Airline news: Bye-bye Silverjet

We recently asked you about your most travel-inspiring books. For the tween market, Atlas Travel is making it easier for families to replicate adventures set in Simon & Schuster’s Beacon Street Girls (beaconstreetgirls.com) book series, which targets girls between the ages of 9 and 13. Atlas Travel has partnered with the Jamaica Tourist Board to create family-friendly, land-only packages that coincide with the release of Katani’s Jamaican Holiday, which hits bookstores June 3. The Jamaica package includes transfers, four all-inclusive nights at a hotel in Montego Bay, Negril, or Runaway Bay, plus the choice of tubing or rafting through Chukka Caribbean Adventures. Airfare is not included. Participating hotels include Sunset Beach Resort & Spa, The Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort, Half Moon, Round Hill Hotel and Villas in Montego Bay, and Riu Negril, Grand Lido Negril, and Beaches Sandy Bay in Negril. From $545 per person, 800/878-8626, atlastravel.com/vacations/BSG.htm Atlas Travel already has packages modeled after Beacon Street Girls books set in Paris, New York City, and Hollywood. If Jamaica isn’t in the cards this year, the tourism board is also sponsoring Jamaica Day at New York City’s South Street Seaport on Monday, June 2. The free concert, which stars singer Sean Kingston, celebrates Caribbean American Heritage Month. Learn more at NyJamaicaDay.com.

An amazing optical device dubbed the Telectroscope has been installed at the Brooklyn base of the Brooklyn Bridge and by London's City Hall, miraculously permitting New Yorkers and Londoners to see each other--live. Through June 15, this art installation at Old Fulton Street at Fulton Ferry Landing will be open and part of the celebrations for the 125th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge's opening. Peer into a giant copper and wood lenses that poke out of the Earth's surface, and you can see excited crowds in London waving back. Details at the Telectroscope website. Or watch this video at CNN.com. EARLIER New York City: Four giant waterfalls arrive soon

Planning to travel to China this summer? The government has enacted new visa rules in order to keep better tabs on the more than 1.5 million visitors expected for the Olympic Games in August. While the new regulations are having more of an impact on foreigners living and working in China, tourists are also being required to jump through a few extra hoops. According to the Chinese consulate in New York, people applying for a 30-day tourist (L) visa must now provide proof that they have purchased round-trip airplane tickets and have made reservations at hotels for their entire stay. Here are the required documents for tourist visas: —A completed visa application form, which can be downloaded at nyconsulate.prchina.org/eng or china-embassy.org/eng. —A passport with plenty of extra pages, valid for at least six months. —One recent passport photo. —Copies of hotel bookings from the day you arrive to the day you leave. —Copies of your round-trip airplane tickets. There are other changes to be aware of. China has suspended multiple-entry visas until October, meaning you cannot leave China (to take a side-trip to Thailand, for example) and return to China on the same visa. Also, the government is requiring tourists interested in going to Tibet to fill out a form issued by the Tibet Tourism Bureau—when you call the Chinese consulate in New York, a recording instructs you to call the tourism bureau directly at 011-86/891-683-4313. I don't think this form will be easy to get—China has really tightened access to Tibet following the riots there this spring, mainly to keep out foreign journalists. Lastly, you cannot submit a visa application to the Chinese embassy or any consulate in the U.S. by mail—you have to either take it to the office personally, or have a friend or travel agent do it. Visa prices have also gone up to $130 for individual applicants, and $110 per person for people applying as part of a tour group. A good source for up-to-the-minute information on visa regulations is the English-language China travel website Chinatravel.net. MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL —Do-It-Yourself China —The 2008 Beijing Olympics Planner —How to Get Visas For Countries Around the World —More Do-It-Yourself China advice.