographs.”

Alistair, a former pupil at Rivington and Blackrod School, travelled to China with university friend Michael De Pian to visit a friend in Beijing last month.

The pair stayed in an apartment in the city and caught a glimpse of the Bird’s Nest Stadium and other Olympic arenas before the Games kicked off.