Yellow Mountain Pines

Located in the south of Anhui Province, with an area of about 1,200 square kilometers, Yellow Mountain is known as "the loveliest mountain in China". It is famous for magnificent scenery whatever the season: granite peaks, strangely shaped rocks, gnarled trees, hot springs, waterfalls, and a sea of clouds. When I went to Yellow Mountain last time, I was shocked by the odd-shaped pines.

There are many scenic spots, which are named by the famous pines. The most famous one is the Welcoming Guest Pine. This pine looks like a person opening his arms to welcome the visitors. It has become the symbol of Yellow Mountain. Nearly every Chinese knows this tree and everyday there are lots of Chinese tourists standing in a long queue to wait to take a picture with this pine. It has been highly protected by using the steel wire to support its branches.

Apart from the Welcoming Guest Pine, there are many other well-known pines, such as the Solidarity Pine, the Lover Pine, the Brothers Pine, the Umbrella Pine and the Brush Pine, etc. Go and feast your eyes on these beautiful pines.

Yellow Mountain Hiking

Last year, I went to Yellow Mountain with my colleagues in November. After we took the Yungu cable car up the mountain, we thought that we had almost arrived at the top of Yellow Mountain. When we came out of the cable car, we realized that we were totally wrong. There was still a long way to walk to our hotel, which is in the West Sea area. We had to walk, and even climb, lots of steps to get there.

As tour advisors, we all work in the office. There are few chances for us to do exercise, let alone hiking. That time was a very good bit of exercise. We began to walk along the road to our hotel in the West Sea. On the way, we visited Shixin Peak (Beginning To Believe Peak), Old Man Rock and the Brush Pine. We were very excited and took lots of beautiful pictures. It took us about one hour to get to our hotel. In the afternoon, we went to the West Sea Grand Canyon, which is famous for its magnificent scenery and steep stone steps. It is the most famous hiking place in Yellow Mountain. There are actually three circuits in this Grand Canyon. If the people are not professional hikers, they could finish the first and second circuits. Professional hikers usually can complete the three circuits, and this requires lots of energy. We went round the second circuit and found that there were many beautiful unknown flowers and plants with red, green or blue seeds. Some big birds sang melodious songs among the trees. It was quite a different world, isolated from outside. After we climbed up to the top, sunset had just come. What a great view, watching the sunset beside the imposing peaks, spectacular rocks, and odd-shaped pines!It was a very nice experience to do some hiking in the West Sea Grand Canyon.

If you have a chance to visit Yellow Mountain, I strongly recommend you try the Grand Canyon hike. Though it is not as famous as Great Wall biking, or as gorgeous as hiking at Tiger Leaping Gorge, or as picturesque as hiking along the Li River, it will give you a different feeling about how a mountain can be, with its elegance, peacefulness and splendor.

China may Resume May Golden Week

According to updated information from the National People's Congress, China is possibly going to resume May Golden Week.

China started having May Golden Week in 1999. From then on, Chinese people got a short holiday from May 1^st to May 7^th each year. It was called Golden Week as people went out to travel, and this holiday really helped expand domestic demand in the tourism sector.

However, May Golden Week was replaced by a one-day holiday in 2007. It was suggested by a special panel, after more than one year's research was posted on the internet for public discussion. The 7-day holiday was replaced due to people not being able to enjoy their quality holiday. Since most people went out for travel, it was extremely crowed at the attractions, and the room rate at hotels was quite expensive, even twice that of common days. Because of the research, China decided to shorten the May Golden Week to a one-day holiday.

However, after research in 2008, which said that lots of people were appealing for May Golden Week to resume, this year some representatives of the National People's Congress appealed for May Golden Week to resume. According to current information, the central government may ask local governments to resume May Golden Week. Guangdong is the first province to resume May Golden Week. And Chongqing is on the way to do it as well.

Carnival Theme Park besides Bird Nest will open in Mar

With the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games held successfully, The National Stadium, where the fabulous openning ceremony was held, also called Bird Nest is quite popular among the tourists coming to China recently. now just beside it, a carnival theme park will open in this month (around Mar. 18). It is said that a dutch-designed white ferris wheel standing 44m tall will be the its main attractions (scared), also the exciting roller coaster will be finished in this year. so people have one more choice for weekend now (Happy Valley, Universal carnival theme park and anther big theme parks were open in recent 4 years)

One day trip in Xiong Village

March is the best month for bloom watching. So, I decided to choose Xiong Village as my destination this time. After 40 minutes driving from downtown Guilin, we began 2 hours of walking in the fields.It was definitely a relaxed place, ideal to refresh my mind, although the weather was a little cold that day. :p

Well, just enjoy the beautiful pictures taken on the way, below:


1.Rape seed flowers
2. Wild rape seed flowers
3.Sweet Rocket
4.Grass


Ancient Xiong Village

Local Flavors Make Up the Food Styles

General speaking, Chinese food can be divided into four kinds based on the local flavors.
(1) Shandong Food
There are more than 2500 kinds of Shandong food. It is the food that impacts most greatly and spreads most widely in China. Shandong food is famous for the flavor of its good –looking, tasty and refreshing. The foods almost are made in the ways of frying and quick-boiling. Shandong is rich in sea foods and it has the famous dishes croaker in sweet and sauce, fried carp with sauce, fried pomfret and so on.
(2) Sichuan Food
Sichuan food is famous for refreshing and spicy taste, and flavor in the various condiments and the change of temperature. When discussing Sichuan food, we cannot help thinking of the hot pot. “毛肚火锅”—the thick soup hot pot is the famous hot pot in Sichuan. “麻婆豆腐”-- mapo bean curd, “宫保鸡丁”--salted chicken cubes with chili and peanuts, “怪味鸡”—savory chicken,“干烧鲤鱼”--fried carp are very popular as well.
(3) Jiangsu, Zhejiang Food
This kind of food is well situated with salt and sweet, and majors in the material of seafoods. There are famous dishes like “盐水鸭”—salty ducks, “松子熏肉”--Pine nut smoked streaky pork, and “松鼠桂鱼”--Mandarin fish in the shape of a squirrel。
(4) Guangdong Food
Guangdong food is famous for its sundry materials. The natives say exaggeratedly that everything can be eaten. Freshing, tendering, appetizing are what the native people pursue. The famous Guangdong foods are “龙虎斗”—dragon and tiger fight in lock, “爽口牛丸”—refreshing beef balls, “片皮乳猪”-- slices of cover sucking pig and so on.

Chinese Food

We Chinese have such saying “民以食为天”—the masses regard food as their heaven. Chinese food, considered as the healthiest food in the world, is one of the highlights of Chinese culture, which attracts foreigners so deeply that it is very popular in western countries. Although Chinese restaurant shares a big part of restaurant industry in the west, many foreigners would like to come to China to taste the orthodox Chinese food.
Food industry is the biggest industry in the world. People must eat food every day at any place. A good introduction of Chinese food plays an important part in attracting foreigners for Chinese restaurants, which are in China or in western countries. It also promotes the development of food industry, and other industries are impacted indirectly, such as tourism, hotel, transport, and handicraft. The developing meaning of food industry is not only on the economy, but the development also promotes the international communication between different countries.
To attract foreigners to taste the food, firstly, what we should do is to let them know the attractive Chinese food and the profound food culture. Introducing the Chinese food to foreigners is actually a process of translation, the translation of food names and food culture. Chinese foods are named in many ways. When we translate the names of food, we should not only focus on the materials or the ways of cooking. What the most important is to maintain the arts of our Chinese food, and how to attract people to try the food listing on the menu. So a beautiful and imaginable name is an attractive point for Chinese food.

Obama won the dance off

I watched a clip today of Obama and McCain dancing together. It is a great execution on a viral video with face swapping technology - unbelievable technology. But I am more surprised by the fact that people in western countries make fun of their president. Don’t get me wrong, I am not criticizing, but wondering why people who live in the east tend to not make fun of their chairman or leaders.

Jane Eyre ― A Beautiful Soul

Jane Eyre ― A Beautiful Soul

 
Jane Eyre is a poor but aspiring, small in body but huge in soul, obscure but self-respecting girl. After we close the covers of the book, after having a long journey of the spirit, Jane Eyre, a marvelous figure, has left us so much to recall and to think:

We remember her goodness: for someone who lost arms and blinded in eyes, for someone who despised her for her ordinariness, and even for someone who had hurt her deeply in the past.

We remember her pursuit of justice. It's like a companion with the goodness. But still, a virtuous person should promote the goodness on one side and must check the badness on the other side.

We remember her self-respect and the clear situation on equality. In her opinion, everyone is the same at the God's feet. Though there are differences in status、in property and also in appearance, but all the human being are equal in personality.

We also remember her striving for life, her toughness and her confidence…

When we think of this girl, what she gave us was not a pretty face or a transcendent temperament that make us admire deeply, but a huge charm of her personality.

Her story makes us thinking about life and we learn much from her experience, at least, that is a fresh new recognition of the real beauty.

 

 

By Sissi

Learn to love and care

Learn to love and care（雾都孤儿）

Here I am sitting on a couch alone, thinking about what I have just finished reading with tears of sadness filling my eyes and fire of indignation filling my heart, which revived my exhausted soul that has already been covered by the cruelty and the selfishness of the secular world for a long time. It is truly what I felt after reading Oliver Twist, written by the prominent British author Charles Dickens.

The resonance between me and the book makes me feel not only the kindness and the wickedness of all the characters in the novel, but what this aloof society lacks, and what I lack deep inside. These supreme resources I'm talking about right now are somewhat different from minerals, oil that we usually mention. They're abstract like feelings, and some kinds of spiritual stimulation that all of us desire anxiously from one another ―― love and care.

Those charitable figures whom Dickens created in the novel are really what we need in life. They showed love and care to others, just as the gentle rain from the sky fell upon the earth, which was carved into my heart deeply.
Mr. Brownlow is one such person.

The other day he had one of his elaborate watches stolen by two skilled teenage thieves, Artful Dodger and Charley Bates, and thought naturally it was Oliver, who was an orphan and forced to live with a gang of thieves, which had done it because he was the only one near by after the theft had taken place. Being wrathful, he caught Oliver, and sent him to the police station where the ill-tempered, unfair magistrates worked. Fortunately for him, Oliver was proved innocent by one onlooker afterwards. With sympathy, Mr. Brownlow took the injured, poor Oliver to his own home. There Oliver lived freely and gleefully for some months as if he were Mr. Brownlow's own son. One day, however, Mr. Brownlow asked Oliver to return some books to the bookseller and to send some money for the new books that he had already collected. The thief Oliver once stayed with kidnapped him. After that he disappeared in Mr. Brownlow's life. Searching for a while, Mr. Brownlow had to believe the fact that he had run away with his money. But dramatically, they came across each other again a few years later. Without hesitation, Mr. Brownlow took Oliver home for the second time not caring if he had done something evil.

Perhaps most of us would feel confused about Mr. Brownlow's reaction. But as a matter of fact, this is just the lesson we should learn from him. Jesus said in the Bible. "Forgive not seven times, but seventy-times seven." Why is that? Because forgiveness is our ability to remove negative thoughts and neutralize them so our energy may be spent on doing what we came here for. We cannot move forward in our future if past issues cloud our thinking. Stop put Mr. Brownlow into the list of your models. Always give people a second chance no matter what they might have done. That's also a substantial part of loving and caring others.

Charles Dickens said: "Love makes the world go around." These immortal words have inspired and will keep on inspiring us to chant the melody of love and to say the prayer of care forevermore. Let us, therefore, enjoy life and treat other people lovingly. These principles are the roots and foundations of beliefs supporting this article and our mission together.  

 

By Sissi