With enough money, it’s possible to do something unbelievable in Dubai and now you can add another to the list — walking on the moon. Recently, Canadian architectural company Moon World Resorts announced plans to construct a $5 billion resort (度假村) that looks like the moon in Dubai.

The project, named Moon Dubai, is meant to help visitors experience space tourism, which allows guests to find out what it is like to walk on the moon. The resort will be very luxurious and contemporary, with a lot of components inside that one would already know — for example, a wellness area, residential properties, restaurants, a convention center, and a spa, each with a lunar twist (月球扭). It will also include a training platform for space agencies and astronauts.

Space tourism currently comes with a big price tag, and it’s a barrier to entry for most travelers. However, the moon resort experience will be significantly cheaper. A walk on the lunar surface of the moon resort is much more affordable at $500.

“Moon Dubai will significantly impact every aspect of the UAE’s economy, including tourism, transportation, commercial and residential real estate, infrastructure, financial services, aviation and space, energy, agriculture, technology and of course education,” says Michael R. Henderson, co-founder of Moon World Resorts. “It will be the largest and most successful modern-day tourism project in the MENA region, doubling annual tourism visitations to Dubai based on its global appeal, brand awareness and unique multiple integrated offerings.”

Whether the project will eventually take off is currently unknown. If the design can be successful, it will require a 12-month pre-development planning program and a 48-month building process. But the company’s plan is viable (可行的). Moreover, Henderson estimated that the moon resort could open in 2027.

I’m rather good at using maps. But I forgot the maps and here we were, late afternoon, last day of vacation, my daughter, my cousin and I, driving along a two-lane highway in Oregon. No other car in sight, and the sun had just gone down. Where was that sweet little village?

It was supposed to be right along this river. We drove on, farther into the unknown, river always at left as our guide. We kept passing farms and fields and now a few lights were coming out. In my head, I was doing a lot of self-criticisms: Why didn't we start earlier, bring the map and on and on? My cousin and I were both impatient and stressed. My daughter, at least, was happy in the back seat, text messaging a friend. I pulled up on the shoulder of the road to think.

Just then—WOW! Amazing! A new scene had appeared. Where did it come from?

Right there, out of nowhere: a magical misty landscape. Fields stretched in silent purples, with rows of tall trees, darkening in the dusk (黄昏). I turned the car engine off. All was silent in the hot summer air. Beside us, a plum-colored river hardly moved between a border of trees, its dark lazy water reflecting the last light of day.

How breathtaking! Where had it been? If I had seen even a bit of this beauty while driving along, I could have stopped and taken a look. I had missed it all.

We miss a lot, almost everything, in fact, in our world. Our task-focused filters (过滤器) take care of that, selecting only what we need. We need to get to work. Have some lunch. We see what we need to see, often for purposes of survival. Gregory Bateson, speaking of beauty, said the judgment is selection of a fact. In our daily lives, who or what is doing the selecting? Can we make a change? Can we see further?