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In 399CE a Chinese Buddhist monk named Făxiăn 法显 (ca. 337 – ca....
These tiny berries are muscling their way into Western households, where Spirulina, wheat grass, and agave nectar have found their home....
In association with The Punchline Comedy Club, REDSTAR is bringing no less then five veterans of the UK comedy scene, namely Richard Vranch, Ian Coppinger, Steve Steen, Stephen Frost and Andy Smart for a one-night-only performance in InterContinental's deluxe 487-seater auditorium....
Think Joy Division's Transmission, but angrier....
Another new year, another shot at reducing that pesky waistline and living healthier. But between the end of the Western holiday season and the beginning of China's festivities, January is a particularly tricky month for establishing a sensible lifestyle that will sustain itself into Spring....
绿帽子 lv maozi - Green Hat - sl. item of clothing said to be worn by a man after his wife has cheated on him....
Live Bar - one of China's best live music assets - was started the best part of a decade ago, in an environment that isn't known for generating a culture of creative, independent musicians. Lao Sun is the bar chain’s enigmatic and imaginative founder which has proved hugely successful in bringing China’s vibrant underground to thousands of appreciative ears in the south China cities of Shanghai and Zhuhai....
Shaolin Monastery and Longmen Caves By Peter Gyulay
If peace were personified, and took on form, it would take the form of a Buddhist monk - at least that’s the stereotype. Buddhist monks are renowned around the world for their passive and inactive qualities....
The international holiday season has arrived, and friends in China and abroad are expecting presents. You're desperate for an alternative to local shell carvings and any seaside memorabilia that says "Welcome aboard!...
What do Barack Obama, Kobe Bryant and Colin Firth have in common besides being famous? They share a 'cultural' element that has greatly influenced their lives....
Boat trains and kissing fish
There’s something about the sound of screeching metal that signals your train compartment is now fully locked inside a boat. That screech gets sweet though—after a ferry cruise between Hainan island’s port of Haikou and the Zhaojing peninsula of Guangdong....
Time: 2 hours (recommended)
Highlights: Ocean breezes, brides and beer gardens You don\'t have to be in Qingdao long to understand why tens of thousands of marrying couples stream into the city every year for pre-nuptial photography. But to witness the frenzy of bridal frocks, cameras and cummerbunds at its heart, take a stroll along the newly-completed Boardwalk (\'walking plank road\', according to the signs) that stretches 40km along the coast....
The moment Brendan Madden, my travel partner, and I raced past a 1.5 metre long monitor lizard baking in the Bangkok sun, all I could think of was how much I wanted to go back and prove to myself my eyes weren’t deceiving me....
井 jǐng well 中 zhōng within; in
捞 lāo fish up 月 yuè moon
‘Fishing for the moon in a well'
A long time ago, a troop of 500 monkeys used to roam the forest, playing around and generally making a nuisance of themselves. One evening, while they were deep in the heart of the forest, they found an idyllic glade....
We are lucky. Shandong is home not only to the Great Sage Confucius but also to Mengzi, the Second Sage (亚圣 yà shèng). Born 107 years after the death of Confucius, Mengzi carried the banner of Confucianism near the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty....
Spring Festival (chūn jiē 春节) is coming round again, bedecked in red, bursting with fireworks and mumbling through jiǎo zǐ 饺子-stuffed cheeks like a Beijing taxi driver....
刻 kè mark, carve 舟 zhōu boat 求 qiú save, search for 剑 jiàn sword
One bright summer's day in the state of Chu, a merchant was sat on a boat on the river, slowly drifting downstream. The merchant was carrying a sword, a prized possession of his....
In 1979, the Premier of China, Deng Xiaoping initiated a string of economic reforms intended to modernise the nation by encouraging foreign investment. The first place earmarked for Special Economic Zone status was a tiny community of fisherpeople in Guangdong; a village called Shenzhen....
In case it passed you by, the Olympics are coming to China this year. Most residents of Qingdao will have already felt the shockwaves of sailing fever eminating from the sailing marina, and Qingdao's CBD looks like a subduction zone where 'shabby', months-old pavement is being swallowed by new 2008-certified asphalt....
Whatever happens in coming months, this past year will be remembered as one brimming with promise. In fact, while so much attention is being paid to the city's impending Olympic performance, we would be remiss in not taking a moment to consider the great strides Qingdao has experienced in 2007, especially as an increasingly global city....
自 zì - self; since; from
相 xiāng - mutual
矛 máo - shield
盾 dùn - spear
矛盾 máodùn - contradiction
‘Contradicting yourself’
‘Zixiangmaodun’ is a chengyu meaning ‘mutual contradiction’ or ‘contradicting oneself’. But why does the Chinese word for ‘contradiction’ literally translate as ‘shield and spear’? The answer can be found in the writings of Hanfei, a Legalist philosopher from the Warring States period. In a chapter entitled ‘Discussing Difficulties’, Han Fei criticises the Confucians for revering both Yao and Shun, the two mythical Emperors who are said to have ruled China during the 23rd century BC, saying that to do so is self-contradictory....
On the Guangdong coast, the Pearl River carries China’s manufactured wealth onto the Pacific Ocean in staggering volumes that make the Pearl River Delta the world’s busiest waterway. A day spent in Shenzhen or Hong Kong or Guangzhou can leave you with the sensation of clinging tenuously to the shore while the pace and the pressure of being in one of the world’s most hyperactive economic regions threatens to drag you out to the deep end, along with billions of dollars worth in televisions, refrigerators and produce....
望 wàng - to look towards hope for, think of
梅 méi - plum
止 zhĭ - to stop
渴 kě - thirst
‘think of plums to stop your thirst’
Cao Cao, the legendary Chinese general, once led a
campaign against Zhang Xiu, an old rival of his. The
troops had a long way to go during the height of
summer....
Many happy returns
After legendarily ill-tempered Chinese archer Hou
Yi shot down nine of the ten suns that scorched
the primordial Earth and stole an eternal life-giving
potion from a goddess, his beautiful wife Chang
E stole the elixir from him to save his people from
being subjected to his tyrannical rule and flew
to the moon, where she has lived ever since. She
is accompanied in her exile by a huge rabbit,
who offered himself as a sacrifice to nourish a
group of hungry sages....
按 àn - according to; to go by
图 tú - picture
索 suŏ - search for
骥 jì - horse; steed
‘using a picture to search for a horse’
During the enlightened Spring and Autumn period, a man named Sun Yang lived in the state of Qin. He was an expert on horses, and could tell at a glance whether a horse was of good quality or not....
Ten years on, there is a great deal of international interest around what has changed in the city’s political, economic and cultural landscapes....
南 nán - South 柯 kē – branch 一 yī - one; just, only 梦 mèng – dream
‘Just a dream of the Southern branch’
Chun Yuzun lived in a small town in southern China, during the last years of the Sui dynasty. In the courtyard of his family household there stood a proud, healthy birch tree....
南柯一梦
南 nán South
柯 kē branch
一yī one; just, only
梦mèng dream
‘Just a dream of the Southern branch’
Chun Yuzun lived in a small town in southern China, during the last years of the Sui dynasty. In the courtyard of his family household there stood a proud, healthy birch tree....
骑 qí - ride 虎 hŭ – tiger
难 nán - difficult 下 xià - down; descend
‘When you ride a tiger, it’s not easy to get off’
In the third year of the reign of Emperor Cheng of Jin, Generals Su Jun and Zu Yue dispatched troops to storm the capital Jiankang. They did so under the pretext of ‘expelling traitors’ and ‘chasing out spies’, but went on to seize control of the government, eliminating all who stood in their way and causing chaos....
The sheer size of the Huangdao port is breathtaking as I arrive to meet my ship, a 300mx40m masterpiece of engineering that can accommodate some 10,000 containers and circles the globe every 62 days. I am greeted warmly by a crew member at the foot of the gangplank and, as I ascend the deck, am thankful that my suitcase is only a drop in this ocean of cargo....
Once a year blue dogs, fl ying dragons and laughing triangles gather in WeiFang (Shandong- Province) to dance together in the sky. In this “time of the bright light” (April) more than 500,000 spectators stream into the thousand year old city nearby the East China Sea to celebrate the greatest kite-festival in the world....
“Guess how old I am!” Yuan Shao Qin asks defiantly....
It is widely accepted that the striking resemblance between xiangqi and international chess (also known historically as chatrang and in China as (guó jì xiàng qí)is not coincidental, but no one is certain exactly how the games are related....
牛 niú - cow
弹 tán - play, pick
琴 qín - lute, piano
‘play the lute to a cow’
'to talk away when someone is not listening, or cannot understand what you are saying.'
There once was a famous musician named Gong Mingyi....
Lantern Festival brings Spring Festival to an end with flourishes of red and great bursts of light....
While some cultures consider pigs to be dirty and unappealing, there is nothing shameful about being a ‘pig person’ in China....
A month since my return from Tibet, and life has gradually returned to normal. Back to the same old job and the same old routine, but somehow the beautiful melodies of the Tibetan folk songs still ring in my ears....
狐 hú - fox 假 jiǎ - borrow 虎 hǔ - tiger 威 wēi - might
There was once a mighty tiger that was feared throughout the forest....
The mystique begins with the name, Trans- Siberian Railroad. It lights old flames first sparked with Russian novels read in high school, the political intrigue of the Cold War when Siberia represented banishment and isolation, and movies showing train travel as the height of old-fashioned elegance....
However, for this exhilarating trip of a lifetime, you need more than just the ticket price of between 150 and 200 RMB....
They have a breeding programme, and baby cubs can be seen at certain times of the year....
China....
From Incheon Air-port to Seoul
Get on the bus #601 (ask and confirm to show the sentence below) and show it to driver to let you get off at the right spot. It will take about an hour....
Where to go and by which means took a little longer to fathom, eventually we turned up at Qingdao bus station and paid 90 kuai for our tickets to Tai shan, we were on our way....
Cost for bus: 2.5 yuan
Walk in on road with "da he dong" stone marker, after 15 mins along village road, enter mountain area through pass checkpoint where you must register with ID and agree not to smoke or light fires in the mountains....
Last year on the Mainland alone, 300,000 tonnes of mooncakes were bought and sold, but it’s estimated that only a fraction of those cakes were ever eaten....
The most obvious and lasting feature of Qingdao’s illustrious history is a wealth of foreign style architecture. This “solidified music” of a bygone era stands on permanent display throughout Qingdao, especially in and around the old downtown and Badaguan areas....
