What woult it include?

San Miguel, Camino Real, Guanajuato and Queretaro
You could get to Morelia and back as well - 188kms each way from SM but Irapuato would be a better "centre" -has an international airport and is more "central" to the 5 sites

Prefer to pick a city as hotspot that actually has a site, in this case the plurality. Whole exercise was about finding another hotspot in the Americas.

Also proposed a Hiroshima, Exremadura and Valencia.

I note that the Emiglia-Roman/Marche Hotspot includes Urbino - but not San Marino - which is actually CLOSER to the currently assigned centre of the hotpsot at Bologna.
But - would anyone actually use Bologna as a centre to visit Urbino? 175kms by road (2hrs) or around 3hrs by rail/bus via Pesaro!
Ravenna would seem a far better "centre" at only 118kms from Urbino (though not good by rail/bus) and 72 from SM. (and for Modena, Ferrara also)

By the way - how easy would it be to have "Hot spot maps"? We have all the data and such maps would provide visible confirmation of the correctness/practicality of a hotspot and, in so doing, a useful planning tool. I have been re-visiting the definition and it is inevitably judgemental to a degree on how one is travelling (car/bus) and how hard one wants to travel etc etc. A map would also provide a calculated "geographic" centre.

I also think it is a good idea to add "text" about the practicalities of a journey (E.g as for Iwami Ginzan in the Hiroshima hotspot) to explain/justify an inclusion. The whole purpose of Hot spots is a planning aid rather than identifying "extreme" possibilities of which there are many!

Not hard. We can have maps for all connections. Originally, Els didn't like the idea, though, so please check with her.


Text is already possible. To go to the silvermine you need to take the bus from Hiroshima Station.

I am perfectly aware it is "possible" - as with all Connections!!! I am suggesting that more use be made of it when people suggest hotspot entries to explain why/how a particular WHS should be considered as being within a particular hotspot. No need of course if it is very close or just down the autostrada - but in other cases like your Iwami example it is well worth including (as was done) such info both to justify and explain and to help with travel planning. Very few current hotspots include such an explanation and a number seem just pushed together based on "approximate" geographic proximity without identification of the practicalities. I am not sure for instance that anyone would sensibly use Merida as a centre to see Almaden in a day return. It is 170kms away on not very good roads - 2.5 hours each way (I have driven some of it) and between 4 - 5 hours by train/bus. They "could" do so of course - earlier this summer we used Tabriz as a centre" to see the Armenian monasteries in a day (12 hours and 600 kms return) - but I wouldn't suggest it as a hotpsot on that basis! The current definition of hotspots is 215 kms diameter which presumably means c110kms radius from a centre. I know we allow more for fast roads etc but Almaden is "pushing the limits"! I don't know where has been chosen as the centre of the Andalucia hotspot (it isn't stated) but Almaden is only 1.5 hours away from Cordoba



That would be going overboard - but in the case of hotspots the geographic relationship between the sites assigned to them does seem of particular importance in a way which isn't the case with most Connections

It's actually easier to implement for all than for a subset... However/If Els wants it.*

*Smiley free day today.

i got my hotspots :D

The Extremadura one should include Elvas in Portugal. Trains run to Badejoz and from there you can take a bus.

For Hiroshima I would include Himeji.

Gyeongju Hotspot
Gyeongju Historic Areas
Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple
Haeinsa Temple
Historic Villages of Korea (Yangdong)

Potential additions in 2018-2019
- Traditional Buddhist Mountain Temples of Korea
- Seowon, Confucian Academies of Korea

While working on the connections map I found that the Aegean hotspot does not seem feasible. Rhodes is way too off to be done on a day trip.

In general, the maps don't really work as long as we map sites to connections and not specific locations. At least a decision should be made what to include (full site, single location).

Better to repost this here:

By the way, I think that Baekje should be added to the Seoul Hotspot Connection as it is just a day trip away by bus or train.

We already have Busan Hotspot, maybe we have to choose to retain the Busan or change to Gyeongju.

I am surprised I missed this/forgot! I don't think it matters a whole lot, but Gyeongju might make more sense. Busan is actually 30 minutes from the nearest WHS.

I want to propose 3 hotspots

Henan Hotspot

The center is Zhengzhou, capital of Henan
- Longmen Grottoes (1.5 - 2 hours by bus to Luoyang)
- Silk Roads
- Dengfeng (1.5 - 2 hours by bus to Shaolin Temple)
- Grand Canal
- Yin Xu (2.5 hours by bus or 40 mins by High Speed Train to Anyang)

Sichuan Hotspot

The center is Chengdu, capital of Sichuan
- Qingchengshan Dujiangyan (1 - 2 hours by train and bus)
- Panda Reserves (1 - 2 hours by train and bus)
- Leshan (1.5 - 2.5 hours by bus)
- Dazu (2 - 3 hours by bus)

Hanoi Hotspot

The center is Hanoi
- Halong Bay
- Trang Long Citadel
- Trang An
- Ho Citadel