Touring Cenotes

    My parents and I traveled to Mexico to visit my grandparents last summer, and we visited the cenotes (say-NO-tays), the natural swimming holes located on the Yucatán Peninsula. The term "swimming hole" might make you think that cenotes are just average, but cenotes are truly {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. I had the most exciting experience of my life exploring these wonders of nature.

    Thousands of years old, the cenotes formed and created sinkholes underneath. Though the ancient Mayans (玛雅人) used the cenotes as water {#blank#}2{#/blank#}, people can now swim, dive, take photographs, and admire local trees and {#blank#}3{#/blank#} life, all through water as clear as liquid diamond.

    In Cenote Azul, my parents, my grandparents, and I swam through water that seemed too blue to be real. I {#blank#}4{#/blank#} countless younger kids diving into the water from a small cliff, but I dared not to jump at first. I finally worked up the courage, and my {#blank#}5{#/blank#} try instantly put all my worries to rest.

    A few days later, we went to Cenote Ponderosa. We stayed in the sun-covered pond, where we {#blank#}6{#/blank#} floated while others did diving and took underwater photographs. Being surrounded by a valley of trees made everything else in the world seem to disappear.

    Grutas de Loltún were definitely the most magnificent of all the cenotes, even though there was no swimming involved. Grutas are caves, and the Grutas de Loltún are among the biggest caves on the entire Peninsula. Our guide, Carolina, walked us through several caves, where we saw many drawings thousands of years old on the cave walls! Just one brief look at those drawings made me feel like I had stepped back in time to a(n) {#blank#}7{#/blank#} era of history. Our group thought Carolina was joking when she claimed she could make the stalagmites(石笋) sing for us, but when she {#blank#}8{#/blank#} them, we heard what sounded like the words "Lol" and "Tun"—the name of the caves! I cannot imagine that a(n) {#blank#}9{#/blank#} played at a concert at Carnegie Hall would have been any better.

    Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula is filled with beauty, but the cenotes are a one-of-a-kind opportunity to commune with nature in a way that is impossible anywhere else on Earth, and I would not {#blank#}10{#/blank#} to do it all again.

    UNIQLO's founder tries to find a way to beat Zara and H&M

    When asked what guides his vision of UNIQLO, Tadashi Yanai, its founder and chief executive, pulls off the shelf the 1987 autumn/winter collection catalogue of Next, a mass-market British retailer. All of the clothes are so {#blank#}1{#/blank#}, he says, that they could be worn today. While Zara of Spain and H&M of Sweden follow fashion trends without having any original thought, UNIQLO of Japan {#blank#}2{#/blank#} to timeless basics.

    Mr. Yanai has a/an {#blank#}3{#/blank#} base at home from which to develop into his Western competitors' main markets of Europe and America. But instead his {#blank#}4{#/blank#} remains Asia. "Asia is the engine of growth today," he says, pointing to the millions of consumers across the {#blank#}5{#/blank#} who are reaching the middle class. UNIQLO will open its first shop in India this year and is considering {#blank#}6{#/blank#} into Vietnam and other countries (it has already opened networks of shops in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand).

The success or not of UNIPLO's overseas operations {#blank#}7{#/blank#} greatly to investors at home. Fast Retailing's shares — Mr. Yanai owns just over 20% of the firm — have been rising since 2015, nalysts estimate, largely owing to its international expansion and improved logistics (物流). At home the firm is closing stores because the population is {#blank#}8{#/blank#}. Last year UNIQLO's international profits overtook its {#blank#}9{#/blank#} sales for the first time and its foreign operation profits almost equaled its Japanese equivalent.

    Though they are very different markets, Europe and America offer a cautionary tale. UNIQLO in America struggled outside the big cities of the east and west coasts. Growth in America remains {#blank#}10{#/blank#} for UNIQLO both there and in Europe. However, Mr. Yanai, an enthusiastic fan of globalization, is confident that he can guide UNIQLO through the changes needed.