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As well as bringing bright ideas to once-faded façades, Lisbon’s mix of self-starting shopkeepers and keen entrepreneurs has helped lift the mood of a city with plenty more to be optimistic about.

The Swiss are infatuated with their tunnels and underground shelters - and have more of them than any other country in the world. Monocle's David Michon and photographer Beat Schweizer explored their hidden appeal.

Over the past year Monocle has sent its correspondents across dozens of countries on a giddying array of planes, trains, and automobiles, to gather the very best in cabins, concourses, suites and tables.

For Monocle’s annual winter edition – Alpino – we travel from the Alps to the Catskills in search of Swiss mountain bunkers, slope-style fashion, how to stage a downhill ski race, and business ideas on the up, all in our Eiger-sized resort newspaper.

The Czech Republic has a rich toy-making history which dedicated collectors and craftsmen are committed to keeping alive. From the atelier to the Christmas market, Monocle films discovers an inspiring toy story where art meets craft.

Kashgar may look like just another Chinese boomtown but the city is riven with ethnic tensions. Monocle visits a frontier where tradition is clashing with change.

In Mexico, a new breed of entrepreneurs is building brands around family-produced mezcal and distributing it to the world's capitals. We visit Oaxaca where this spirit is being given new life.

Find out the new winner in our annual soft-power survey, part of our biggest-ever issue that's hard on the facts and easy on the eye.

Italy’s motor city has long suffered from being painted with a very grey brush. However, as Monocle found out, it is Turin’s industrial heritage that is providing the inspiration and technical expertise to spur on a booming community of designers. We meet the creative minds who are playing on the city’s strengths to create a new image for Piedmont’s capital.

The results are in for Monocle's annual Soft Power Survey. We have once again collaborated with the Institute for Government to come up with 30 countries who best attract favour from other nations through culture, sport, cuisine, design, diplomacy and beyond.  Here are the top 10 for 2013.