Guinness World Records has long been recording some of the most amazing and astonishing travel and tourism facts. Here we are sharing some of the most unbelievable record-breaking accounts, all fully fact-checked and Guinness-approved.

Largest Ice Structure—The Ice Hotel in Sweden

    Each year, the ice hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden, is rebuilt from blocks of frozen ice from the nearby River Torne. Covering an area of 5,500 square metres, the hotel is unsurprisingly open seasonally, from December to March, when it melts away. In 2015, the hotel celebrated its 25^th anniversary, complete with an ice bar, an ice church and ice bedrooms—one even featured a London Tube carriage made entirely of ice.

Tallest Waterfall—Angel Falls, Venezuela

    The largest waterfall by vertical(垂直的) area may be Victoria Falls, which sit on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, but it's South America that's home to the world's tallest.

    Angel Falls, located in Bolivar, Venezuela, has an impressive, uninterrupted drop of 807 metres.

    It was actually named after the American pilot, Jimmie Angel, who first recorded it in his logbook on November 16, 1933.

Largest Area of Glowing Sea—Indian Ocean, near Somalia

    Bioluminescence(生物体发光) is the production and emission of light by a living thing and can be used to explain the surprising phenomenon(现象)of “glowing oceans.”

    It was in 1995 that scientists detected glowing sea in the Indian Ocean—just off the coast of Somalia-via satellite, The water was more than 250 kilometres long, and it was all thanks to the bacteria called phytoplankton.

Most Expensive Hotel Room—The Royal Penthouse Suite at Geneva's Hotel President Wilsom

    This particular suite is just the ticket, costing as much as US$83,000(£53,760)per night.

    But the high price will gain you access to 12 bedrooms and 12 marble bathrooms across 18,000 square feet.

    What is the hottest topic at your school recently? In Taiyuan No.55 Middle School,it's money.

    The school held an activity called “making money” last weekend.About 200 Junior 1 and Junior 2 students were divided into 30 teams.They went out to make money by selling things.

    What did they choose to sell? Some sold newspapers;some chose bottled water;some sold environmentally friendly shopping bags and bamboo bamboo baskets.

    Hu Qing's team decided to sell some useful books in front of the Children Activity Center.They thought parents would like to buy the books for their children.But unfortunately,they met urban management officers（城管）.The officers asked them to leave.“ We played hide-and-seek（捉迷藏）with the officers for the whole morning”said Hu. “Finally we had to give up.”

    Wang Bing and her team sold ice cream in a square.They didn't meet any officers.But few people were interested in what they were selling.The team then put up a board saying “For Country Kids”.It worked.More people came to their stall（小摊）.A foreigner even gave them 100 yuan. “He didn't want any change.He said he wanted to help the children,” said Wang.“ We were touched.” Later that day they gave the 100 yuan and more to the “Project Hope” office.

    Meng Zhaoxiang and his team were luckier.They sold all their cakes in four hours,spending 39.5 yuan and getting back 80 yuan.They made 40.5 yuan.“It was not easy to make the money,” said Meng.“ Some people just looked.Others just tasted but didn't buy.Now I know how hard it is for our parents to make the money we need to lead happy lives.”

    When school started on that warm August day, I threw myself into everything I did, including playing volleyball. I decided to become beautiful, or at the very least, skinny. I stopped eating completely. Soon I began losing weight, which thrilled me, and I even grew to love the tiredness and lightheadedness( 头晕)that came with my poor diet, for those feelings meant that I was winning.

    As the season progressed, things had become tense between my head volleyball coach, Coach Smith, and me. She felt that something was wrong with my health. She talked with me about my eating and was angry that I wouldn't listen to her when she tried to make me eat. She tried to persuade me in a determined way and so we fought constantly. Then my hunger started to affect my performance. I was so tired that practice and games were becoming a struggle. One afternoon, with hurt in her eyes, Coach Smith asked me what I had eaten and I told her nothing yet. She looked at me, disappointment in her eyes, knowing she couldn't make me stop, and walked away.

    A couple of weeks later I attended a formal dinner for our volleyball team. I stood there as my coach managed to say something nice about me. I realized then that I had ruined my senior year by being disrespectful, and I had probably ruined hers as well. So that evening I wrote her a letter apologizing and thanking her.

    Then one Saturday, as I was reading in the library, I felt someone gently take my arm and say softly, “Lynn Jones, how are you doing?” I looked up and saw the familiar face. “Thanks for the letter,” she said. “It meant a lot.” When I think of a coach, I think of someone above me, someone who gives instruction — not a friend. But Coach Smith is different, and, like any other good friend, she dealt with my problem in a determined way even when I hated her for it at that time. I didn't deserve her kindness, but she gave it anyway. I will forever be grateful for her help, and now for her friendship.

    I first began experiencing anxiety and depression at the age of 14, after being bullied (欺凌) at school for years. While at first anxiety and depression would come and go, it eventually became a constant part of my life.

    I was so eager to find the solution to overcoming my anxiety and depression that I tried everything from when I was in college to graduate school: mood-changing medication, special teas, yoga, anything I read about in books, and advice given by doctors. Despite this, I still felt I hadn't even come close to managing the problem.

    But one afternoon, my eyes fell upon an article in a magazine I was reading that talked about how dogs were able to help people with anxiety and depression. The very next day, I decided to get a dog—a corgi. When I brought my little corgi, Buddy, home. I didn't realize how much he would change my life. It didn't happen right away, however.

    Once the “puppy excitement” went away, my anxiety and depression came back as usual. One morning, I woke up with those familiar feeling again. I didn't want to get out of bed. I turned to pull the covers back over my head and give up. That's when I saw Buddy.

    Buddy started jumping all over me, licking my face, letting me know that it was time to go outside. It was as if he were saying, “There's no time to be sad; the world is amazing!” And for the first time in my life, my life was changing. I really was a new person. This was my new beginning.

    It's been more than a year since that day, and I've never spent another morning unable to get out of bed. I've not cried myself to sleep or spent my days stuck with fear and regret. Sure, I still have days when I feel sad or anxious. But with Buddy, my best friend, by my side, I've finally learned how to manage these feelings and emotions.

    When Joanne Morton and Lydia Shaw came across the Boston Public Market, which features only New England businesspersons, they knew they had to stop in. The women, visiting from southeastern Connecticut, always try to buy local. "We always try to support our local farmers and businessmen," says Ms. Shaw. "We're not into big companies," adds Ms. Morton.

    They aren't alone. A great number of Americans continue to be attracted by "local" food and to buy it, according to recent surveys from the International Food Information Council Foundation, the Pew Research Center, and British polling firm Ipsos. But what does it mean to shop local? For some, local is still a matter of geography. For others, it is about supporting their local economy (经济). And for still others, it is about knowing where their food comes from and how it is made, even if it is coffee shipped from a Costa Rican company. In 2008, Congress passed a bill that gave money to support local food. According to the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act, a product that can be considered local has to travel less than 400 miles.

    But Lydia Zepeda, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has found the largest agreement about what is local is any product that comes from within an hour's drive. "But is that with or without traffic?" She asks. "What if it crosses state lines?" adds John Hayes, a food science professor at Pennsylvania State University. "A customer might like to buy local to help an old town," he says. "Or maybe it's just because local food tastes better." It is for Kaitlin Bohon. "I taste a difference," she says at the Boston Public Market. For Ms. Bohon, buying local is both about supporting New England business and knowing who grew and handled her food.

    My sister Alice and I have been trying to get people to stop dropping cigarette (香烟)butts(烟头)for seven years. One day, we were walking in our hometown and saw hundreds of cigarette butts on the ground. They made the town look so ugly that we decided to start a group to make people dropping butts. We called it "No Butts About It".

    At first, we drew pictures with "The Earth is not your ashtray(烟灰缸)"written on them. We put the pictures around our hometown—in parks, by beaches, and along roads. We wanted to make people understand that dropping butts hurts the environment. Most smokers don't think that dropping butts hurts the Earth. But it does, and all rubbish does!

    Later, we wrote to companies and asked them for money to help us. We used the money to buy ashtrays to give to smokers. We wanted smokers to carry the ashtrays with them so they didn't have to drop butts.

    At the moment, we are trying to get cigarette companies to put an ashtray in each pack of cigarettes. Some companies want to do it. Many people have started to join our group since it began. Today there are 45 other "No Butts About It" groups in America.

    Now there even groups in England, Australia, and India! Many newspapers have written about my sister and me over the last seven years. And we have won many prizes for what we do. But we are not interested in prizes. We just want to make the Earth a better and cleaner place for animals, plants and people.

    One day, it will be.