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Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, hurricane and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength and good luck for people who are worthy of it. With this, the Emperor of China usually used the dragon as a symbol of his imperial power and strength. In Chinese daily language, excellent and outstanding people are compared to a dragon, while incapable people with no achievements are compared with other, disesteemed creatures, such as a worm. A number of Chinese proverbs & idioms feature references to a dragon, for example: "Hoping one's son will become a dragon" (be as a dragon). The Chinese Dragon also brings good luck to those who need or deserve it. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_dragon
Huangshan Mountains: is a mountain range in southern Anhui province in eastern China. The range is composed of material that was uplifted from an ancient sea during the Mesozoic era, 100 million years ago. The mountains themselves were carved by glaciers during the Quaternary. Vegetation on the range is thickest below 1,100 meters (3,600 ft), with trees growing up to the treeline at 1,800 meters (5,900 ft). The area is well known for its scenery, sunsets, peculiarly shaped granite peaks, Huangshan Pine trees, and views of the clouds from above. Huangshan is a frequent subject of traditional Chinese paintings and literature, as well as modern photography. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of China's major tourist destinations. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huangshan. Merkel visits Palace Museum: Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao accompanies German Chancellor Angela Merkel to visit the
Palace Museum, more popularly known as the Forbidden City, in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 31, 2012. [Xinhua], Source: Article, CNNGo lists world's 
"Chinatown london". Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
best Chinatowns: There is a Chinatown in almost every major city in the world, and such is the huge footprint of overseas Chinese. CNN's travel site, CNNGo, recently published an article titled "World's Best Chinatowns." The following are some of the best Chinatowns in the world, according to CNNGo. Havana, Cuba – Havana's Chinatown is called "Barrio Chino" in Spanish by locals. It was started by coolies brought in from Guangdong in the 1840s to work on the sugar plantations, and was once Latin America's largest Chinatown. There are about 150 native Cuban Chinese left in Havana. Kolkata, India – Many Chinese people, predominately from South China, fled early 19th-century war and famine in their homeland, and found their way to Kolkata. There are still some Taoist temples in the city, and Chinese food is the most popular cuisine there. Bangkok, Thailand – At night, Bangkok's Chinatown resembles Hong Kong in 1960s. The main attraction is the food. One of the easiest ways to enjoy it is to sign up for a tour with Bangkok Food Tours' Chinatown Foodie Walk. Manila, Philippines – Binondo in Manila is the world's oldest Chinatown, established in the 1590s by the Spanish colonists as a settlement for Catholic Chinese. One can find some of the best Chinese food there. Johannesburg, South Africa – Transvaal was found
CNN's travel site, CNNGo, recently published an article titled "World's Best Chinatowns."
in the 1880s to lay the largest deposits of gold in the world, which attracted many Chinese gold diggers. Johannesburg is actually home to two Chinatowns. Most residents of the Chinatown in the suburbs are recent Mandarin-speaking immigrants. A growing number of Chinese people have moved to South Africa either for work or study in recent years. One can find authentic Shanghainese and Sichuan food in the city. Melbourne, Australia – The first batch of Chinese migrants went there mainly due to gold rush. Beginning in 1851, ships laden with gold diggers began to set sail from Hong Kong for Melbourne. Today, the historic three-story brick buildings in Melbourne's Chinatown remain home to various Chinese restaurants, groceries, and herbal medicine shops. It holds the world's largest dragon boat race every year. Vancouver, Canada – Chinese people account for nearly 50 percent of the residents of Richmond, modern-day Chinatown in Vancouver. In recent years, a reverse brain drain has seen Canadian-born Chinese moving back to Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland in search of better job opportunities. San Francisco, United States – After more than 150 years in San Francisco, Chinese have become an integral part of the rich fabric of the city. In the late 1880s, San Francisco's Chinatown was the city's sleaziest area, and was best known for authentic Cantonese food. London, England – London is home to Europe's largest Chinatown, which attracts 300,000 people for the Lunar New Year celebrations every year. The Chinese community in the city is mainly made up of migrants from Hong Kong. Attracted by cheap rents and short leases on offer, many of them have opened restaurants, teahouses, Chinese medicine clinics, and supermarkets in the city. Source: China.org.cn. Shanghai- Showpiece of China: Shanghai also called as Showpiece of China has
the buildings touching the sky. It is the second highest populated city. Merriment of Shanghai can be seen in in the streets and on the roads. We can start our travel by travelling in magnetic levitation. It runs at the speed of 430 kilometer per hour. It covers the distance from International Airport to city in less than 8 minutes. Fare is 50 Yuan, approximately 345 rupees in Indian currency. We can also travel by taxi. Taxi takes one hour from International Airport to City. With the economic development in Shanghai, there is a huge increase in cars. In such a case this city is designed for pedestrians. We can start or journey from fuxing park. This is located in French
 Concession circle which was developed in colonial era. In this circle, on protruding corner, on7 Xiangshan Road, there is house of Sun Yat-Sen. Sun Yat-Sen is known as founder of modern China. The appearance of old rule, we can see in Shanghai museum, which was established in 1952. In this museum, we can see the historical pictures of five thousand old China. This museum is located on Pupils Market Place. Shanghai has also many new wonders. World Financial Center, Oriental Pearl TV Tower and Jin mao Tower are the new landmarks of Shanghai. We can reach on 100th floor of World Financial Center in one minute. Pearl TV Tower has a height of 468 meters. Jin mao building is designed according to chinese pagoda. Whole building revolves around Mathematical shape 8. Jujiajoao water town is also known as ‘Venice of Shanghai’. It is an old city, where we can see the architecture of Ming and King Era. 
If we want to see how the old Shanghai looks like we should not miss to visit Shanghai Old Street. Here we can see the Shanghai of 1644-1911 Era. Zed Buddha Temple is famous in Shanghai. It was built in between 1911 to 1918 Era of Sang. 600 years old God Temple is also a proud of Shanghai.There are direct flights from Delhi/ Mumbai to Shanghai. Fare is approximately twenty six thousand per head. : Source: Medley News
Great Wall of China: it is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China in part to protect the Chinese Empire or its prototypical states against intrusions by various nomadic groups or military incursions by various warlike peoples or forces. Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century BC; these, later joined together and made bigger and stronger, are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Especially famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Little of that wall remains. Since then, the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt, maintained, and enhanced; the majority of the existing wall are from the Ming Dynasty. Other purposes of the Great Wall have included border controls, allowing the imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road, regulation or encouragement of trade and the control of immigration and emigration. Furthermore, the defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced by the construction of watch towers, troop barracks, garrison stations, signaling capabilities through the means of smoke or fire, and the fact that the path of the Great Wall also served as a transportation corridor. The main Great Wall line stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east, to Lop Lake in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. A comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has concluded that the Ming walls measure 8,850 km (5,500 mi). This is made up of 6,259 km (3,889 mi) sections of actual wall, 359 km (223 mi) of trenches and 2,232 km (1,387 mi) of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers. Another archaeological survey found that the entire wall with all of its branches measure out to be 21,196 km (13,171 mi). China’s Vegas: Macau becoming major tourist hub: China’s
Macau or Chinese enclave of Macau has become a major tourist destination in the South east Asia. The reason you will find glittering casinos, hotels and nightclubs in this destination. These all are enriched with the features of rich colonial past. The island of Macau is 60 km from Hong Kong. Its structure gives it to a unique look. The structure is a good view of natural landscape and architectural marvels. The island of Macau has structure of tall glass which stands against the background of green hills. While visit to Bangkok to Malaysia you will find the numbers of casinos, but these are only the casinos but have not any theme or character. In Macau you will find the mixture of ancient time and modern time culture. In Macau you can visit to 30 casinos. In all of casinos you will find the story of its colonial heritage. This is the speciality of the casinos which make them different and unique from others. The island has a population of approximately 552,300 people and approximately 10.4 million of tourists travel every year. Macau is situated in the Southeast of China. It is situated along with two administrative regions. These two administrative regions are China and Hong Kong. One more speciality of this island is that it is considered as the first and last European colony in China. This was the place where Portuguese traders set their business in the 16th century. You can visit and watch the Portuguese colonies in the morning hours and spend your nights in the casinos. ‘City of Dreams’ is the latest addition to this island. It is an entertainment resort which is enriched with the facilities of accommodation, international dining, entertainment, and designer brand shopping under a single roof. COD is enriched with the assortment of all entertainment options like the hotels of Grand Hyatt, Hard Rock and Crown. The City of Dreams has the option for every age bar. For kids there is a kid city and Dragon’s Treasure. This is an audio video multimedia show that entertains your kids. Some other attractions for the kids are ‘The House of Dancing Water’. This gives an adventure of water games to the kids. For men there is casino, for women there are designer brand shopping stalls. It is one of the unique places in China and Hong Kong which is clubbed with all the facilities. There is enough space provided for the tourist as all the shops, cafes, casinos and restaurants are connected with corridors. December to February months is the best to visit this destination. To reach Macau, you have to reach Hong Kong first because there is not direct flight to Macau. From Hong Kong different transport tools are available for Macau. You can go to Macau from Hong Kong by helicopter. It takes 15 minutes to reach at Macau from Hong Kong and the cost of per person is 12,500 rupees. The currency used in Macau is Pataca. One Pataca is equivalent to five rupees according to Indian currency. If your budget does not allow you to take a helicopter ride, then you can select another option ferries. The cost for ferries is just rupees 700 per person. Some more attractions of Macau are Macau Tower, Macau Museum, A-Ma Temple. Ruins of St. Paul’s are the centre of attraction of this island. Source: Article. Hạ Long Bay: It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a popular travel destination, located in Quảng Ninh Province, Vietnam. Administratively, the bay belongs to Hạ Long City, Cẩm Phả town, and part of Vân Đồn District. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes. Hạ Long Bay is a center of a larger zone which includes Bái Tử Long bay to
"Thien Cung" by Erik A. Drabløs - Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Commons.
the northeast, and Cát Bà islands to the southwest. These larger zones share similar geological, geographical, geomorphological, climate, and cultural characters. Hạ Long Bay has an area of around 1,553 km2, including 1,960–2,000 islets, most of which are limestone. The core of the bay has an area of 334 km2with a high density of 775 islets. The limestone in this bay has gone through 500 million years of formation in different conditions and environments. The evolution of the karst in this bay has taken 20 million years under the impact of the tropical wet climate. The geo-diversity of the environment in the area has created biodiversity, including a tropical evergreen biosystem, oceanic and sea shore biosystem. Hạ Long Bay is home to 14 endemic floral species and 60 endemic faunal species. Historical research surveys have shown the presence of prehistorical human beings in this area tens of thousands years ago. The successive ancient cultures are the Soi Nhụ culture around 18,000–7000 BC, the Cái Bèo culture 7000–5000 BC and the Hạ Long culture 5,000–3,500 years ago. Hạ Long Bay also marked important events in the history of Vietnam with many artifacts found in Bài Thơ Mout, Đầu Gỗ Cave, Bãi Cháy. 500 years ago, Nguyễn Trãi praised the beauty of Hạ Long Bay in his verse Lộ nhập Vân Đồn, in which he called it "rock wonder in the sky". In 1962, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of North Vietnam listed Hạ Long Bay in the National Relics and Landscapes publication. In 1994, the core zone of Hạ Long Bay was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site according to criterion vii, and listed for a second time according to criterion viii. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki, Morgan Plaza Beijing: The Morgan
Plaza is a super-luxury 7 star hotel under construction in Beijing, China . Although it was set to be finished last month’s, there has been no official confirmation of it completion yet but it definitely going to be completed in time for the Beijing Olympics. When completed it is rumoured to be possibly more luxurious than the Burj Al Arab and has been considered to be the official landmark of China, still in competition with the Shanghai World Financial Center. The plaza will contain two pavilions, a temple, the world’s best Japanese restaurant and a 600 meter long corridor. Source: Article. Amazing night scene of Victoria Harbour: It's is
Marshal-Art 
a natural landform harbour situated between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong. Long famous for its spectacular views, the harbour is a major tourist attraction of Hong Kong. Lying in the middle of the territory's dense urban region, the harbour is the site of annual fireworks displays and its promenades are popular gathering places for tourists and residents. Source: China.org.cn, The Karakul or Karakuli: ("black lake"): It is a lake located 196 km
"Mt Kongur Lake Karakul Xinjiang China" by Jialiang Gao, www.peace-on-earth.org - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.
from Kashgar, Xinjiang province, China, in Akto County, Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture on the Karakoram Highway, before reaching Tashkurgan, the Khunjerab Pass on the China - Pakistan border and Sost inPakistan. At an altitude of 3,600 m, it is the highest lake of the Pamir plateau, near the junction of the Pamir, Tian Shan and Kunlun mountain ranges. Surrounded by mountains which remain snow-covered throughout the year, the three highest peaks visible from the lake are the Muztagh Ata(7,546 m), Kongur Tagh (7,649 m) and Kongur Tiube (7,530 m). The lake is popular among travellers for its beautiful scenery and the clarity of its reflection in the water, whose color ranges from a dark green to azure and light blue. There are two Kirgiz settlements along the shore of Karakul lake, a small number of yurts about 1 km east of the bus drop-off point and a village with stone houses located on the western shores. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/. Chengde as Jehol or
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source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims).. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.
Rehe, is a prefecture-level city in Hebei province, situated northeast of Beijing. It is best known as the site of the Mountain Resort, a vast imperial garden and palace formerly used by the Qing emperors as summer residence. The urban center had a population of approximately 450,000 as of 2009. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Hongcun is a village in Yi County county, Anhui Province, People's Republic of China, near the southwest slope of Mount Huangshan. The village is arranged in the shape of an ox with the nearby hill (Leigang Hill) interpreted as the head, and two trees standing on it as the horns. Four
bridges across the Jiyin stream can be seen as the legs whilst the houses of the village form the body. Inside the “body”, the Jiyin stream represents the intestines and various lakes such as the “South Lake” (Nanhu) form the other internal organs. The architecture and carvings of the approximately 150 residences dating back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties are said to be among the best of their kind in China. One of the biggest of the residences open to visitors, Chenzhi Hall, also contains a small museum. Together with Xidi, the village became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. Scenes from the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragonwere filmed on location in Hongcun. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/. Huangguoshu Waterfall, is one of the largest waterfalls in China and East Asia located
"HuangguoshuFall" by WaitinZ - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.
on the Baishui River in Anshun,Guizhou province. It is 77.8 m (255 ft) high & 101 m (331 ft) wide. The main waterfall is 67 m (220 ft) high & 83.3 m (273 ft) wide. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ The Guanyin of the South Sea of Sanya: is a 108-metre (354 ft) statue of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (better known as Guanyin in East Asia), sited on the south coast of China's island province Hainan near the Nanshan Temple of Sanya.[1][2] The statue has three aspects; one side faces inland and the other two face the South China Sea, to
represent blessing and protection by Guanyin of China and the whole world. One aspect depicts Guanyin cradling a sutra in the left hand and gesturing the Vitarka Mudra with the right, the second with her palms crossed, holding a string of prayer beads, and the third holding a lotus. This is currently the fourth tallest statue in the world (many of which are Buddhist statues) and the tallest statue of Guanyin in the world.The statue took six years to build and was enshrined on April 24, 2005, with the participation of 108 eminent monks from various Buddhist groups in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and Mainland China, and tens of thousands of pilgrims. The delegation also included monks from the Theravada and Vajrayana traditions. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/. Yalong Bay is a 7.5 killometer (4.7 mi) beach
"Yalong Bay 01" by Anna Frodesiak - Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons.
located southeast of Sanya City, Hainan Province, China. It is also known as the Yalong Bay National Resort. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Inner Mongolia: Singing Sand Bay: Inner Mongolia: officially Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region or Nei Mongol Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the north of the country, bordering Mongolia and Russia.
"Great Wall in Inner Mongolia" by David Wilmot - Great Wall. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons.
Its capital is Hohhot, and other major cities include Baotou, Chifeng, and Ordos. The Autonomous Region was established in 1947, incorporating the areas of the former Republic of China provinces of Suiyuan, Chahar, Rehe,Liaobei and Xing'an, along with the northern parts of Gansu and Ningxia. It is the third largest subdivision of China, spanning about 1,200,000 km2 (463,000 sq mi) or 12% of China's total land area. It has a population of 24,706,321 as of the 2010 census, accounting for 1.84% of Mainland China's total population. Inner Mongolia is the country's 23rd most populous province-level division. The majority of the population in the region are Han Chinese, with a substantial Mongol minority. The official languages are Chinese and Mongolian, the latter written in the Mongolian script, as opposed to the Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet used in the state of Mongolia. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Chinese palace: A Chinese palace is an
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is/was here. Original uploader was Allentchang at en.wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.
imperial complex where the royal court and the civil government resided. Its structures are considerable and elaborate. The Chinese character gong meaning "palace") represents two connected rooms under a roof . Originally the character applied to any residence or mansion, but it was used in reference to solely the imperial residence since the Qin Dynasty (3rd century BC). A Chinese palace is composed of many buildings. It has large areas surrounded by walls and moats. It contains large halls for ceremonies and official business, as well as smaller buildings, temples, towers, residences, galleries, courtyards, gardens, and outbuildings. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/. Weizhou island, the hidden beach escape: Weizhou Island, located in Beihai city in Guangxi
Zhuang autonomous region, is China's largest albeit youngest volcanic island. The island faces Hainan island to the north, but it is not as well known among tourists as its neighbor.The island has a warm and humid climate all year round,
with turquoise sea water and sandy beaches. Because it is less visited, the natural resources on Weizhou Island are very well preserved. [bbs.fengniao/ by Mi Yan Jian Mo] Source: China.org.cn, Leshan Giant Buddha (China): Built
during the Tang Dynasty, the Leshan Giant Buddha is carved out of a cliff face that lies at the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers in the southern part of Sichuan province in China, near the city of Leshan. The sculpture, which is seventy one meters (about 230 hundred feet) tall dwarfs the tourists that flock to see it. It is positioned so that it faces Mount Emei and stands at the meeting place of three rivers. Although the Government of China has promised a restoration program, the statue has suffered from the effects of pollution, particularly over the last twenty years. Fortunately, the statue was not damaged in the Sichuan earthquake of 2008. 5. Mahabalipuram Shore Temple (India): Built on the shores of the Bay of Bengal in
Mahabalipuram (India) in the early 8th century by the Pallava King Rajasimha. The shore temple actually consists of 2 back to back shrines, one facing the east (the Bay), and the smaller one facing west. It stands on the edge of the Bay of Bengal. At high tide, the waves sweep into its compounds. The walls and their sculptures have been battered and eroded by the winds and waves for thirteen hundred years. Yet they
 
and Horses The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses are the most significant archeological excavations of the 20th century. Work is ongoing at this site, which is around 1.5 kilometers east of Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum in Lintong, Xian, Shaanxi Province. It is a sight not to be missed by any visitor to China. Upon ascending the throne at the age of 13 (in 246 BC), Qin Shi Huang, later the first Emperor of all China, had begun to work for his mausoleum. It took 11 years to finish. It is speculated that many buried treasures and sacrificial objects had accompanied the emperor in his after life. A group of peasants uncovered some pottery while digging for a well nearby the royal tomb in 1974. It caught the attention of archeologists immediately. They came to Xian in droves to study and to extend the digs. They had established beyond doubt that these artifacts were associated with the Qin Dynasty (211-206 BC). Source: Article. Forbidden City: Lying at the center of Beijing, the Forbidden City,
called Gu Gong in Chinese, was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Now known as the Palace Museum, it is to the north of Tiananmen Square. Rectangular in shape, it is the world's largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares. Surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall are 9,999 rooms. The wall has a gate on each side. Opposite the Tiananmen Gate, to the north is the Gate of Divine Might (Shenwumen), which faces Jingshan Park. The distance between these two gates is 960 meters, while the distance between the gates in the east and west walls is 750 meters. There are unique and delicately structured towers on each of the four corners of the curtain wall. These afford views over both the palace and the city outside. The Forbidden City is divided into two parts. The southern section, or the Outer Court was where the emperor exercised his supreme power over the nation. The northern section, or the Inner Court was where he lived with his royal family. Until 1924 when the last emperor of China was driven from the Inner Court, fourteen emperors of the Ming dynasty and ten emperors of the Qing dynasty had reigned here. Having been the imperial palace for some five centuries, it houses numerous rare treasures and curiosities. Listed by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1987, the Palace Museum is now one of the most popular tourist attractions world-wide. Construction of the palace complex began in 1407, the 5th year of the Yongle reign of the third emperor of the Ming dynasty. It was completed fourteen years later in 1420. It was said that a million workers including one hundred thousand artisans were driven into the long-term hard labor. Stone needed was quarried from Fangshan, a suburb of Beijing. It was said a well was dug every fifty meters along the road in order to pour water onto the road in winter to slide huge stones on ice into the city. Huge amounts of timber and other materials were freighted from faraway provinces. Ancient Chinese people displayed their very considerable skills in building the Forbidden City. Take the grand red city wall for example. It has an 8.6 meters wide base reducing to 6.66 meters wide at the top. The angular shape of the wall totally frustrates attempts to climb it. The bricks were made from white lime and glutinous rice while the cement is made from glutinous rice and egg whites. These incredible materials make the wall extraordinarily strong. Since yellow is the symbol of the royal family, it is the dominant color in the Forbidden City. Roofs are built with yellow glazed tiles; decorations in the palace are painted yellow; even the bricks on the ground are made yellow by a special process. However, there is one exception. Wenyuange, the royal library, has a black roof. The reason is that it was believed black represented water then and could extinguish fire. Nowadays, the Forbidden City, or the Palace Museum is open to tourists from home and abroad. Splendid painted decoration on these royal architectural wonders, the grand and deluxe halls, with their surprisingly magnificent treasures will certainly satisfy 'modern civilians'. Source: Article. Summer Palace : Situated in the western outskirts of Haidian District, the Summer Palace
is 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from central Beijing. Having the largest royal park and being well preserved, it was designated, in 1960 by the State Council, as a Key Cultural Relics Protection Site of China. Containing examples of the ancient arts, it also has graceful landscapes and magnificent constructions. The Summer Palace is the archetypal Chinese garden, and is ranked amongst the most noted and classical gardens of the world. In 1998, it was listed as one of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Constructed in the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234), during the succeeding reign of feudal emperors; it was extended continuously. By the time of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), it had become a luxurious royal garden providing royal families with rest and entertainment. Originally called 'Qingyi Garden' (Garden of Clear Ripples), it was know as one of the famous 'three hills and five gardens' (Longevity Hill, Jade Spring Mountain, and Fragrant Hill; Garden of Clear Ripples, Garden of Everlasting Spring, Garden of Perfection and Brightness, Garden of Tranquility and Brightness, and Garden of Tranquility and Pleasure). Like most of the gardens of Beijing, it could not elude the rampages of the Anglo-French allied force and was destroyed by fire. In 1888, Empress Dowager Cixi embezzled navy funds to reconstruct it for her own benefit, changing its name to Summer Palace (Yiheyuan). She spent most of her later years there, dealing with state affairs and entertaining. In 1900, it suffered again, being ransacked by the Eight-Power Allied Force. After the success of the 1911 Revolution, it was opened to the public. Composed mainly of Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake, The Summer Palace occupies an area of 294 hectares (726.5 acres), three quarters of which is water. Guided by nature, artists designed the gardens exquisitely so that visitors would see marvelous views and be amazed by perfect examples of refined craftwork using the finest materials. Centered on the Tower of Buddhist Incense (Foxiangge) the Summer Palace consists of over 3,000 structures including pavilions, towers, bridges, and corridors. The Summer Palace can be divided into four parts: the court area, front-hill area, front-lake area, and rear-hill and back-lake area. Front-Hill Area: this area is the most magnificent area in the Summer Palace with the most constructions. Its layout is quite distinctive because of the central axis from the yard of Kunming Lake to the hilltop, on which important buildings are positioned including Gate of Dispelling Clouds, Hall of Dispelling Clouds, Hall of Moral Glory, Tower of Buddhist Incense, the Hall of the Sea of Wisdom, etc. Rear-Hill and Back-Lake Area: although the constructions are fewer here, it has a unique landscape, with dense green trees, and winding paths. Visitors can feel a rare tranquility, and elegance. This area includes scenic spots such as Kunming Lake and Back Lake , which presents a tranquil beauty, Garden of Harmonious Interest , built by imitating the layout of Southern China's classical gardens, and Suzhou Market Street, endowed with a strong flavor of the water town Suzhou. Court Area: this is where Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu met officials, conducted state affairs and rested. Entering the East Palace Gate, visitors may see the main palace buildings: the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity served as the office of the Emperor, the Hall of Jade Ripples where Guangxu lived, the Hall of Joyful Longevity, Cixi's residence, the Garden of Virtue and Harmony where Cixi was entertained, Yiyun House , where once lived the Empress Longyu, and Long Gallery, which measures the longest in Chinese garden.Front Lake Area: covering a larger part of the Summer Palace, opens up the vista of the lake. A breeze fluttering, waves gleam and willows kiss the ripples of the vast water. In this comfortable area there are the Eastern Bank and Western Bank, Seventeen-Arch Bridge, Nanhu Island, the largest island in Summer Palace, Bronze Ox, an imposing statue beside the lake, and Marble Boat, built in western style with elaborate decorations . On the western bank float six distinct bridges amongst which the Jade-Belt Bridge is the most beautiful. Source: Article. Potala Palace: Situated on the Red Hill of central Lhasa, Potala
Palace is the highest ancient palace in the world, reaching 3,767.19m (12,359.55ft) at the topmost point. Potala named after a holy hill in South India is a Sanskrit word meaning "Abode of the Avalokite?vara (Buddha of Mercy)." Legend has it that in the 7th century, to greet his bride Princess Wen Cheng of the Tang Dynasty (618B.C. - 907B.C.) of China, the then Tibet King Songtsen Gampo built a 9-storey palace with a thousand rooms up on the Red Hill and named it Potala. Later, with the collapse of the Songtsen Gampo Dynasty, the ancient palace was almost destroyed in wars. What we see at present is the architecture of the Qing Dynasty (1644B.C. - 1911B.C.) and the continuous expanding work outcome since the 17th century. The Red Palace or Potrang Marpo is the highest part in central Potala Palace that is completely devoted to religious study and Buddhist prayer. It was painted to red to represent stateliness and power. It consists of a complicated layout of different halls, chapels and libraries on many levels with an array of smaller galleries and winding passages: The Great West Hall, Dharma Cave, The Saint's Chapel, The Tomb of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama and etc. The 725 sq meters (about 7,804 sq ft) Great West Hall is the largest hall of Potala Palace, with beautiful murals painted on its inner walls. Around the Great West Hall are three chapels, the east chapel, the north chapel as well as the south chapel. The Dharma Cave and the Saint's Chapel are the only two remained constructions of the 7th century with the statues of Songtsen Gampo, Princess Wen Cheng, and Princess Bhrikuti inside. The White Palace or Potrang Karpo once served as the office building of Tibet local government makes up the living quarters of Dalai Lama. The wall of the palace was painted to white to convey peace and quiet. The Great East Hall on the fourth floor, occupying a space of 717 sq meters (about 7,718 sq ft), was the site for momentous religious and political events. The fifth and sixth floors are used as the living quarters and offices of regents while the seventh floor, the top one, is the living quarters of Dalai Lama consisting of two palaces named the East Chamber of Sunshine and the West Chamber of Sunshine due to the plentiful sunshine. Potala Palace has other annexes including the School of Buddhist Logic, the seminary, the printing House, gardens, courtyards and even the jail. For more than 300 years, Potala Palace has treasured many culture relics such as murals, stupas, statues, thangkas, and rare sutras. Source: Article. The Silk Road: The Silk Road is a historically
 important international trade route between China and the Mediterranean. Because silkcomprised a large proportion of trade along this road, in 1877, it was named 'the Silk Road' by Ferdinand von Richthofen, an eminent German geographer. The Silk Road is not only an ancient international trade route, but also a splendid cultural bridge liking the cultures of China, India, Persia, Arabia, Greek and Rome. The Four Great Inventions of China and religions of the West were introduced into their counterparts. From the time Zhang Qian opened up the world-famous Silk Road during the Han Dynasty, until the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty, it enjoyed a history of about 1,600 years. This ancient road begins at Chang'an (now Xian), then by way of the Hexi Corridor, and it reaches Dunhuang, where it divides into three, the Southern Route, Central Route and Northern Route. The three routes spread all over the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and then they extend as far as Pakistan, India and even Rome. Source: Article Shaolin Kung Fu: Shaolin Kung Fu refers to a collection of Chinese martial 
"Shi DeRu and Shi DeYang" by Shi Deru (a.k.a. Shawn Xiangyang Liu) - http://www.free-press-release.com/news-summer
arts that claim affiliation with the Shaolin Monastery. Huang Zongxi described martial arts in terms of Shaolin or "external" arts versus Wudang or internal arts in 1669. It has been since then that Shaolin has been popularly synonymous for what are considered the external Chinese martial arts, regardless of whether or not the particular style in question has any connection to the Shaolin Monastery. Some say that there is no differentiation between the so-called internal and external systems of the Chinese martial arts, while other well-known teachers have expressed differing opinions. For example, the Taijiquan teacher Wu Jianquan: Those who practice Shaolinquan leap about with strength and force; people not proficient at this kind of training soon lose their breath and are exhausted. Taijiquan is unlike this. Strive for quiescence of body, mind and intention. In 1784 the Boxing Classic: Essential Boxing
Methods made the earliest extant reference to the Shaolin Monastery as Chinese boxing's place of origin. Again, this is a misconception, as Chinese martial arts pre-date the construction of the Shaolin Temple by at least several hundred years. Legend of Bodhidharma: Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th/6th century CE. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Ch'an(Sanskrit: Dhyāna, Japanese: Zen) to China, and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. According to Chinese legend, he also began the physical training of the Shaolin monks that led to the creation of Shaolinquan. He was father of Zen Buddhism. According to the Jingde of the Lamp, after Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk from South India, left the court of the Liang emperor Wu in 527, he eventually found himself at the Shaolin Monastery, where he “faced a wall for nine years, not speaking for the entire time”. According to the Yì Jīn Jīng, after Bodhidharma faced the wall for nine years at Shaolin temple and made a hole with his stare, he left behind an iron chest. When the monks opened this chest they found two books: the “Marrow Cleansing Classic,” and the “Muscle Tendon Change Classic”, or "Yi Jin Jing" within. The first book was taken by Bodhidharma's disciple Huike, and disappeared; as for the second, the monks selfishly coveted it, practicing the skills therein, falling into heterodox ways, and losing the correct purpose of cultivating the Real. The Shaolin monks have made some fame for themselves through their fighting skill; this is all due to their possession of this manuscript. Source: en.wikipedia, Scholars: Shaolin Kung Fu comes from Yexia Temple: The world-famous Shaolin
«Shaolin monks» por podoboq - originally posted to Flickr as shaolin monks. Disponible baxo llicencia CC BY 2.0 vía Wikimedia Commons.
 Kung Fu may have originated from Yexia Temple in ancient China's Yecheng City, instead of from the popularly believed Bodhidharma, according to scholars at an annual culture summit in Hebei Province. Yexia Temple, located in today's Anyang of Henan Province, is the earliest temple found in China's historical records where the monks practiced Wushu, or martial arts. Since Buddhist Monk Chou from Yexia Temple became the second abbot of Shaolin Temple, Shaolin Kung Fu had thus been born, the scholars said. Meanwhile, the mainstream belief in Bodhidharma being China's first martial arts teacher can be traced to a popular phrase in Chinese martial arts novels: "All martial arts in the world come from Shaolin Temple, and Shaolin Kung Fu originates from Bodhidharma. " Liu Yushan and Liu Wenying, scholars who researched the history and culture of Yecheng City, said both propositions were found in their studies. However, they are leaning toward the textual research by Professor Ma Aimin of Anyang Normal University, who concluded that the first Shaolin Temple abbot Buddhabhadra and Indian monk Bodhidharma were eminent monks on Buddhism, but not on martial arts. Bodhidharma came to visit the nearby area of Shaolin Temple during the Northern Wei Dynasty in the year of 486, and left before 495, while Shaolin Temple was built in the west of Songshan Mountain in 495, when Bodhidharma had already moved on. It was not until Monk Chou came to Shaolin Temple with his Wushu skills when he was 33 that Shaolin monks started to practice martial arts, according to Ma. Historical records indicate that Monk Chou was born and lived in the area around Anyang all along. He already had excellent skills in martial arts before coming to Shaolin Temple to study Buddhism from Buddhabhadra. As Shaolin Temple's second abbot and its earliest Kung Fu instructor, Monk Chou combined the martial arts with Buddhism ideas, which had profound influences on the formation and the enduring characteristics of Shaolin Kung Fu. Ma published his research with a number of academic essays on several periodicals to explain his idea in detail about Shaolin Kung Fu being originated from Yexia Temple. Source: China.org.cn. Shaolin abbot gives talk at Harvard: The abbot of 
Shi Yongxin gives a speech at the Memorial Church in Harvard University. [Shaolin.org.cn]
Cultural
Peking Opera, now fully translated in English 
"Chengdu-opera-sichuan-actores-d04" by Colegota - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 es via Commons.
Peking Opera, long a cornerstone of Chinese traditional culture, will now be more accessible to foreign audiences via a new series of published English translations. The project, entitled "The English Translation Series of 100 Peking Opera Classics" is co-written by the Renmin University of China and the Beijing Foreign Studies University and co-published by the Publishing House of the Renmin University of China and the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. The project, backed by state investment, drew from a stunning range of humanities, social science, English language research and translation resources of Chinese universities and Peking Opera circles. The Ministry of Education plans to utilize the project to promote cultural exchanges with other countries. 191 diplomatic envoys from 82 countries attended a media briefing at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing chaired by Chen Yulu, president of the Renmin University of China, on Oct. 19 to celebrate the launch of the series. Attendees were presented with a copy of the newly published work. Speaking at the conference, Sun Ping, editor-in-chief of the series, gave a brief introduction of the project, which began in September 2011. The English Translation Series uses a
A media briefing is held at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing on Oct. 19 to celebrate the launch of The English Translation Series of 100 Peking Opera Classics.
combination of books and videos of stage performances to combine the static and dynamic states to fully represent the artistic intent of the operas. A prominent feature of the series is complete bilingual and stereoscopic visuals, Sun said. "The whole translation series includes 100 classical Peking Opera plays which have been classified into 10 parts, each consisting of 10 plays. Each play has its own volume including preamble, script, music score, and dressing guide," Sun said. Editors of the series invited famous experts and scholars, including 96-year-old Guo Hancheng, opera artist and researcher of the Chinese National Academy of Arts, and 92-year-old Xu Yuanchong, translator and professor of Peking University, to be its advisers. "It was designed as a century project of the country, and State Councilor Liu Yandong attended its opening ceremony," Sun said. Sun, who is also a famous Peking Opera actress and executive director of the Research Institute on Chinese National Opera of the Renmin University of China, said that language was often the first hurdle and biggest obstacle in cultural exchanges. "The success of the project will accumulate valuable experience for Chinese operas to [gain prominence] in the world," she said. Source: China.org.cn. Shanghai Lotus Flowers Show: Space lotus flowers, which are grown from seeds that traveled in outer space, are
The lotus show also features water lilies in the floral display. Photo provided to China Daily
the highlight of the Shanghai Lotus Flowers Show. The exhibition is ongoing at the ancient Guyi Garden in the city's Nanxiang town. About 50 pots of space flowers cultivated from 13 varieties are exhibited in the east part of the garden. The seeds of space lotus flowers, after experiencing mutation in orbit, produce bigger, more colorful and long-lasting flowers, cultivators say. Visitors will also get to bask among more than 350 varieties of lotus flowers and water lilies. Lotus flowers planted in ponds covering a total area of about 10,000 square meters and in more than 6,000 pots bloom gracefully. It is the largest-ever lotus flowers show in the garden, says Sun Jia, spokeswoman for the 500-year-old garden. Strolling down the winding path among the ponds, one will feel so relaxed viewing the flowers, purely white or flaring red, alluringly open or bashfully in bud, joggle amid tiers of green moon-like lotus leaves in the breeze. The gusts of fragrance do a good job in blowing away all the tiredness. And there are those tiny charming "bowl lotus" from Li Garden, a Jiangnan (southern Yangtze River) style garden in Wuxi of Jiangsu province. The garden has been famous for cultivating the small-sized lotus flowers since ancient time. Normally planted in a bowl or coconut shell, they require much more care, Sun said. Source: China.org.cn. Hamlet en pointe: A star choreographer packages the madness, grief and
Wang Yuanyuan’s new ballet production narrates through the inner self of Hamlet, who struggles between revenge and love. [Photo/China Daily]
rage of Shakespeare's prince of Denmark into a dance drama all her own, Chen Nan reports. Wang Yuanyuan first collaborated with renowned filmmaker Feng Xiaogang in 2006, choreographing dance sequences for composer Tan Dun's music in Feng's film, The Banquet, an adaptation of Hamlet. "It's an alternative work compared to my other films," Feng told Wang on the set, referring to his departure from the comedy films he was known for. "It fulfilled my longtime desire to interpret traditional Chinese
Wang Yuanyuan's new ballet production narrates through the inner self of Hamlet, who struggles between revenge and love. [Photo/China Daily]
aesthetics." Sharing the same understanding for traditional Chinese aesthetics, Wang choreographed several dance pieces for the actors, including Zhang Ziyi, Zhou Xun and Daniel Wu. "Both of us enjoyed our collaboration very much," Wang recalls. It wasn't the end of the story, though. The two were keen on the idea of developing the dance pieces for The Banquet into a complete ballet. But they had to wait until the time was right. Over the past seven years, Feng has made films of different genres and returns to comedy this year. He was too busy directing the 2014 CCTV Spring Festival Gala to attend Wang's press conference for her new show. Wang founded Beijing Dance Theater with veteran lighting director Han Jiang and set designer Tan
Wang Yuanyuan's new ballet production narrates through the inner self of Hamlet, who struggles between revenge and love. [Photo/China Daily]
Shaoyuan in 2008, looking for artistic freedom in contemporarydance. The same year, she choreographed for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, collaborating with director Zhang Yimou, whom she had worked with on a ballet version of Raise the Red Lantern in 2001. Her works such as Haze and Golden Lotus have toured around the world, making her one of the most pioneering choreographers in China. It wasn't until last year that Wang picked up the Hamlet idea again. After a year of preparation, the modern ballet dance, Hamlet, will premiere in Beijing on Dec 3 and 4, followed by an international tour after the 2014 Spring Festival.
Wang Yuanyuan’s new ballet production narrates through the inner self of Hamlet, who struggles between revenge and love. [Photo/China Daily]
"The idea has been lingering in my mind for years but I was looking for the most appropriate way to interpret it through modern ballet dance," says Wang. Unlike film, dancers don't talk onstage, so the choreographer must use physical movements, stage design and music to display the characters. Wang says that over the years, her idea of choreographing a dance adapted from Shakespeare's Hamlet has evolved greatly. The historical story gets a modern edge in Wang's bold new ballet, far beyond the dance pieces for The Banquet which have a strong traditional Chinese style. Source; Article,China: Daxing Watermelon Festival: The Watermelon Festival in the Daxing district of Beijing is in full swing after starting last
Friday. Until the 1st June many weird and wonderful examples of melon will be on display. For example, there are competitions such as the "King of Watermelon."
Grower Li Feng Chun exhibited a 50kg specimen in this. Other exhibits include such things as melons constrained so that they grow into certain shapes and those with
patterns embedded on their skin. Source: Fresh Plaza, China's Qiqiao Festival: The Fifth China (Xihe) Qiqiao Cultural Summit Forum took place in Beijing on Wednesday and discussed China's Qiqiao Festival, also
called Girls' Festival, and its assets in cultural protection and development. Qiqiao, an ancient cultural event hailing from Gansu Province's Longnan region in central China, is one of the most legendary traditional Chinese celebrations because of its spatiotemporal power and profound folk culture connotation. Qiqiao is a festival for girls to honor the goddess of Queen of Skills, entertain themselves and exchange life
Sun Xuetao, secretary of the Longnan city Party committee speaks at the Fifth China (Xihe) Qiqiao Cultural Summit Forum, August 7, 2013. [China.org.cn]
skills. The festival can be considered an accumulation of heavy aesthetic psychology and traditional Chinese virtues, similar to the worship of Athena in ancient Greece. Sun Xuetao, secretary of the Longnan city Party committee, said in his opening speech that the summit is a positive response to the UN Women's advocacy for gender equality and the empowerment of women, the Chinese government's promotion of female causes, the construction of cultural heritage and innovation, as well as the protection of intangible cultural heritage. "Qiqiao culture helps improve women's life quality and social status," Sun said, "To promote gender equality, maintain women's interests and help women live a better happier life, is the ultimate goal of the Qiqiao culture. We hope that China's Qiqiao Festival can be a medium to carry on women's wisdom, skills and virtues. We hope the festival can become a lecture on how to establish dignity,
A photo exhibition is held at the Fifth China (Xihe) Qiqiao Cultural Summit Forum, August 7, 2013. [China.org.cn]
confidence, independence and self-improvement; help women develop themselves to the fullest." Julia T. Broussard, the UN Women Country Programme Manager, also said at the summit that Qiqiao is mainly a girls' festival. "Girls will be mature women in the future and the festival can prepare them," Broussard said, "The festival and summit
brought attention to the multiple social roles women have played, and reminded us of the long path ahead of us despite the big improvements in gender equality and female empowerment. We can discuss how to overcome the difficulties which still exist so that we can ensure the current girls and future women will be treated the same as the men
when they grow up." "I hope that one day, all women from Longnan and even the whole of China, will have big ambitions and work hard to become Nobel-winning scientists, CEOs of big corporations and even president of the nation. For me, that is the ultimate meaning of Qiqiao," Broussard added. Qiqiao beats all other festivals
nationwide in terms of history, the quality of its singing and dancing performances, the sincerity of its participants, the unity of its different events, and its number of participants. The festival is known as the "living fossil" of ancient Chinese customs. Qiqiao starts on the eve of the first day of the seventh month of the Chinese lunar
calendar and ends on the night of the seventh day of the seventh month. It is a comprehensive seasonal festivity incorporating tributes to the goddess, poetry, music, dancing, handicrafts and fine art. The festival offers young girls an opportunity to express and appreciate beauty in all its forms and shapes, which promotes the
harmony in both families and neighborhoods. As a result, the Qiqiao Festival plays a positive role in both the girls' healthy road to adulthood as well as the construction of a harmonious society. Ethnic, cultural and religious experts, archaeologists and scholars attended the summit and conducted discussions about how to explore the festival in
particular and culture in general. The summit is part of 10 celebratory activities held in honor of the Qiqiao Festival, including musical creations, singing and dancing performances, short film productions, cartoon creations and the publishing of academic works. Source: Article, Treasures from China's rich tapestry of cultures: By C.B. LIDDELL: "China" has always been something of a
Survivors of time: Gilt silver Ashoka pagoda (Northern Song Dynasty, 1011); Sandstone pillar plinth (Northern Wei Dynasty, 484); a bronze jue tripod wine vessel (Yin dynasty, 16th-15th century B.C.) NANJING MUSEUM; SHANXI MUSEUM; ZHENGZHOU MUSEUM
simplification. This is because it is an idea that has been used to encapsulate a vast heterogeneous portion of the World's population. With current relations with Japan tense, the idea of China as a monolithic giant with a single purpose, bringing its weight to bear on a tiny territorial dispute, is indeed a frightening one. But, as demonstrated by the recent anti-Japanese riots, which afflicted some areas while bypassing others, China is and always has been a diverse patchwork. This is also the message of the latest
Bronze mirror (Tang Dynasty, 736) SHAANXI ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum. "China: Grandeur of the Dynasties" is unlucky in its timing. With reports of Chinese mobs vandalizing anything Japanese fresh in the public's mind, there could well be a backlash here. But, given how crowded exhibitions of Chinese historical relics and artifacts normally are, this might turn out to be a blessing for those visitors who choose to visit. With 168 items, including pottery, sculpture, metalwork, jade and the obligatory member of Emperor Shi Huang's terra cotta army, there is plenty to see. Also, it is never more important to understand our neighbors than when relations are at low ebb. The thesis is also interesting. According to the curator, Nobuyuki Matsumoto, Director of Curatorial Planning at the TNM, the exhibition's keyword is "pluralism." The show intends to highlight the variety in Chinese culture and history by focusing on interesting counterpoints within the conventional historical framework of consecutive dynasties. "The dynastic periods are merely intended for political history," Matsumoto tells the Japan Times. "When we consider cultural history, in some cases the culture has changed dramatically between the start and end of the same dynasty. It is necessary to use the most obvious division in the history of politics to explain the events of history, but this is not necessarily consistent with the perspective of cultural history." Cultural history in these cases tends to be represented by those items that have best survived the ravages of time and been lucky enough to encounter an archaeologist's trowel. This usually means grave items, such as the bronze mirror with bird-and-flower design in mother-of-pearl from the tomb of the Tang Dynasty Princess Li Chui, or else things casually thrown away or lost in the normal course of life. This process itself, naturally enough, puts its own spin on history. One of the quaintest pieces at the exhibition gives you a sense of how this principle of random survival works. It is a small headless bronze figure from the Shu Kingdom (c. 1046 B.C.-c. 316 B.C.), in the Upper Yangtze Valley. What is so odd about this piece is that it has an aesthetic completeness. Rather than a gap, the hole in the upper part, where the head should be, seems like a kind of sentient eye, unwittingly giving the piece a unique, almost extra-terrestrial character. The more mundane
Gold mask (Yin-Western Zhou Dynasty, 12th-10th century B.C.). JINSHA SITE MUSEUM, CHENGDU
explanation, however, is that the hole was probably used to attach a head of some sort, possibly of a different material, which has simply disappeared. Thanks to recent excavations, there has been an enormous increase in the amount of relics from the Shu Kingdom, including ritual jade objects and gold masks. These have been given a prominent place in the exhibition, allowing Matsumoto to use the Shu Kingdom as an effective counterpoint to the Xia and Yin Dynasties, states from the central plains of the Yellow River area that usually dominate exhibitions focusing on the beginnings of Chinese civilization. This allows the exhibition to emphasize the plurality of Chinese culture at the very start. Other sections of the exhibition explore more interesting oppositions, such as that between Confucianism and animist mysticism, or between North and South, centre and periphery, and civilized and "barbarian." The message of plurality is even reflected in the chronological cut-off point of the exhibition, which is the rather confused period from the 10th to 12th centuries, when the rival Liao and Song dynasties faced each other in an uneasy stalemate. "Stopping at the Song and Liao dynasties may give an incomplete impression to some people," says Matsumoto. "However, the primary purpose of this exhibition is to look at the diversity of Chinese culture. We actually thought that we could achieve the goal of the exhibition more clearly by stopping at the Song and Liao period." Any exhibition on this scale that is entirely sourced from Chinese museums can only proceed with the express cooperation of the Chinese government, so it is a natural assumption that the Chinese government must have had some interest in the show's message, especially in view of comments made last year by President Hu Jintao, which suggested China was becoming much more aware of issues of soft power. But Matsumoto is keen to downplay this aspect. "When the exhibition was planned, I assembled the content in terms of a purely cultural history, without taking into account any of the particular problems regarding current political relations," he recalls. "A number of exhibitions of Chinese cultural relics have been held in Japan, so the image of Chinese culture has tended to become somewhat fixed. We wanted to break this down somehow. Also, by configuring the
Kneeling archer figure (Qin Dynasty, 3rd century B.C.) MUSEUM OF THE TERRA-COTTA WARRIORS AND HORSES OF QIN SHIHUANG
exhibition along the lines of a two- by-two arrangement, we thought we could present a more multi-faceted view of Chinese culture." One of the fascinating points about the show is that, although it presents Chinese history as a process of political and cultural plurality, the Chinese government happily supported it. This is surprising because it seems out of kilter with the centralizing ethos of the Communist regime, which has earned a reputation for "Sinicizing" non-Chinese areas, such as Tibet and Sinkiang, through modernization, erosion of traditions, and encouraging an influx of Han Chinese. "From the earliest stages we sought the consultation and cooperation of the Chinese in the planning," Matsumoto points out. "Full consideration was taken of China's position as a multi-ethnic nation. From the moment we introduced the concept of 'pluralism,' no one asked us to change the contents. On the contrary, the contents of the original plan were consistent with the policy of the current Chinese government." This seems an odd fit with a state that occasionally takes a heavy-handed approach in potential breakaway regions and projects an appearance of monolithic unity abroad. The key to this paradox is that the Chinese government is aware that over-centralization at home is counterproductive, and instead it conceptualizes Chinese unity as a "symphony of peoples and histories" that recognizes the contribution of the peripheral peoples as well as the majority Han Chinese. This strategy was evident in two other big Chinese exhibitions held in Tokyo this year: "200 Selected Masterpieces from the Palace Museum Beijing," also at the TNM, and "The Splendor of the Khitan Dynasty," which recently closed at the University Art Museum, Tokyo. The first focused mainly on the Manchu Qing Dynasty that conquered China in the 17th century, and the second on the Khitan, a Mongolian people who ruled in the North during the Liao
Lacquered drum (Warring States, 4th century B.C.). JINGZHOU MUSEUM
Dynasty from the 10th to 12th centuries. Both groups were non-Han Chinese peoples who played an integral part in Chinese history. One of the main lessons to be derived from Chinese history is the destructiveness of extreme militarism and over-centralization. This was the mistake that China's first great dynasty, the Qin made. Under the megalomaniac leadership of Shi Huang they succeeded in uniting most of China, but their harsh, inflexible rule meant that their power ended in a rebellion that ushered in the softer, more devolved rule of the Han Dynasty. The saber-rattling nature of the Qin is represented here by the terra cotta warrior, a deadly-looking crossbow, and a servile, kneeling figure. These contrast with the elegant dignity of the Han Dynasty items, including a gilt bronze censor on a high stand that exudes an atmosphere of urbane sophistication as it once did when it sweetened the air with its perfume. The present Chinese government's endorsement of historical pluralism suggests they are taking more inspiration from the Han than the Qin in their internal relations. Let us hope that they can extend a similar pragmatism to their external relations, most notably with important neighbors like Japan. In such a case exhibitions like this could expect a flood of visitors. "China: Grandeur of the Dynasties"at the Tokyo National Museum runs till Dec. 24; open 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. (Fri. till 8 p.m.), closed Mon.; admission is ¥1,500. For more information, visit www.tnm.jp. Source: The Japan Times, Modern Beijing opera Red Cliff successful in Prague
stage photo [photo source:chinaembassy.cz]
"Great success, not only artistic, but also from social point of view" - this is what visitors said after the Monday first performance of modern Beijing opera Red Cliff in Czech capital Prague. The show was staged under auspices of Czech president Vaclav Klaus in country's most prestigious National Theatre. At he end of the show, long standing ovations continued. According to president Klaus, such shows help to deepen the knowledge about other cultures and he considers it important part of foreign relations. "We were very surprised how quickly was the show sold out," spokeswoman
stage photo[photo source:chinaembassy.cz]
of National Theatre ballet Helena Bartlova said. "Such a big show that even Lady Gaga would go pale," Hospodarske noviny daily commented. And the fact that audience often applauded during the performance - something very unusual in Czech opera tradition - is taken as a proof of big success. Czech media commented that the arrival of more than 160 members of opera performers itself signalled that the show would become a smash hit. They stressed that while Beijing opera usually does not need any big stage setting, this time the show, directed by Zhang Jigang, the architect of the Beijing Olympic Games ceremonies choreography, provides some real thrills for the Czech audience. Source: China.org.cn, Kunqu opera regains luster: In 2001,
Fashion & Media
Liu Yifei covers 'L'Officiel': Actress Liu Yifei is the cover girl of the
August issue of fashion magazine "L'Officiel" (Chinese edition). Liu's most recent film is the martial-arts thriller "The Four", directed by Gordon Chan. In the film, she plays a physically impaired woman who can read minds. [Photo courtesy of L'Officiel], Source: Article, Beijing relaxes family planning policy: Beijing, Feb 21 (IANS)
 China's capital Beijing Friday relaxed its birth control policy allowing couples to have a second child if either parent is an only child. An amendment to the Beijing Population and Family Planning Regulations was approved at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, Xinhua reported. The city government would provide support by improving hospitals, nurseries and primary schools, and by protecting women's right to maternity leave, said Wang Delin, vice chairman of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress. It is a significant change to family planning policy that has been in effect for more than three decades and part of a plan to raise the fertility rate and ease the financial burden of a rapidly ageing population. Besides Beijing, Tianjin municipality and the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Anhui have also changed their policy. Provincial-level governments in Guangxi, Hubei and Jiangsu have announced their intentions to relax the policy in March. Others, including Hunan, Qinghai and Shanghai, promised changes in the first half of this year. Source: Article. Image: http://gender-and-politics.blogspot.com. From Congress Delegate To 
Caring Mom: Jiang Min, a political assistant of Chengdu Public Security Bureau, is an outstanding worker standing to her gun although lost 11 relatives in the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008. Now her child is only four-month-old. The meeting affairs group of the 18th CPC National Congress approved that the female representatives can bring
their babies with them when they went to Beijing to attend the 18th CPC National Congress. Jiang Min, a political assistant of Chengdu Public Security Bureau, is an outstanding worker standing to her gun although lost 11 relatives in the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008. Now her child is only four-month-old. The meeting affairs group of the 18th CPC National Congress approved that the female representatives can bring their babies with them when they went to Beijing to attend
the 18th CPC National Congress. Luo Wei, a deputy to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, takes care of her five-month-old daughter at a hotel after finishing a group discussion in Beijing on Nov 10, 2012. Luo, who took her baby to Beijing as she is still breastfeeding, is the youngest deputy of Southwest China's
Sichuan province delegation and donated 55 percent of her liver to save the life of an unrelated person in 2005. [Photo/Asianewsphoto], Luo Wei, a deputy to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, reads congress material while taking care of her five-month-old daughter at a hotel in Beijing on Nov 10, 2012. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]. Source: China.org.cn. Miss Universe China: A brainy 
beauty: Miss Universe China Luo Zilin captures hearts whether she smiles or not. Procrastination is Luo Zilin's "strength" and it has worked to her advantage. Looking back, the Miss China 2011 and the fourth runner-up of Miss Universe 2011 in Brazil is glad she took her own sweet time to think through before deciding to join the world's most watched beauty pageant. For someone "who would shilly-shally between vanilla-flavored ice cream and chocolate for hours", "her own sweet time" means several months until six hours before the flight took off to Beijing for the nationwide finals. "Although there was nothing to weigh against the month-long contest, I needed time to think before deciding. And, it turned out to be an ugly duckling-to-a black swan experience for me," says the 24-year-old Shanghai native. Luo is blessed with a perfectly-tanned skin, Angelina Jolie-like lips and an officially-taped height of 1.82 meters. The former model has been a frequent face on the catwalk for nine years. Despite that, the contest turned out to be a lot tougher than Luo could ever imagined. "I am glad I gave enough thought and did my homework before the contest. If I had missed the contest, it would have been the greatest regret of my life watching on television how other girls made it." Among the challenges Luo faced at the San Paulo finals in September 2011, were smiling and walking simultaneously, to competing with the other 80 contestants from around the world in answering the questions asked by the judges. "I always forget to smile because as a model, I can be or must be as cool as possible on stage. While for the contest, I had to hold my smile for two hours. But before that, I needed to find the most natural looking smile first," Luo says. No contestant from China has ever been crowned Miss Universe, since the contest kicked off in 1951. The best record was Zhuo Ling, also a Shanghai native, who was crowned second runner-up at the Miss Universe pageant in 2002. All eyes were on Luo in 2011 as her popularity rose, partly because of the explosion in social networking such as Sina Weibo and the successful media publicity arranged by Yue-Sai Kan. The latter, a famous Chinese-American television host and a beauty guru, was appointed the director of Miss Universe China, an annual national beauty pageant that selects China's representative to the Miss Universe pageant since 2002. A typical pre-contest training day for Luo starts with morning exercises at 5 am and the day does not end till midnight. The last few weeks were spent in New York, where Luo was coached by a galaxy of experts including five-year Miss Universe trainer Akiko Shimizu, who is also the author of Hello, Elegant; chief fashion stylist Lizzette Kattan, who used to be fashion director and editor-in-chief for Harper's Bazaar France; and make-up artist Yuko Takahashi, who has worked with pop divas Lady Gaga and Beyonce. Despite the punishing schedule, which included practicing how to answer 500 questions a day, Luo described those days as "sweet memories like an all girls' boarding school", although there were nasty occasions such as gossip and jealousies among the girls. "Jealousy could also mean you are getting the attention and that you are a threat to others, which could be confidence-boosting," says Luo, adding that she has also learned to "hold a smile offstage, when faced with challenges." Lu Kun, one of China's most celebrated and innovative fashion designers, when asked about his first impression of Zilin said: "It has to be her overwhelming height. Even when she is among a forest of models, Zilin stands out," he says. Having known each other for nearly a decade, Lu, a Shanghai-based designer who shot to stardom after his first fashion show in 2003 at the age of 23, has been a supportive partner of Luo on stage and also her close friend offstage. "But a second meeting with her will make you forget all about her height, which is overshadowed by her high EQ (emotion quality) and her professionalism," says Lu. "Her becoming Miss China doesn't come as a surprise to me at all because success rewards girls as smart as her." Staff from Kan's promotion team shared a similar view: "Luo is smart and diligent. 'Brainless beauty' can no longer walk that far in the global arena." But Luo says she is fine with stereotypes like "beauty is only skin deep". "There is nothing wrong with being beautiful and attracting attention with looks. If we use the attention the right way, like for charity, it is good," she adds, having been devoting much of her time, both during and after the contest, to helping others. A brainless beauty she certainly is not. After handing over the crown to the Miss China of 2012, Luo says she will continue devoting her life to charity and hopes to start her own fashion accessory store - a plan she nurtured even before applying for the contest. Source: Article. Hot Chinese Female Athletes: He
Wenna: Born in 1989, He Wenna is a female Chinese trampoline gymnast. She won the gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics. In the 2012 Summer Olympics, she ended in third place.
He Zi: Born in 1990 of Nanning, He Zi is a Chinese diver, specialising in the 1 meter springboard, 3 meter springboard and 3 meter synchronized dive.
Li Nina: Born in 1983 in Benxi, Liaoning, Li Nina is a Chinese aerial skier who won silver at both the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics. Her nickname is ‘Snow Princess’.
Liu Xuan: Liu Xuan was born on 1979 in Changsha, Hunan. She is a beautiful ChineseGymnast. In 2000, she was China’s first Olympic Champion on balance beam as well as China’s first All Around Medalist. In the July 2009, she became one of the management contract actress for TVB.
Pan Xiaoting: Born in 1982 in Jining, Shandong, Pan Xiaoting is the first-ever professional pool player from China to play full-time on the Women’s Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) tour. Pan’s beauty and growing achievements in billiards have made her one of the most famous female athletes in China.
Tang Li: Born in 1982, Tang Li is a Chinese professional Go player. In 1998 she won 2nd place at the National Youth Women tournament. She is not the best Go player in China, but she is the most welcomed for her beauty.
Xue Chen: Born in 1989 in Fuzhou, Xue Chen is a Chinese female beach volleyball player, measuring 191 centimetres in height. She trains in Sanya, Hainan. She has also trained in California under coach Dane Selznick.
Yi Siling: Yi Siling, born in 1989, is a Chinese sports shooter. She started shooting in 2007 and made her international debut in 2009. At the 2012 London Olympics, she captured the first gold medal of the games by winning the 10m air rifle event.
Dai FeiFei: Born in 1983 in Nanjing with height 172cm, Dai FeiFei is a well known rhythmic gymnast and also a lecturer at the prestigious Beijing University.
Zhao Shuang: born on 21 June 1990, is a basketball player for China women’s national basketball team. She is part of the squad for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Source: Article, Chinese beauties in ancient costumes:
![[Photo: hunantv.com]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tJoNpYMxkYbf_0FTrXfSs8iNmelTKZ-lOgpDOTKUCt5bkfo994RmC5Qtvu0DF5_BY5Pjc2EUxUtNK3jiMTKgEv4Bl9KVaxa-MvrtjoOdAn9-RKjNzuhEalH_Zqr3nbCW76StNrcf_sUeb7mkk2QpGcUsBzkzg=s0-d)
Traditional Chinese dress was greatly stylish, excessive and a important part of the culture of China. With the passage of time however Chinese dress has evolved
[Photo: hunantv.com]
into something new. Today’s Chinese dress use conventional elements implemented
 with modern styles in order to develop a radical efficient Chinese dress , Source: Article, With Inputs, Fan Bingbing covers Cosmopolitan: Chinese actress and pop singer Fan Bingbing on the cover page of fashion magazine Cosmopolitan  China for the month of July 2009. Fan Bingbing is a Chinese actress and pop singer. She was born in Qingdao, Shandong, China and graduated from Xie Jin's Star School and Shanghai Theater Academy. Source: China.org.cn. Jay Chou: Complete showman: The movies he merely stars in may not be the best  of the bunch, but those he makes with full creative control never fail to turn heads. Music sensation Jay Chou morphs from a wonder boy with a Midas touch into a mature artist with more strengths than weaknesses. Few entertainers or artists get to dominate a whole decade. For those that do, Act Two of their career is decidedly mixed. Jay Chou has been a marginal player in Chinese-language cinema. Even though his 2007 debut in feature-film directing was a smash success, he was still seen as riding on the coattails of his all-engulfing music accomplishments as Secret is built around extended passages of music. The Rooftop, his follow-up that opened on July 11, is not meant to shake off his image as a music prodigy. Rather, it was conceived as a musical, with Chou composing more than two dozen tunes for it. But it is not a conventional musical. Even the pair of lovebirds do not get to warble a big duet. "I use the song-and-dance numbers as a kind of music accompaniment," reveals Chou in an exclusive interview with China Daily. "Ideally, a musical director should be able to translate the imagery in his head into music. But most would hire professional musicians for that. I happen to be trained in music and have an interest in movie directing, so the creation process is more direct for me and the two skills complement each other." Not only did Chou compose all the original music, but he also conceived the staging for many of the tunes. It is not surprising since Chou directed most of his own music videos and many of his songs portray exotic or historical scenes in movie-like vicissitudes. Some of the numbers in The Rooftop turn out to have a Broadway quality, this for someone whose exposure to the genre is limited to Moulin Rouge, Mama Mia! and a few others. "I'm more into action movies, riding motorcycles, etcetera," he says. The result is only the love story gets the musical treatment while the gangster part is conspicuously devoid of singing or dancing. "I cannot imagine villains singing their lines. It would be weird, wouldn't it?" Chou follows the philosophy that there should not be singing and dancing for the sake of singing and dancing. His proudest number is a love ballad set against the screen of a shadow-puppet show. "I was sure others had used it before, but I wanted to use it to tell a story. There's no special effect here. All the animals and flowers and transformation were done with our hands and our bodies." The story for The Rooftop was set in the 1970s partly for the purpose of bridging a generation gap. Chou, never shy about admitting his closeness to his mother, a single parent who brought him up, wants his mother's generation to love this movie as much as he wants the younger generation to embrace it. It also gave him an opportunity to create a highly stylized world in which the rooftop represents a poor man's paradise. Although he, or rather the male lead he plays, ends up getting the girl, he designs a rival who is not only much more wealthy but possesses better looks. That person turns out to be the lesser of two villains but the immediate rival for his love interest. In Secret, this role is a competitor in a piano playoff. Chou says he identifies with the social underdog because he himself used to be a struggling artist, having to sleep in the recording studio when riding his motorbike home was too exhausting. "Even now, I don't have many friends from wealthy backgrounds," he says, explaining that his passion for vintage cars is more a matter of personal taste than one of money. Artistically, Chou has been praised for his taste. His music background has given him not just the ear but the eye for fluid storytelling. Although the story, which he wrote, is not strong or original and the different genre elements fail to merge seamlessly, his directing is assured with many strokes of genius. "Everyone who wants to be a director has a desire to act, but he may not be a good actor. I know what I want from an actor and have a way of getting the result, but left on my own I may not be able to act it out," he says. Coincidentally, the China Film Directors Association echoed his self-appraisal in a rare candid post on its micro blog account: "He may not be a good actor; but he is absolutely a good film director!" That means, we may expect greater things from the boy next door who can play a dozen musical instruments and ooze cool mumbling words unintelligible to most people. In a way, The Rooftop feels like a midway stop as he explores the uncharted waters of narrative art. It is a unique challenge in genre choice because the musical is extremely difficult to pull off and, without creating much of a hoopla, it has climbed over the 100-million-yuan ($16 million) mark in box-office returns in the Chinese mainland, a first for a musical film. This in a country where Les Miserables, for all its fantastic word-of-mouth, grossed no more than half that amount. "I'm glad that people mention Les Mis in the same sentence as The Rooftop. I hope my work can be a new signpost when people talk about Chinese-language musicals," Chou says. "But I have bigger ambitions."Source: Article, China’s Beautiful Military Training Instructor: It’s back-to-school time again. Many 
Military Training Instructor is Zhang Yihan, who is a junior student of College of Art Design in Dalian Polytechnic University (DPU)
students don’t want to school because of military training under the scorching sunshine. Many students cannot bear the hard training, even some hate military training. However, recently, China’s most beautiful female military training instructor hits the Internets. Seeing her photo, many netizens said, “Isn’t it said that military training makes people tan?” Some netizens said they were willing to accept military training if they have such a beautiful military training instructor. Some netizens even said that having such a beautiful female instructor, we are not fear of any kind of military training. This female instructor is Zhang Yihan, who is a junior student of College of Art Design in Dalian Polytechnic University (DPU) in China. This university has the tradition that junior students take charge of military training instructors. These students instructors have been trained strictly in summer holiday. If she’s in your school, would you like to go back to school to receive the military training again? Source: Article, Guess Hu's Back: Hu indeed! None other
Minority influences literally form the backbone blend into the background as Hu's S/S 013 collection. Copyright@ Hu Sheguang
than 41-year-old Dutch/Chinese fashion designer, Hu Sheguang, one of the leading lights of October's Mercedes Benz Beijing International Fashion Week, which I covered in my previous column. A graduate of the Rietfeld Academy of the Fine Arts and newly-appointed head designer of the China Fashion Institute, Hu's style could be best described as a combination of Inner Mongolian lavishness with a literally cheesy Dutch touch. Whether he is in Beijing or in his native Dutch town of Doetinchem, Hu surrounds himself with everything fashion-related. As with most designers, he wants all of his collections to tell a tale that swoops the audience away on the gulfs of differently textured fabrics; and after sacrificing an arm and a leg for the honorable sake of style, thereby learning his lessons the hard way, it's safe to say: Guess Hu's back! Hu and Holland: Hu was abandoned by his parents at birth and raised in the vast green stretches that embrace Inner Mongolia, but he moved to Europe while still a teenager in pursuit of fame and fortune. He was picked up from Amsterdam airport by his estranged mother and immediately put to work washing drab grey dishes in the kitchen of the family's restaurant. Legend has it that Hu, fed up after two years of kitchen purgatory, packed his bags and left home to embark on his fashion quest. To Hu, fashion encompasses everything that is beauty, expresses temperament and can lift one's spirits on any given somber day. Though he had no high school education, a staple requirement for getting into any form of higher education anywhere on the non-virtual planet, Hu's talent served as a passport to three of Holland's finest art academies. Not being content with simply living your average sob story, Hu took his life experiences and background and managed to turn them into eternal reminders and inspirations for his life and collections to come. He is a big fan of diversity, and as such, may be liable to be easily struck by boredom. However, for a designer I don't think this can ever hurt that much and it led to Hu extending his designs to cater for people of all kinds and ages; from rock stars to the elderly to charity. Currently, Hu divides his time between his home base in Dutch Doetinchem, a very Christian town where he once put on a runway show in a church, and Beijing. Generally speaking, for Hu, the more variation, the better. Flip the cloth and structure, twist it, turn it, dye it and just see where it's headed - but do keep an eye on detail and finishing! Hu's Inner Mongolian roots form the one consistent influence on both his designs and his life; they simply
A collection tightly tied, in true navy/army-fashion, together which portrays the designer's love for stark contrasting. Copyright@Hu Sheguang
run through his veins and his collections. Dominance and arrogance: Hu is quite the character; awesomely flamboyant I call him. He may be short, but the man has presence. He doesn't merely enter a room he makes an entrance. Unfortunately, even in our modern day society, being strong-willed can still often be mistaken for being arrogant. Yet Hu has always refused to give in to these stereotypical opinions, instead describing himself as a dominant person (I couldn't agree more with this viewpoint). The dominant aspect of his personality shone through in his recent Beijing Fashion Week collection, featuring heavily military influenced, tightly tailored and straightforward jackets, which - as I wrote last time - I adored. Sometimes, and of course especially through the eyes of a designer, what we the audience see on the catwalk from afar might be in stark contrast to what they see up close and personal. The overall designs may look smooth and polished to the bystander; however from up close you can sometimes see the threads hanging out, or are confronted with basic run-of-the-mill designs that should not be on a Fashion Week catwalk. I have witnessed
戴绿帽… Literally. (But he did "get cheated" out of an award.) Copyright@Hu Sheguang
this with my own eyes a few times and will admit that in that respect I found it a shame a designer like Hu did not get the props he deserved because his new Dutch passport prevented him from winning awards open to Chinese designers. Hu consequently adding that Spring/Summer if truth be told is not his forte, for me at least, does not indicate arrogance, it indicates being on top of your game. In other words: Dominance. Red and Green: One final keyword to describe Hu and his fashion would be ‘contrast.' The contrast between his youth and his current adult life - from a gloomy grey kitchen to a high-end pearly white 30th-floor apartment overlooking Chaoyang Park, surrounded by an entourage that even makes sure he has tea on time - is striking. He continues this thought and line of contrast throughout his collections, for example by pairing leather with silk (say a red leather double-breasted jacket with a long flowing chiffon body-sculpting skirt), hard and soft, feminine and a more masculine edge. Even the use of color in his last show, being red and green, stood in stark contrast to the color choices of other participants. The red-green combo is somehow considered a no-go in Beijing (or China). Red symbolizes happiness and prosperity in the country's culture, whereas green is, for example, associated with the phrase "wearing a green hat" (带绿帽), which basically means a man is being cheated on. But putting a collection based on these two pallets on the runway, will 100%- pure-silk ensure you stand out from the designer crowd. And that's the point final. Don't be afraid to let your personal ideas or background shine through the sheer (or not-so-delicate) fabrics. Especially in a nation such as China, Hu advises young designers to make full use of their history and diversity, embrace it and then just roll with it. The story of a collection should be one about the designer and in fashion, you can paint the town red AND green if you want. Fashionistas United, in the words of Hu: Dare to be different and let your outfit do (most of, perhaps not all) the talking. Source: Article
Art
China's hunger for art in spotlight: When Jerome Cohen walked into a
People stand in front of the art of Chinese artist Chen Haiyan during the 2014 Armory Show in New York, the United States, March 5, 2014. The 2014 Armory Show, one of the world's top art events featuring the most influential artworks of the 20th and 21st centuries, kicked off on Wednesday. [Photo/Xinhua]
lecture hall at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1979, he had not anticipated the sight before him. There were several hundred people gathered staring at slides of Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and other artists. The 83-year-old professor of law at New York University was amazed. "It was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had," he says today. "This was the first talk anybody had given about American art and the first talk given by an American." The episode revealed the hunger of the Chinese for art and their eagerness to learn about Western contemporary art. Cohen's sentiments on the keen interest in, and shifting landscape of, contemporary art in China was shared by more than 40 artists, journalists, scholars and curators around the world at a two-day symposium in New York City titled Armory Focus: China, a program of conversations aimed at elaborating on and clarifying the state of contemporary art in China. "The (Chinese) government stated that this is the golden age for our creative community," says Adrian Cheng, founder and chairman of K11 Art Foundation. "Two billion yuan of funding has been set up and is being overseen by the Party's central committee to subsidize the production of creative artwork. There is also funding to support museum-building." The government's initiative to increase museums in China has prompted a boom in exhibition space in recent years. "There are nearly 4,000 museums in China compared with 25 museums in 1945," says Fiammetta Rocco, culture editor of The Economist. Jeffrey Johnson, founder of China Megacities Lab at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, says: "That might be only a quarter of the number of museums in the United States, but you have to place it in context to understand the magnitude of what is happening in China." Last year, 451 new museums opened in China, according to the China Museum Association. There were roughly 30 museums built each year during the boom of new museums in the United States in the early 1990s. The Western artistic world has developed as an ecology over hundreds of years, in terms of how the scholarship, institutions, museums, magazines, critics, curators and nonprofits relate to the market and how they fit into one another, says Colin Chinnery, artistic director of Wuhan Art Terminus. "But in China, art has become another investment vehicle after real estate investment. The investment side of art grew much faster than the scholarship and the critics-the artistic side. Whereas one side grows dramatically, growth of the other side takes time, which leads to the imbalance of the Chinese art system," he says. "One thing that often strikes me is the incredible curiosity of Chinese people to learn, from the artists to the ordinary people. That's how contemporary art evolved," says Karen Smith, director of OCT Contemporary Art Terminal in Xi'an. "What makes me most hopeful is the audiences of the future are today's young people," she says. Source: China.org.cn. An artistic journey from New
Bharat Singh (R) and his younger sister Gurjinder pose with Bharat's "Prayer for World Peace" placed at their studio in Songzhuang, Beijing [Photo by Zhang Junmian/China.org.cn]
Delhi to Beijing : Bharat Singh and his younger sister Gurjinder are busy creating a whale protection-themed statue. Molding of the stainless steel art work" Love", which portrays two dolphines dancing around a mermaid, will be completed at the end of July. "Next month, we will bring it to the Ulsan International Whale Sculpture Exhibition in South Korea," said Bharat from the duo's B&G Art Studio in Songzhuang, Beijing, the largest art zone in both China and the world. "This work depicts the harmonious relations between human and nature, and we hope it can help arouse the public's awareness of wildlife protection," said Bharat, who has lived in
Gurjinder's "Childhood Dreams" [Photo provided to China.org.cn]
Beijing for 13 years and is fluent in Chinese. Ulsan will be one of the 60-plus large-scaled art exhibitions Bharat has participated in since the 1990s. The sibling duo's sculpture work, which are mostly bronze figures in the round showcasing the power of love, life, friendship, music and kindness, always easily touch and captivate a large number of spectators when they are unveiled at different sculpture exhibitions around Asia, everywhere from India to China to South Korea to Malaysia. Their works
Bharat and Gurjinder are busy creating a whale protection-themed statue [Photo provided to China.org.cn]
have also been acquired by museums, galleries and private collectors around the world including the U.S., the U.K., Japan, Canada, Spain and the aforementioned Asian countries. Around China, their work has been featured prominently in Beijing, Harbin, Changchun, Datong, Qingdao, Xiamen, Xuzhou and Foshan. From New Delhi to
Bharat's "Waves of Music" [Photo provided to China.org.cn]
Beijing The two promising sculptors, who are also well-versed in oil painting, took similar paths to the art world. Bharat, a fiercely-mustached but gentle man, fell in love with Beijing at first sight when he arrived in 2000 via a Chinese Government Scholarship. Before his journey to China, he graduated from College of Art, Delhi, where he received his BA and MA degrees in fine arts, in 1996 and 1999, respectively. Bharat was the final student of Professor Qian Shaowu, a well-established Chinese sculptor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Bharat received his Ph.D from
Bharat's "Sweet Memories" [Photo provided to China.org.cn]
the Central Academy this summer. Bharat said that he has always had great interest in both Indian and Chinese cultures, as the two are among the four oldest civilizations in the world. "I think I should draw on the strong points of the two cultures, and I believe, only in the Eastern culture can my artistic creation flourish and bear juicy fruits," said Bharat. "I love India, and I also love China. Beijing is like my second home."Source: China.org.cn, Gurjinder also graduated from College of Art, Delhi, where she received her BFA and MFA degrees, in sculpture, in 2001 and 2004, respectively. She then
Bharat (L), his professor Qian Shaowu (C) and Gurjinder [Photo provided to China.org.cn]
came to Beijing via Chinese Government Scholarship in 2008 after getting her MFA in painting at Jiwaji University. She obtained her third MFA degree from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing this summer, and will start her PH.D research there this September. Like Bharat, Gurjinder fell in love with Chinese culture and is enthralled by the rapid development of Chinese contemporary arts. "I will stay here with Bharat, and create more excellent works to make Chinese cities more beautiful,"
Bharat and Gurjinder pose with embassy officers in front of Gurjinder's work at the National Museum of China in Beijing [Photo provided to China.org.cn]
said Gurjinder, who is also fluent in Chinese. The brother and sister lead a colorful life in China. The siblings appeared in the 2011 Chinese hit TV series "Xia Nan Yang," on which Gurjinder played the hostess of a hotel in Malaysia, and Bharat appeared as a guest. Love, yoga and Bharat's "huge bare feet" Bharat, who developed his interest in drawing and art when he was five years old, hopes to be Qian's best student. His
Bharat at the set of "Xia Nan Yang" with Chinese actor Zhang Guoli [Photo provided to China.org.cn]
sculptures usually depict green figures with a very concise and simple outward appearance. Females often have huge bare feet and excessively strong legs, which Bharat said are often used to inspire viewers to dwell on the relations between individuals, between individuals and nature and between individuals and society. The artist believes that the key to all conflicts and social problems is love and virtue. His
Bharat's "Unlimited Desire" [Photo provided to China.org.cn]
belief is demonstrated in his works such as "Unlimited Desire," the "Together" series, "Prayer for World Peace", "Friendship Above All," "Waves of Music" and "Sweet Memories". Explaining how large feet relate to such concepts, Bharat invoked yoga. "The practice of yoga began some 5,000 years ago in India, and we have practiced it since we were kids. In meditation, we feel our bodies become lighter and brisker
Bharat's oil painting "Hope" [Photo by Zhang Junmian/China.org.cn]
starting from the feet upwards," said Bharat. Bharat said, "I like green, because it's the color of nature, and in our traditional culture, human co-exists with nature in a harmonious way." Love, childhood memories and Gurjinder's romantic style In her personal statement, Gurjinder writes: "My art works are always very simple compositions of my memories, dreams and desires. My childhood was filled with countless memorable moments that I would love to relive. By the development of cities, living situations are changed, families are changed, relations are changed. Day by day
Gurjinder's "Monsoon Days" [Photo provided to China.org.cn]
society is changing and day by day I am missing more and more, those beautiful passed days and its wonderful unforgettable moments."Gurjinder said she relives her childhood through her statues, which depict joyful scenes from her past, like as playing with mud, making paper-boats, playing on the swings, family gatherings, picnics and traditional festival celebrations. Source: China.org.cn, Her works, such as "Freedom," "Towards Temple," "Monsoon Days," the "Childhood Memories" series and "Mother's Moon," convey love, warmth and delight of life in an unaffected and idyllic way. They reflect the artist's hopes of preserving traditional cultural values, her pursuit of happiness and her thoughts on the social development that is changing so much in
Gurjinder's "Freedom" [Photo provided to China.org.cn]
both China and India. She also calls for peace and love in some works such as "Goddess of Peace" and "World Peace."Gurjinder's sculpture works are mostly in cuprine, while her paintings feature harmoniously bright colors. She even boldly blends traditional Chinese elements, such as "one-tile" hair style for kids and Chinese "Qipao" into her works. What we want: simple life and better works Bharat and Gurjinder love artistic creation. They hope they will always be able to push creative boundaries
Bharat's "Friendship Above All" [Photo provided to China.org.cn]
and, hopefully, bring joy to others with their art. The brother and sisters duo have never thought that taking art as their life career means an arduous road. They just enjoy it, and may continue work for many hours without any rest. They often forget to eat and go to bed in time when they are engaged in creation. The suffering is worth it, however, when the final work is completed, Gurjinder said, who has been suffering
Gurjinder's "Towards Temple" [Photo by Zhang Junmian/China.org.cn]
back pain from her long hours sitting. Bharat said he believes that artistic works shouldn't be done in a rush and they have never considered mass producing their work. "Artists should always maintain [their] independence and freedom in creation. Those who lose themselves in the market will end up as workman and businessman," said Bharat."What we want is very simple -- Live in a simple way, and create more outstanding statues for different cities in China, as well as in other countries," Bharat said. Source. Exhibition on theme of Buddhism held in C China
A visitor looks at a porcelain work at an exhibition on the theme of Buddhism in Zhengzhou, capital of Central China's Henan province, Jan 9, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]
 Chinese art museum attends India Art Fair 2014: India Art Fair 2014, 
"Prosperity in an imperial palace screen detail Asian Art Museum SF" by I, BrokenSphere. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.
as India's premier modern and contemporary art fair, announced its 6th edition from January 30th to February 2nd in New Delhi. The Himalayas Art Museum from Shanghai China, as part of a major delegation of Chinese collectors, is attending the fair with a view to stimulating Indo-Chinese cultural exchange collectors and museums. This year the fair converged 91 exhibiting booths and 1000 artists. Well-known artists Rabindraath Tagore, Jamini Roy and S H RAZA's works are presented by Delhi Art Gallery. Audience can also appreciate Indian artists like Ravinder Reddy and Oma Prakash 's works ,which are introduced by foreign galleries. The fair also include a video project, art bookstores, assortment of book launches, children's workshops and 24 large- scale outdoor installations. The key highlights of the fair is an engaging Speakers Forum with 30 world renowned speakers and some related projects. Source: China.org.cn, China is world's largest art market : China
overtook the United States as the world's biggest market for art and antiques last year, ending decades of American domination, according to a report published on Friday, China Daily reported. The historic turning point is also an important indicator of seismic shifts in the wider global economy, according to "The International Art Market in 2011," released by the European Fine Art Foundation, organizers of the European Fine Art Fair. China's share of the global art market rose from 23 percent in 2010 to 30 percent last year, pushing the United States to second place with a share of 29 percent, it said. The United Kingdom's art market, which was overtaken by China's in 2010, remained third with a 22-percent market share while France was a distant fourth with a share of 6 percent. Fast growth in China's art market, particularly in the modern and contemporary sectors, led to continued growth in the art and antiques market worldwide in 2011. Sales of art and antiques at auctions in China saw a dramatic rise of 177 percent in 2010 and a further 64 percent increase in 2011, with the modern and contemporary sectors accounting for nearly 70 percent of the market. With the strong growth in China, the global art market continued to recover last year. The sales revenue grew 7 percent year-on-year last year, but was 63 percent higher than in the crisis-hit year of 2009. "The dominance of the Chinese market has been driven by expanding wealth, strong domestic supply and the investive drive of Chinese art buyers," said Clare McAndrew, a cultural economist specializing in the fine and decorative art market.Source: China.org.cn, China's 'smog art' movement: Air quality has become a big topic in recent years. Tens of millions![[File photo]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v_NOPGZcRhCj3sj4gk8RxE3ninKtJ8dome5FuVp8hVq-CJqeDFPZIja0bSF8zJcf_Z1maCoUqFGGppqOY8XRvShSi1VWdzx0ZU1ywGGut_ATb7UiDqxbMAPxe5W-GwSsBS2KZ_49foj-mt9iT7DLYz7UDTgYih=s0-d) 
On Feb 25, Beijing, several artists pray for a blue sky before the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest in Temple of Heaven Park. This type of action art calls attention to air pollution.[Photo/China.com]
of people across China have been forced to cope with high levels of PM2.5- particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter that can penetrate the lungs and harm the respiratory, cardiovascular, cerebral vascular and nervous systems. Air pollution is not just about sore throats, but really more of a matter of life or death. The harmful effects that smog can have on the human body are one of the top concerns among those who reside in the country’s bigger cities. As one result of the smog, Chinese artists have been creating various ways to voice their concern over air pollution through creative means such as action art, photography, painting, installations, film and dance. Source: China.org.cn
Delight
China’s dog and cat ‘hotels’ give owners peace of
mind: Beijing (China Daily/ANN) – Some pet owners who headed out of town for the holiday engaged neighbors to tend their animals. Others laid in plenty of food and water and hoped for the best. But an increasing number turned to pet boarding services in Beijing, and they made their plans well in advance. Lu Kaiwen, a manager of a pet supplies shop that also provides boarding, said his shop has 60 rooms for dogs and all were all booked in December. “We are always busy during Spring Festival.” Lu said. Wang Yao, a 26-year-old white-collar worker in Beijing, has two cats. She shares a two-room apartment with two colleagues, one of whom also has a cat. “I will be away for about seven days to go back to my hometown, and I really worry about my cats,” she said before Chinese New Year. “I cannot imagine what a mess we will see after we are back, because the cats are really naughty. And my biggest concern is whether they can take care of themselves. “But I am still not sure whether I should send them to a pet boarding service,” Wang said. “My roommate said that her cat is timid and tends to have depression, so she would not send it out. My two cats had never lived together with other cats, so I am afraid that they cannot get along well with other cats.” Wang’s roommate bought a cat climbing frame to entertain the cats during the days they are away. Jin Xing said the accommodations at his cat boarding business were “already spoken for. Some regular customers even order a position at National Day holiday in October.” Jin’s store charges 30 yuan ($4.70) a day for one cat during the holidays, 5 yuan higher than the normal rate. The concept of pet “hotels” is unfamiliar in smaller cities. Wang Qinghong, who is 53 and retired in Xingtai, Hebei province, said she had never heard of pet boarding services. Wang raises a dog. “That is a difference between big cities and small cities, for the paces of life are different. Only a limited number of people in small cities will go out during the Spring Festival, but young people in big cities would always go back to their hometowns during the holiday,” Wang said. “And even when all my family members are out of town or traveling, I will ask my neighbors to take care of my dog.” In big cities, many young people do not know their neighbors. But that poses no pet problems for Zheng Chengyuan, 26, who works in Tianjin. His and his wife’s pets are two carp. “I chose to raise carp because I supposed that I would always be away from home during holidays. We often travel back to our hometown,” Zheng said. “Carp are easy to raise, and being away for one week would bother nothing.” Source; Bikya Masr, Poodle on wheels becomes
internet hit: A two- legged poodle in Xining in northwest China's Qinghai Province has become a hit on the Web after its owner invented a wheechair for the dog to help it walk again. The pet animal lost both of its forelegs in a car accident when it was four months old in May. Three months later, the chocolate poodle can enjoy a dog's life again by running, walking and even climbing stairs with its two wheels. Its owner, Chen Hongle, created the wheelchair using parts of an old suitcase and toys. To make it more comfortable and safe, Chen upgraded the chair with a chest protector, two seat- belts, a bell and a small lamp. The pooch lost its legs after they were crushed by a car. The legs became rotten because Chanel's previous owners left it at home for more than ten days without treatment. This led to the amputation of its legs. The family abandoned the two-legged friend in Xinang Jiawang Animal Hospital. Chen who works at the hospital decided to take care of the dog. Chen said he was not a dog-lover but Chanel is now part of his family. He posts videos of Chanel on the Internet, which has made the dog popular among Chinese netizens and Xining residents. Source: Article, World's strongest seven-year-old carries
 90kg man in China Yang Jinlong, 7, from Fengyang County in east China's Anhui Province, can carry an adult man weighing 90kg. Report by Mark Morris. Chinese giant pandas in France: Giant pandas Yuan Zi  and Huan Huan relax inside their enclosure at the ZooParc de Beauval in Saint-Aignan, central France, Jan 17, 2012. A pair of giant pandas which have been loaned to the zoo by China, will be on public view for the first time on Feb 11, 2012. [Photo/CFP] Source: Chinese giant pandas in France - China.org.cn, 100 years before the birth of Doraemo: The exhibition of the "100 Years Before the Birth of 
Doraemon" is held in Hong Kong, China, from August 14 to September 16. Doraemon is a famous character of a Japanese animation. His date of birth is on 3, September
 2112. A great number of Doraemon fans attended the celebrations, Source: China.org.cn, Five-year-old Chinese boy becomes youngest pilot: A five- year-old boy from China has become the Guinness world record holder for the youngest person to pilot a plane. He Yide, nicknamed Duoduo, made a 35-minute flight in an ultralight aircraft across the Beijing Wildlife Park on August 31, Chinese media reported Tuesday. Zhang Yonghui, the person in charge of the aviation club where Duoduo learned flying, said the distance of the flight was 30 km. He Liesheng, the boy's father, said he wanted his son to become braver by flying a plane and also develop his curiosity and desire to explore, according to the Global Times. The boy earlier sparked a fury in 2012 when a video of his running half naked in the snow went viral on the internet. The video was shot by his family in New York at minus 13 degrees Celsius. The boy has also sailed a yacht in an international competition and climbed Mount Fuji in Japan during a rainstorm, the media reports said. Duoduo's father was nicknamed "Eagle Dad" because of his strict parenting methods and has prompted debates over his style of parenting. "He's education style is worth learning, but not every child is suitable for it," the Global Times quoted Gu Li, the director of a learning research centre in Nanjing, as saying. Sun Yunxiao, deputy director of the China Youth and Children Research Centre, said if the boy had encountered problems, it could have impacted his entire life. "We should not force children to do what they are not able to do. Children can benefit more from playing with toys or mud than flying a plane," he said. Source: Article. China: 'Dead' baby wakes up before cremation: A Chinese baby boy who had been declared dead was saved from  being cremated alive when he started crying at a funeral parlour, media reported Thursday. The parents of the critically-ill boy, who was less than one month old, had agreed to end his medical treatment at Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital in eastern China, hospital sources told Xinhua state news agency. A death certificate was issued before the baby was sent to a funeral parlour in Hefei, the provincial capital -- only for staff there to be alerted by crying on Wednesday. It was unclear how long he had been at the funeral parlour, or when his cremation had been due. The baby was immediately sent back to the hospital, several news outlets including the Beijing News reported on Thursday. "Because the baby still had life signs, we continued to give him transfusion to maintain his life for humanitarian reasons," a hospital staff member told Xinhua. The baby was born with a "congenital respiratory system malformation", the report added. The baby was receiving treatment at the hospital late Wednesday, reports said. A doctor was suspended, a nursing worker laid off and an investigation launched into the incident, the hospital said, according to Xinhua. Source: Hindustan Times Science-Education China achieves first manned space docking: China 
completed its first manned space docking on Monday, as a spacecraft carrying three astronauts including the country's first space woman, successfully coupled with an orbiting module, in a major milestone for its ambitious space programme. The three astronauts on board Shenzhou-9 (Divine Grace) will now enter the orbiting space lab Tiangong-1 or 'Heavenly Palace', that will give another boost to China's goal of completing a pace station by 2020. The procedure began as Shenzhou-9, in which the astronauts had travelled for two days, first moved to a location 52 km from Tiangong-1 at noon today, the Beijing Aerospace Control Center said. The spacecraft then slowly drifted towards Tiangong-1, which is orbiting on its own since last year, and made contact with the module at 2.07 pm, China time. The docking was completed in less than eight minutes, a media report said. During the process of automated docking, the astronauts namely Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang and the woman astronaut Liu Yang were calm and in good condition, reporting the status of Shenzhou-9 to the ground frequently, the Center said. They will enter the Tiangong-1 lab module later in the day and use it to conduct scientific experiments and technical tests. It was an automated
with his toe: Chinese doctors have used a 22-year-old student's toe to create a new finger after he lost his digit as a child. Ha Yuan lost his ring finger on his left hand as a child, and said his handicap stopped him from getting well-paid jobs. Surgeons at Changsha, capital of southern China's Hunan Province, amputated the second toe on his left foot and grafted it onto the affected hand. Doctors said it is not easy to tell the difference with the new appendage, and medics even believe it could be fully functioning within three months, 'Sina English' reported. "It's not easy to tell the difference if people are not looking at it closely. The only difference is the size of the nail," said Doctor Lu, who helped with the pioneering operation. Lu added that it would take three months for the new 'finger' to resume functions. "I feel my new life is about to start," said Ha. Source: Hindustan Times, US, China compete for
China's first female astronaut in space. Liu Yang
procedure conducted by computers and not by the crew. They were expected to be de- linked shortly and conduct a manual docking, the main task of the present crew. The three are scheduled to stay in space for about 13 days. In today's docking, a suite of radar, laser and optical sensors aligned Shenzhou with Tiangong. The capsule's thrusters then drove it into the space lab's docking ring. China's first successful unmanned space docking was completed last year with the docking of the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft and the Tiangong-1. The latest Shenzhou mission assumed significance as it launched 33-year-old Liu Yang, the first Chinese woman to travel to space. She flew along with Commander Jing Haipeng, 46, and fellow flight engineer, Liu Wang, 42. It is China's fourth manned mission, demonstrating the distance China travelled in acquiring space technology. Today's union between two space modules happened at an altitude of about 340 km from the earth. Liu operated a hand-held video camera to record the moment of docking. It is understood that only two members of the crew will enter the lab at any one time. The third individual will stay in the Shenzhou craft in case of emergency. The successful launch prompted Chinese leaders and officials to assert that China has become a space power and is fast catching up with US and other developed countries. Ahead of the Shenzhou-9 launch, Chinese space scientists brought Tiangong-1, the first prototype of a Chinese space lab down to 343 km range. The space station is being built to rival, Mir, Russia's international space station currently orbiting the earth. The Chinese station is expected to be ready by 2020 after a series of experiments. Tiangong-1 will be replaced next year with a far bigger module to accommodate more astronauts. During the flight, a range of scientific experiments are planned, including a number of medical tests to understanding the effects of weightlessness on men and women. The two modules were expected to de-attach and then retreat to a distance for manual docking. Liu will take the lead in this activity. “We've done over 1,500 simulations,” he said during the pre-launch press conference. Source: Indian Express, New China stealth fighter rival![[Chengdu J-20]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZwpU-UhG1ZzxIJ9E0LiWxfXM4Ud3m8o5gsAHJNVRpb_eOviQ1-JpWdGwFmoDzGaPG7-QhWfCpC_Qim1EIZvw4gccycMD8-wxXzwDNyHQnEFqNOf_q9P1VfH2lAKw2_Wa9i3IfhX1czw/s640/p_459354.jpg) to US F-22 Raptor? China may be building its own version of next-generation fighter planes, which are touted to have similar capabilities like US’ latest breed of super jet fighters, a new report has revealed. The Pentagon’s 2012 annual report revealed that the January 2011 flight test of China’s next-generation fighter prototype, a J-20, highlights China’s ambition to produce a fighter aircraft that incorporates stealth attributes, advanced avionics, and super-cruise engines. The report comes a month after a second prototype of the J-20 was reportedly spotted hovering around a Chinese airfield, more than a year and a half after China’s only other known prototype made its first public flight. Source: Naval Open Source INTelligence. Chinese doctors replace man's missing finger  the role of “king of sea”In 2012, the US announced that it is starting “to return to Asia” – that is, to broaden its military presence in the south of the Asia-Pacific region. This is the US’s response to China’s increasing military activity in disputable waters in the East China and the South China Seas. The US is going to move up to 60% of its navy to the Asia-Pacific region. That would increase the US’s military presence there 3 times in comparison with the current situation. At present, about 60 to 70 US military ships and from 200 to 300 planes are constantly present at US naval bases in Japan and South Korea. Besides, at least 2 US aircraft carriers are constantly keeping watch in the region. Now, according to President Obama’s order, US naval forces are to increase in Australia, Singapore and the Philippines. In Australia, the number of US marines will be increased 10 times and will reach 2,500 people. Besides, the US will have broader access to the Australian naval base on the coast of the Indian Ocean, to the south of the city of Perth. Up to 4 US navy ships will be deployed near Singapore’s coast. The US is also planning to deploy up to 500 servicemen and reconnaissance aircraft in the Philippines and to create a center for repairing US navy ships there. Moreover, the US does not rule out that in some time from now, the Philippines may become the center of commanding US forces in the Asia-Pacific region. “In such conditions, the Chinese are starting to feel surrounded by US forces from all sides,” Russian expert in Eastern affairs Yuri Tavrovsky said in an interview with the Voice of Russia. “After all, the US does not hide that the reason why it is strenthening its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region is the growing influence of China there.” “In its turn, China is actively developing its navy,” Mr. Tavrovsky continues. “It is hard to deny that within the last few years, China’s economy has been rapidly developing, which has allowed China to considerably increase its military might. It would probably be an exaggeration to say that China is becoming aggressive, but it is obviously starting to realize that it is getting strong enough to afford dictating its will to other countries.” Another Russian expert, Evgeny Kanaev, is predicting that the US-Chinese relations will most probably aggravate even further: “I don’t think that China’s leaders today want to make compromises with the US. It is unlikely that China will agree to create a program of developing its navy that would satisfy the US. In its turn, the US also doesn’t want to be ousted by China from its positions in the Asia-Pacific region. Besides its military presence there, the US also wants to maintain control over all the transport routes in this region, and China is now becoming a serious rival for the US from this point of view as well.” Experts are concerned that the US’s policy of regaining military control over the Asia-Pacific region and its competition for this role with China may aggravate the situation in this region to a very dangerous point. Source: Voice of Russia. Chinese Medicine Yields Secrets Of Chang Shan Herb: Atomic mechanism of 2-headed molecule derived 
Credit: Image courtesy of the Schimmel lab.
from Chang Shan, a traditional Chinese herb, is shown in unprecedented detail The mysterious inner workings of Chang Shan—a Chinese herbal medicine used for thousands of years to treat fevers associated with malaria—have been uncovered thanks to a high-resolution structure solved at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). Described in the journal Nature this week, the structure shows in atomic detail how a two-headed compound derived from the active ingredient in Chang Shan works. Scientists have known that this compound, called halofuginone (a derivative of the febrifugine), can suppress parts of the immune system—but nobody knew exactly how. Scripps Research Institute scientists have determined a molecular structure that helps explain how the Chinese herbal medicine Chang Shan works. The new structure shows that, like a wrench in the works, halofuginone jams the gears of a molecular machine that carries out "aminoacylation," a crucial biological process that allows organisms to synthesize the proteins they need to live. Chang Shan, also known as Dichroa febrifuga Lour, probably helps with malarial fevers because traces of a halofuginone-like chemical in the herb interfere with this same process in malaria parasites, killing them in an infected person's bloodstream. "Our new results solved a mystery that has puzzled people about the mechanism of action of a medicine that has been used to treat fever from a malaria infection going back probably 2,000 years or more," said Paul Schimmel, PhD, the Ernest and Jean Hahn Professor and Chair of Molecular Biology and Chemistry and member of The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at TSRI. Schimmel led the research with TSRI postdoctoral fellow Huihao Zhou, PhD. Halofuginone has been in clinical trials for cancer, but the high-resolution picture of the molecule suggests it has a modularity that would make it useful as a template to create new drugs for numerous other diseases. The Process of Aminoacylation and its Importance to Life Aminoacylation is a crucial step in the synthesis of proteins, the end products of gene expression. When genes are expressed, their DNA sequence is first read and transcribed into RNA, a similar molecule. The RNA is then translated into proteins, which are chemically very different from DNA and RNA but are composed of chains of amino acid molecules strung together in the order called for in the DNA. Necessary for this translation process are a set of molecules known as transfer RNAs (tRNAs), which shuttle amino acids to the growing protein chain where they are added like pearls on a string. But before the tRNAs can move the pearls in place, they must first grab hold of them. Aminoacylation is the biological process whereby the amino acid's pearls are attached to these tRNA shuttles. A class of enzymes known as aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases is responsible for attaching the amino acids to the tRNAs, and Schimmel and his colleagues have been examining the molecular details of this process for years. Their work has given scientists insight into everything from early evolution to possible targets for future drug development. Over time what has emerged as the picture of this process basically involves three molecular players: a tRNA, an amino acid and the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase enzyme that brings them together. A fourth molecule called ATP is a microscopic form of fuel that gets consumed in the process. The new work shows that halofuginone gets its potency by interfering with the tRNA synthetase enzyme that attaches the amino acid proline to the appropriate tRNA. It does this by blocking the active site of the enzyme where both the tRNA and the amino acid come together, with each half of the halofuginone blocking one side or the other. Interestingly, said Schimmel, ATP is also needed for the halofuginone to bind. Nothing like that has ever been seen in biochemistry before. "This is a remarkable example where a substrate of an enzyme (ATP) captures an inhibitor of the same enzyme, so that you have an enzyme-substrate-inhibitor complex," said Schimmel. The article, "ATP-Directed Capture of Bioactive Herbal-Based Medicine on Human tRNA Synthetase," by Huihao Zhou, Litao Sun, Xiang-Lei Yang and Paul Schimmel was published in the journal Nature on December 23, 2012 This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health through grants #GM15539, #23562 and #88278 and by a fellowship from the National Foundation for Cancer Research. Contacts and sources: Mika Ono, Scripps Research Institute, Source: Nano Patents And Innovations, China to artificially breed rare golden monkeys: WUHAN, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- China is expected to set up
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"Trachypithecus geei (Assam, 2006)" by Yathin S Krishnappa - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.
the country's first artificial breeding base for the endangered golden monkeys within the year. The base will be set up in the Shennongjia Nature Reserve in central China's Hubei Province, which is home to about 1,200 golden monkeys, according to the reserve's management bureau's research institute. The base will help increase the population of the endangered golden monkeys in Shennongjia by conquering key technical problems, said Yang Jingyuan, director with the institute. Regarded as China's "state treasure," just like giant pandas, golden monkeys are classified as under top level protection. In natural conditions, the birth rate of Shennongjia golden monkeys is about 4 percent, with the survival rate of monkey cubs at only 6 percent. "It is still an unsolved scientific question why the golden monkeys in Shennongjia
  nuclear honed days of the Cold War, the Soviet Union developed a nuclear missile able to strike anywhere in the U.S. Loaded with multiple maneuverable warheads (MIRVs), while carrying decoys and chaff to keep from getting struck down, the missiles undermined the entire balance of power between the two superpowers and struck fear into hard hearts at the Kremlin and the Pentagon alike. When China successfully tested its DF-31A missile several days ago, it confirmed another country now has proven nuclear ability reach any city in the U.S. with precisely the type of missiles that troubled the U.S. decades ago. Source: Naval Open Source INTelligence. China to build two Antarctic research stations: Beijing, March 29 
"Adélie penguins in Antarctica, Antarctic Peninsula" by PaoMic - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.
(IANS) China plans to build two new research stations in Antarctica by 2015 and site inspections are already being conducted by an expedition team, authorities said. A summer station that can be used from December to March will be set up between the existing Zhongshan and Kunlun stations to provide replenishment and other logistical support, the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said Thursday. The station will be used to study geology, glaciers, geomagnetism and atmospheric science in Antarctica, reported Xinhua. A perennial station will also be built in Victoria Land in Antarctica by 2015. The station will allow researchers to carry out multi-disciplinary research on bio-ecology and satellite remote sensing, according to the SOA. China's three existing Antarctic research stations are the Great Wall, Zhongshan and Kunlun stations. Source: Article, China to create alternative to human breast milk: Beijing, April 15 China will soon create dairy products from milk
 produced by-genetically modified cattle and containing most of the nutrients as in human breast milk. The ministry of agriculture has given the go-ahead to test the "human-like" milk, which will be available in the Chinese market in two years, said Li Ning, a researcher at the State Key Laboratories for Agro-biotechnology at China Agricultural University. The milk, which cows produced after researchers tweaked their genetic codes, is rich in lactalbumin, lactoferrin, and lysozume - proteins that are found in human breast milk, according to Xinhua. "Such proteins can be easily absorbed by the human body and can boost the immune system, which is why breastfeeding is always better than using bovine milk and infant formula," said Li. Though not yet a perfect substitute for breast milk, as it lacks some antibodies and a protein that helps boost babies' intelligence, the milk had a potential for great marketing. "The milk pumped out by our cattle will be a cheap source for such rare proteins, which are precious components hailed by the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries," said Li. Though genetic engineering has been a rising technology, studied by pharmaceutical and biological industries and widely used to mass-producevaccines and drugs like insulin, food production is yet to gain international recognition. Similar concerns are present in the Chinese market, as consumers complain about lack of available information about the potential hazards of such food. "I think the scientists are doing a good thing (by developing genetically-modified milk) as it may help mothers who are unable to breast feed, but I, myself, won't drink such milk just because it contains more nutrients," said a consumer named Tan. Li Ning said they have highlighted the safety issue in their work, and that no research has yet indicated that such food was detrimental to human health. The modified milk has reportedly passed the safety test of the Chinese Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which said the milk "proved more Source: The Ultimate Update, Chinese scientists create brain cells from 
urine: More news on the stem cell front (not the embryonic kind). Chinese scientists have created brain cells from urine. Since there is no shortage of this and since collecting it is not invasive, their technique is very promising. It might be possible to treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease – which has been the Holy Grail of stem cell research. Writing in the journal Nature Methods, scientists from Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that they were able to reprogram the urine cells to become neural cells without passing through pluripotency. They did this with a clever technique which did not involve shuttling genes from genetically engineered viruses into the target cell. This seems to result in harmful mutations. Source: Bio-Edge, World's largest building opens in China: Move aside Dubai. China now has what is billed
 as the world's largest building - a vast, wavy rectangular box of glass and steel that will house shops, hotels, offices and a faux ocean beach with a huge LED screen for video sunsets. The mammoth New Century Global Center that opened last month in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu has 1.7 million square meters (19 million square feet) of floor space - or about 329 football fields - edging out the previous record-holder, the Dubai airport. The structure is half a kilometer long, 400 meters wide and 100 meters high. The New Century project is a sign that China's growth has spread from the country's more prosperous eastern and southern regions to the west, where wages are lower and the central government has encouraged development with subsidies and tax breaks. With its booming economy, China has become home to some of the largest and tallest buildings in the world. Backed by local governments, the building in a planned urban district south of Chengdu aims to boost the global stature  of the capital city of Sichuan province, known for its spicy cuisine. Once fully completed, the centerpiece of the building will be a water park with a 400-meter coast and beaches under a gigantic glass dome. Up to 6,000 visitors at a time will be able to sunbathe, play in a wave pool, sip cocktails or feast on seafood. A 150-meter-by-40-meter LED screen will rise above a section of water with videos of an 
ocean horizon. The center will include two five-star hotels as well as high-end boutiques set in a replica of a Mediterranean town under faux blue skies. The shopping section has been open to the public since late June, though the building's office space has been occupied for some time. The building also has a 14-screen movie theater and an ice rink. Images: http://lindaonu.blogspot.com/, Source: Hindustan Times, Chinese institute develops 100-megapixel camera: A Chinese institute claimed to have successfully developed a 100-megapixel camera which could produce high-resolution imaging in the fields of aerial mapping, disaster monitoring
and intelligent transportation systems. The IOE3-Kanban camera was developed by the Institute of Optics and Electronics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences making it China's highest pixel camera, CAS said in a statement. The camera is capable of producing images with 10,240 x 10,240 pixels, the statement said. Moreover, it is small and light, with its widest part measuring only 19.3 cm, state-run Xinhua quoted the statement as saying, adding that it can be used at temperatures ranging from minus 20 degrees centigrade to 55 degrees centigrade. Its high sensitivity and high dynamic range (HDR) features mean it will be useful in high-resolution imaging in the fields of aerial mapping, city planning, disaster monitoring and intelligent transportation systems, the statement said. Intelligent transportation system is aimed to provide innovative services relating to different modes of transport and traffic management, enabling various users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and 'smarter' use of transport networks. The camera is equipped with advanced optical systems, camera control systems and high-capacity data recording systems, and it has proven successful in a recent trial use as a part of a national aerial remote-sensing system, it said. The institute also developed an 81-megapixel camera during the 10th Five Year Plan period (2001-2005), and the latest achievement took the researchers two years to develop. A megapixel is one million pixels, and is a term used not only for the number of pixels in an image, but also to express the number of image sensor elements of digital cameras or the number of display elements of digital displays. Source: Article, ipanda.com: 24hour Chinese online channel on giant pandas: It’s
Nature 
"Grosser Panda" by J. Patrick Fischer - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.
probably the only such 24-hour online reality show in the world where the stars are not men and women out to prove their intelligence or guts but cuddly giant pandas going about their daily lives in gardens reserved for them. The new panda online channel – ipanda.com -- was officially launched in Beijing on Tuesday amid officials of the Communist Party of China (CPC), NGOs working on animal protection and foreign diplomats. It’s the world’s only round-the-clock and real time live broadcast of giant pandas. The panda is unique to China and the channel’s goal, as state media described it on Tuesday, was to convey the idea of “peace, friendliness and the greater public good.” The China Network Television (CNTV), a state-owned entity, has installed 28 high-definition video cameras in five garden areas at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwest China’s Sichuan province to follow the animals, hugely popular worldwide for their cute looks and soft nature. A fully equipped on-site television control room will ensure that the directors will be able to watch and switch between the different cameras. “Program directors will pick 11 cameras that capture the best footage for broadcast online,” CNTV officials told state-run Xinhua news agency. “Apart from live broadcasts, ipanda.com will also offer a new 30-minute panda-themed program each day and panda documentaries produced by CNTV, all on demand. These programs can also be watched via mobile terminals and will be available in both Chinese and English,” it said. Viewers will have the option of choosing from six categories including “garden for adult pandas”, “kindergarten” and “mother and child”. Giant pandas are one of the world's most endangered species. About 1,600 pandas live in the wild, mostly in the mountains of Sichuan, while more than 300 live in captivity. Source: Hindustan Times
Earth's Giant Hole: National Geographic Channel Presents: Earth's
Giant Hole, Summary: Professor Darryl Granger, explores China's tiankengs -- giant natural holes, hundreds of metres deep, which have developed in unusual environmental conditions, K2 Mountain, World's Second Tallest
Mountain With a peak elevation of 28,251 ft, K2 is the second tallest mountain on Earth, second from Mount Everest. It is part of the Karakoram Range, and is located on the border between the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China, and Gilgit, in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan. It's name is derived from the notation used by the Great Trigonometric Survey. Thomas Montgomerie made the
North side, the steepest side of K2. (Source)
first survey of the Karakoram from Mount Haramukh, some 210 km to the south, and sketched the two most prominent peaks, labelling them K1 and K2. Despite it's natural and captivating beauty, K2 is known as the Savage Mountain. This title is due to the difficulty of ascent, severe weather and the 2nd highest fatality rate of climber. In fact, one in every four people who reached the summit died trying to climb it. It is typically
K2 Climbers and crew. (Source)
China sent the artificially bred and trained panda into the Liziping Nature Reserve in southwest China on Thursday.[Photo/CFP]
wild in the southwest of the country, a move which authorities said marked a new phase for the nation's panda protection efforts. Born in the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan province in August 2010, "Taotao" is male and two years old. At 10:13 a.m. Thursday, it walked out of its cage, ran straight toward a bamboo forest in the Lipingzi Nature Reserve in Sichuan's county of Shimian, and embraced its new life. The release of Taotao to nature was the second of China's such efforts after it set free five-year-old "Xiangxiang" in 2006. However, the first try failed after Xiangxiang died during fights with other wild pandas for food and territory about a year after release. Scientists and experts later drew upon from the experience and improved training methods. In June 2010, the nation resumed small-scale training programs for pandas before returning them to nature. The new training focused on the panda cub learning from its mother. "As opposed to Xiangxiang's captive-bred environment, Taotao has lived and grown in semi-wild conditions since being very little. This means that its fighting capability and survival skills both improved significantly," said Zhang Hemin, director of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. Before Taotao's release, it had gone through three rounds of training in preparation for going back to the wild, according to the State Forestry Administration and the Sichuan provincial government, which jointly organized Thursday's panda release. Source: China.org.cn, Nature Beauty in China: Waters, If joined together, the natural rivers of
China reach a total length 10.5 times greater than the length of the Earth's equator. Among all the rivers, the Yellow River is affectionately known as the mother river of Chinese nation. The Yangtze River, the world third longest, enjoys great fame because of the numerous historic relics found along its banks and the beautiful legends about this vital waterway. Holding enchanting riverside scenery, Li River gathers the most astonishing natural beauty of northeast Guangxi by connecting Guilin and Yangshuo. Poyang, Dongting and Taihu Lakes are the top three freshwater lakes in China, which fertilize the fields around and make them towns of rice and fish. West Lake, the golden name card of Hangzhou and Thousand Islets Lake (Qian Dao Hu), the resplendent pearl of the city are hot scenic spots. Qinghai Lake, the largest inland salt lake in China, has the Bird Island as its most charming part, attracting lots of tourists. In addition, Beidaihe Scenic Spot, Qingdao Seashore Scenic Area, Beihai Silver Beach and Asian Dragon Bay (Yalong Wan) have top beaches for summer holiday.
Yangtze river: Winding about 3,964 miles, Yangtze River is the largest river in China and the third largest in the world after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America. Originating from the Tanggula Range in Qinghai Province in western China, the Yangtze River traverses eleven provinces and cities from west to east, including Qinghai, Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai. Finally it pours into the East China Sea at Shanghai.Acting as the largest water system in China, Yangtze River is historically, economically and culturally important to the country. Yangtze has numerous tributaries including Min River, Han River, Jialing River, Gan River and Huangpu River etc. The Three Gorges Dam on the river is the largest dam project and hydro-electric power station in the world. Generally, people consider the Yangtze River a dividing line between North China and South China. Areas to the north and the south of the river have many differences in climate, scenery, economics, culture and folk customs.
Yellow river: Known as the mother river by all the Chinese people, the 5,464-kilometer (about 3,395 miles) Yellow River is the second longest river in China after the Yangtze River . The headwaters of this mighty river lie in Kunlun Mountains in northwestern Qinghai Province. It runs through nine provinces and autonomous regions on its way to the Bohai Sea. It is not exaggerating to say that Yellow River is a melting port, because there are more than 30 branches and countless streams feeding it through its course. The vigorous upper reaches of the Yellow River starts in Qinghai Province to Hekouzhen in Inner Mongolia. This magnificent river flows quietly, like a shy girl in this section, irrigating the farmlands and nurturing the people. Its middle reaches ends at Taohuayu in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. Here the Yellow River splits the Loess Plateau in half, forming the longest continuous gorge in the whole drainage area of the river. The Yellow River's lower reaches ends in a delta on the Bohai Sea. It is agreed upon by almost all the Chinese people that the Yellow River is the cradle of Chinese civilization, the spiritual home of the Chinese people. It is the waters of the Yellow River and its spirit that nurture the whole Chinese nation. For thousands of years, the Yellow River has been admiring by literary giants, artists, as well as by the common people. The Yellow River is not just several letters, nor is it just the name of a yellow-ochre-colored river. It bears special significance: the symbol of the Chinese nation, the spirit of the Chinese people and more importantly, civilization itself. Neolithic (7,000 BC-3,700 BC), Bronze (3,700 BC-2,700 BC) and Iron Age Sites (770 BC), and so on can be found in the Yellow River's drainage basin, which had been the center of ancient Chinese culture since the Azilian (Middle Stone Age). Here, the story of three cultural heroes: Suiren-shi who taught the Chinese to make fire by drilling wood, Fu Hsi who was the inventor of hunting, trapping and fishing and Shennong-shi who invented agriculture, was spread. It was these three legendary individuals that began the development of civilization in the Yellow River basin. After that, many ancient Chinese emperors, like Emperor Qin Shi Huang, Genghis khan (1162-1227, grandfather of Kublai Khan who is the first emperor of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368)) pushed the Yellow River civilization to a wholly new level of refinement, grace and spirituality which drew the attention of the whole world. Rich cultural relics, history and gorgeous natural sceneries make the Yellow River a fine place to visit. Along the Yellow River, there are dozens of worthwhile attractions.
Li River: The Li River cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo is the centerpiece of any trip to northeastern Guangxi Province. Gorgeous Karst peaks give you surprises at each bend of the limpid river under the blue sky. Water buffalo patrol the fields, peasants reap rice paddies, school kids and fisherman float by on bamboo rafts. With its breathtaking scenery and taste of a life far removed from the concrete metropolis, the scenery along the Li River become one of China's top tourist destinations.
QingHai Lake: From ancient times to the present, whenever people mention Qinghai Lake they think of 'green lake', 'blue sea' or 'fairyland', because of the marvelous natural beauty reflected on it. As to the area, it is the largest inland and salt water lake in China. It is no exaggeration to say that Qinghai Lake is a miracle that is endowed by a deity. Outside, he circles the lake with four continuous mountains and extends broad grassland at the foot of them. Inside, like a master baker, he decorated the water with many little islands. All these natural attractions come together perfectly to form a Xanadu on earth to win many tourists' favor. Shaped like an ellipse, Qinhai Lake lies northwest of the imposing Qinghai Altiplano, 150 km. (93.21 miles) away from Xining in Qinghai Province. It reaches 28.71 m. (77.79 feet) at the deepest point but averages 19 meters (62.34 feet) overall. With an altitude of 3, 195 m. (10, 482.28 feet) high, the climate surrounding the lake is very cool. Even in the middle of the summer, the average temperature in the daytime is about 15C (59 F), which is why it is often selected as a summer resort. The lake offers year-round pleasure. Many prefer when it is a green and lively world. The mountains and grassland wear a green blanket with herds of cattle and sheep dispersed over the grassland. The bank is connected with stretching farmlands, which is prospering with blooming rape flowers and rolling with wheat waves, sending blasts of fragrance to the lake. The water of the lake is also very limpid, which reflects the pretty green mountains in the deep like a mirror. The color changes with time and varies in different depth of the lake, which produces a sense of mystery, hence the name 'Seven-Colored Lake'. As a result of the teeming fish on the lake, the mouth of the nearby river has a yellow color to it as the fish float close to the surface. Many birds are also attracted to this beautiful lake and bountiful surroundings, resulting in this place being a kingdom for birds' watchers. When the cold winter comes, the world becomes a bit quieter and duller, but the glamour of Qinghai Lake doesn't diminish much. At this time, the leaf-yellow mountains put on a new suit of clothes as they become blanketed with new-fallen snow. The snow and ice covered surface of the lake shines brightly in the sun, adding another degree of beauty to the lake. The famous 'Icy Fish' are very easy to catch at this time because they are confined by the ice. An interesting fact is that when a hole is dug in the ice, it is easy to trick the fish out of the water. The famous spots here are Haixin Shan (Hill of the Sea Heart), Shadao (Sand Island) and Niaodao (Bird Island), which are all islands in the lake. Each has their own wonders. Haixin Shan, also called 'Immortal Hill', has temples, lucid springs and green grassland on the island. It is said that Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty (581-618) had particularly ordained officials to raise horses here. Shadao is famous for its sand scenery, which is also a good place for swimming. Niaodao is the kingdom of birds, which can amount to more than 10 thousand in the summer. Qinghai Lake is really a good place for travelers. Apart from embracing the heavenly beauty here, you can either stroll on the grass or ride on a yak, climb the sand hill or visiting the historic remains left on the Tang-Tubo ancient road or the Silk Road. If you are more sociable, the hospitable local people will warmly welcome you as you visit their homes and enjoy a taste of the Tibetan life. In addition, tents and various delicious foods are provided for the tourists in the pastures.
West Lake: These are the words composed by the famous Song Dynasty poet Su Dongpo (960-1127) when he compared the West Lake to Xi Zi, the most beautiful woman in ancient China. These poetic sentiments leave one in no doubt of the glory of the scenery that inspired them. Originally a shallow sea inlet, due to the laying down of silt this 5.68 square kilometers (about 1,404 acres) of water became the famous West Lake. With an average depth of just five feet the lake comprises five distinct sections. The largest part is known as the Outer Lake and it is bounded by the North Inner Lake, Yuehu Lake, West Inner Lake and Lesser South Lake. Held in the embrace of hilly peaks on three sides, this water wonderland has been an attraction for centuries and it is small wonder that it was a favourite imperial retreat. The lake and its environs have all the elements of a traditional Chinese garden but on a grand scale. The natural setting of strangely shaped peaks, serene forests and springs, dense foliage and a myriad of blossoms especially in springtime are enhanced by a treasury of sculpture and architectural features. Whatever the season, the panorama is pleasing to the eye and the nuances of light shade together with the moods of the weather present an ever-changing picture that justifiably has been described as 'intoxicating'. A number of specific features can be singled out as worthy of particular note. To the south of centre of the Outer Lake is a man made island known as the Island of Little Oceans, that encloses four small lakes. From here one can view the Three Pools Mirroring the Moon when at night candles are lit in stone lanterns jutting out of the water thus creating the impression of the reflections of three moons. The scene is truly magical on the night of the Autumn Moon Festival.Solitary Hill Island lies between the Outer Lake and the north Inner Lake and is an ideal spot from which to admire the vista. The nearby Two Peaks Embracing the Sky is another impressive sight, especially when crossing the lake by boat. Source: http://paradisechina.blogspot.com/. Nature Beauty in China: Mountains: A mountain has its unique character - magnificent, imposing or elegant. The Five Most Famous Mountains can be the representative of all mountains in China. Mount Taishan in Shandong is the most revered; Shaolin Temple brought worldwide fame to the Song Mountain in Henan; Mt Huashan in Shaanxi is precipitous; Hengshan in Shanxi has jagged ranges and Mt. Hengshan in Hunan is elegant in appearance.Many mountains epitomize different religions and cultures. Mt.
 Jiuhua in Anhui, Mt. Emei in Sichuan, Mt. Putuoshan in Zhejiang and Mt. Wutai in Shanxi are the most noted Buddhist holy mountains. While Mt. Huangshan in Anhui, Mt. Laoshan in Shandong, Wudang Mountain in Hubei, Mount Wuyi in Fujian, Mt. Qingcheng in Sichuan and Dragon and Tiger Mountain in Jiangxi are well-known Taoist holy mountains. Mt. Huangshan seems to enjoy exceptionally high reputation. It is said to boast of combining the masculine grandeur of Mount Taishan, the mist and clouds of Hengshan in Hunan, and the grotesque splendor of Mt. Huashan. That's why the old saying goes as having no wish to see any of the five most famous mountains if having seen Mt. Huangshan. Mountain Tai: The leader of the 
'Five Sacred Mountains', Mt. Tai is located in the center of Shandong Province, lying across the cities of Tai'an, Jinan and Zibo. Its main peak, Jade Emperor Summit, which is within Tai'an City, is about 1532.7 meters (5,029 feet) high. It epitomizes splendid Chinese culture and was listed in the World Natural and Cultural Heritage List of UNESCO in 1987. In ancient times, the first thing for an emperor to do on ascending to the throne was to climb Mount Taishan and pray to heaven and earth or their ancestors. It was said that 72 emperors of different dynasties made pilgrimages to this mountain. These special ceremonies and sacrifices earned the mountain widespread fame. In addition, many poets and literary scholars also visited the mountain to gain inspiration. The grandiose temples, the numerous stone inscriptions and stone tablets are the best testaments to these visits. Mt. Tai also played an important role in the development of Buddhism and Taoism. Taishan Mountain is a natural museum abounding with cultural relics and artworks. Heavenly Queen Pool, Red Gate Palace, Mid-Heaven Gate, Azure Cloud Temple are powerful examples. Stone carvings include the Buddhist Diamond Sutra in Jing Shi Valley, the Scripture of Mt. Tai and the Mo Ya Tablet. Besides historic relics, Mount Taishan boasts unique natural scenery too. The lofty peaks, deep valleys, spectacular waterfalls, enchanting rocks and the centuries-old pines and cypresses will undoubtedly encourage you linger with no thought of leaving. The four wonders of the mountain are Sunrises from the East, the Sunset Glow, the Sea of Clouds and the Golden Belt along the Yellow River. It would be a great pity to miss the four wonders. Mountain Hua: Situated in Huayin City, 120 kilometers
(about 75 miles) east from Xi'an City of Shaanxi Province, Mt. Huashan is known as 'The Number One Precipitous Mountain under Heaven'. It is one of the five sacred mountains in China In ancient times, Mt. Huashan was called Mt. Taihuashan. From a distance the five peaks seem to form the shape of a 'flower' (hua in Chinese), hence the name 'Huashan'. It is famous for its natural vistas of steep and narrow paths, precipitous crags, and a high mountain range. It is home to several influential Taoist temples where emperors of past dynasties made pilgrimages, making Mt. Huashan the holy land of Taoism. Mountain Song: Song Mountain lies in Dengfeng city, in the heart of Henan Province and about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of its
capital, Zhengzhou. Song Mountain, which is also known as Zhong Yue (middle mountain), is known as one of the Five Mountains of China. The others in this group are Tai mountain in Shandong Province, Hua Mountain in Shaanxi Province, Mount Heng in Shanxi Province and Mount Hengin Hunan Province. Song Mountain has fine natural scenery. Its 72 mountains, grouped around the peaks of Mount Shaoshi and Mount Taishi, extend for about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from east to west. Besides these mountains, there are many valleys, caves, pools and waterfalls, each of which provides the visitor with a unique and wonderful experience. The landscape is so unique that it has been given the title of 'International Geological Park' by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The history of Song Mountain is as rich and interesting as its landscape. Its proximity to Luoyang, the ancient capital city of nine different dynasties, made it an essential place for emperors to offer sacrifices to their ancestors and the gods and to confer the crown to their heirs. This has left many sites of historic and cultural interest in this area. The beauty of the area's scenery also led to many scholars, eminent monks and famous Taoists chose this area as an important place to give lectures, explain Buddhist sutras and develop the teachings of different religions. Practitioners of the three faiths of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism absorbed ideas from each other, which led to their three belief systems growing closer together. Song Mountain is the birthplace of China Zen Buddhism, and is the home of many wondrous temples, includingShaolin Temple, the largest pagoda forest in China, Ta Lin (meaning pagoda forest) and the most ancient pagoda in China, Songyue Temple pagoda. A visitor can also visit the oldest cypress, as well as the earliest star observation platform in China. What makes Song Mountain different from the rest of the Five Mountains is its profound and extensive cultural history. For this reason, a visit to Song Mountain will be greatly rewarding for scholars of religion, physical culture, astronomy, archaeology, geology, art, and architecture, as well as for travelers with a passion for beauty and history. Mountain Yellow: Of all the notable mountains in China, Yellow Mountain (Mt.
Huangshan), to be found in the south of Anhui province, is probably the most famous. Originally known as Mt. Yishan it was renamed Mt. Huangshan in 747 AD in recognition of the legendary Huang Di, who was the reputed ancestor of the Chinese people and who made magic pills for immortality here. Wu yue is the collective name given to China's most important mountains, namely Mt. Taishan in Shandong Province, Mt. Huashan in Shaanxi Province, Mt. Hengshan in Shanxi Province, Mt. Songshan in Henan Province and Mt. Hengshan in Hunan Province. It is said that you won't want to visit any other mountains after seeing wu yue but you won't wish to see even wu yue after returning from Yellow Mountain. This saying may give you some idea of the beauty and uniqueness of Yellow Mountain. Together with the Yellow River, the Yangtze River and the Great Wall, Yellow Mountain has become one of the great symbols of China. Yellow Mountain can boast not only of its magnificence but also its abundant resources & great array of zoological species, for which it listed as a World Natural-Cultural Heritage Site. Source: http://paradisechina.blogspot.com/
Yinlianzhui Waterfall: the most graceful waterfall: Located in the stone forest area in Tianxing Bridge Scenic Spot, the waterfalls are only 10-odd meters high. The top of the waterfall is in a filler-shape, while the bottom of the waterfall is a trough-shape limestone pool. Round rocks stand out on the pool, looking like lotus
leaves. The river, divided into several parts by the rocks, spreads down like silver chains, dripping into the pool leisurely. Yinlianzui waterfalls are neither the highest nor the widest one in the Huangguoshu waterfalls cluster, but they are definitely the most graceful. Hukou waterfall: the world’s first yellow waterfall: Hukou waterfall is famous all over the world for its magnificence. The
place situates between two mountains and the water of Yellow River made it a grand valley which is 30 meters wide and 50 meters deep. When the surging water of Yellow River flows here, the sounds of the water, like the roar of thousands of lions, can be heard several miles away. The scenery is so wonderful that it beyond your imagination. Diaoshuilou Waterfall: The Greatest Volcanic Waterfall: Ten thousand years ago the volcanoes, erupting formed lava grottos of various sizes. When the lake water dropped from the fracture surface of the lava grottos into the grottos, the spectacular waterfalls were eventually
formed. The lake water rolls and roars in the bedrock, just as mighty force rushing toward the deep pool, and falls straightly from the breaking cliffs and crags, throwing itself into the circle kettle hole finally. The spoon drifts in deep pool water are splashing, just as cloud drift, piles of snow or penetrating mist. Lushan Waterfall Group: The Most Poetical Waterfall: Lushan Waterfall
group is has its history that many ancient Chinese literati composed poems and wrote messages here, which also bring a high reputation to the magnificent waterfall. Known as the first wonders of Lushan, Sandie Fall is the most famous one of Lushan Waterfall group. Lushan waterfall group shows her flirtatious expressions to the world in different styles. Jiuzhaigou Waterfall Group: The Most Uncontaminated Waterfall Group: Jiuzhaigou waterfall group covers several waterfalls. A Shuzheng waterfall stretches several kilometers. The 19 small and big lakes as well as the trees and waterfalls will afford you a splendid and magnificent natural view. With the highest drop 40m and width of 310 meter, the Pearl
Beach Waterfall drops from the cliff and forms a crescent waterfall. Walking down the plank path, you will have a lull view of the waterfall. Its roaring, splashing, and rushing create the best water sight of Jiuzhaigou. The plank trail on the left of the rapids is the most ideal place to view the splashes of the waterfall. Huangguoshu Waterfall: The Greatest Waterfall in China: Huangguoshu Waterfall, a milky way in
miniature, is the largest waterfall in Asia. Seventy-four meters high and eighty-one meters wide, it is a scenic marvel. The charms of Huangguoshu Waterfall are a natural tourist drawing card. Its flow is seasonally adjusted. A reservoir behind the waterfall holds back some of the water. Liusha Waterfall: The Most Exquisite Waterfall: Liusha Waterfall is famous for its greatest drop in
China. It falls from the cliffs above and vacates with high water head, pouring down and scattering into the quicksand-like. No overpowering momentum, no roaring sound, But, its impalpable soft temperament lingers in the hearts of the audience. Detian Waterfall: The Largest Waterfall in Asia: The changing seasons transform the natural scenery of the waterfall throughout the year. In spring, the flame-red blossoms of the kapok trees that surround the waterfall are in full bloom, symbolizing success. Throughout the autumn months, though, the area around the waterfall turns golden-yellow, creating a harvest scene. In the summer, visitors feel a
complete freedom of mind and ease of spirit as they see the waters of the fall cascade with the momentum force of an avalanche. During winter, on the other hand, the fall's clear water drops slowly, making visitors feel even-tempered and good-humored. The Detian Waterfall appears to be a sculpture made by nature. Source: Article, Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_dragon, Source: Paradise China. Music: www.Mp3Olimp.net Remark: Open images url and paste to find it’s source of sharing, also get connect with each source of sharing articles via specified links. Our Sites unique and other links (if there will be any) are available just for the requirement of the subject not for increasing circulations, as we are not in the promotion of any kind its all for very special issues, personalities etc. |
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