For a trip to the U.S. and Europe I'm taking next month, I tried making bookings three separate ways -- through my regular agent in Hong Kong, by consulting a round-the-world specialist in San Francisco I found on the Web, and by myself online.

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In addition to Galaxy, the Lui family presides over a business empire that also includes the Hong Kong-listed property firm K Wah International Holdings and San Francisco-based Stanford Hotels.

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It is not uncommon for an e-mail from, say, Hong Kong to Taipei to travel first to San Francisco or Los Angeles and then back to Taiwan (thus charting a path that looks like a trombone).

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Born in San Francisco to globe-trotting parents, he became a child actor in Hong Kong, where he learned kung fu and became a dance champion.

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