Study and Explore in China to Expand Your Horizon: 2015

Wednesday, 14 October 2015

Explore in China - Amazing Twilight View in Burqin

Burqin (布尔津县), located on the top tip of the Chinese map, is the only small county in west China that borders with Russia, Kazakstan and Mongolia. It is located at the southwest foot of Altay Mountains and the northern edge of Junggar Basin. It gets its name from the Burqin River, which flows into the Erqis River. Erqis River is the only one flows towards the west, discharging itself into the Arctic Ocean.

In the Western Han Dynasty (206BC – 24AD), this county was the pasture land of the Huns. In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it was under the control of Turkic.

The county is sparsely populated; there are only about eight people per square kilometer.

The name of Burqin means a person who herds camels. Few people may know Burqin, but speaking of Kanas, everyone knows about it. What people also do not know is how breathtaking the dusk of Burqin can be. -Photos/People's Daily Online

Tajik People Living on Pamirs Plateau

Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County (sometimes spelled Tashkorgan, Taxkorgan, Taj Qurghan, etc.) is one of the counties of Kashgar Prefecture in western Xinjiang, China.

Tashkurgan County is located in the eastern part of the Pamir Plateau, where the Kunlun, Karakoram, Hindukush and Tian Shan mountains come together, at the borders with Afghanistan (Wakhan Corridor), Tajikistan (Gorno-Badakhshan Province) and Pakistan (Gilgit-Baltistan). The county seat is Tashkurgan Town.

During the Han dynasty, Tashkurgan was known as Puli (蒲犁); during the Tang dynasty, it was a protectorate of the Parthians, during the Yuan dynasty it was part of the Chaghatai empire. Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County was created in 1954 and is part of the district of Kashgar.

Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County on the Pamirs Plateau is one of the four stone cities of the world.

Tajik is a general designation for a wide range of Persian-speaking people of Iranian origin, with traditional homelands in present-day Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Tajik people, one of China’s ethnic minorities, lives there.

The Tajik nationality in China speaks two distinct languages: Sarikoli and Wakhi. The Tajik are probably the one group in China most unlike the Han Chinese. They are a Caucasian people with light skin. Many have green or blue eyes and fair hair. They speak a Persian (Iranian) language which is part of the Indo-European language group. The term Tajik is applied to various Iranianspeaking groups of Central Asia in differing ways.

Three quarters of China's Tajiks speak Sarikoli. It is described as "a language entirely different from the majority language spoken in Tajikistan."

The Tajik in China do not have their own written script, but some use the Uygur orthography. The two Tajik languages in China are reportedly different enough that speakers from each group must use Uygur to communicate.

The Tajik people in China still maintain a simple and traditional lifestyle. Below are photos about their life in Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County (Photos/www.81.cn) - en.people.cn

More Chinese Restaurants in US than McDonald's Stores Worldwide

Experts estimate that there are more than 40,000 Chinese restaurants in the US now, a number that outstrips the total number of McDonald’s outlets in the world, estimated at 36,000.

The menu for the Port Arthur restaurant in New York, circa 1920s. Source: coolculinaria.com

Chinese food has been around in the US since the mid-1800s, when a huge influx of Chinese immigrants came to California during the Gold Rush.

The newcomers started opening restaurants and eventually began settling elsewhere thanks to the railroad expansion. That resulted in the establishment of Chinatowns all over the place.

For decades, Chinese food was considered exotic and available only if you ventured to a predominantly Chinese neighborhood. But today, you can walk almost anywhere in the US and you're likely to come across not just one, but multiple Chinese restaurants.

More Chinese restaurants in US than McDonald’s stores worldwide

Yong Chen, Authur of the book “Chop Suey, USA: The Story of Chinese Food In America,” found that the reason for the growth of Chinese restaurants in the US primarily economic and not culinary.

As wages rose in the early 20th century, Chen found that the middle class wanted the same perks as the wealthy – including the privilege of eating food cooked by others.

Meanwhile, Chinese food came in the US when there was no “take-out” culture. Chinese immigrants, barred from most jobs by virulent discrimination, found work in the cities primarily by opening restaurants that offered delivery and take-out food.

Soon Americans began embracing their new neighborhood Chinese restaurants as special places where they could be treated to a meal they didn’t have to cook, and gradually, they began appreciating the flavors of the exotic cuisine.

Today, almost all regions of China are represented in restaurants across the US - clear indication that Chinese cuisine has earned a permanent place on American palates and plates. (Edited by Pan Mengchen, Source - CCTV news)

Holland College Expanding China Programs

College plans to grow from 1,200 to more than 2,000 students in educational joint ventures

Instructors from Holland College travel regularly to China to offer mirror versions of their programs. (Holland College)

Holland College is expanding its presence in China as it celebrates 15 years of offering three-year diploma programs to students in that country.

The college was a pioneer of the in-China delivery model, where students complete the entire program in their home country but receive a diploma from Holland College as well as their institution in China.

The curriculum material is the same as the two-year program on P.E.I. but the Chinese students also do a full year of English-language training.

Eight institutions in China offer eight Holland College programs through the educational joint ventures project:

computer information systems
international hospitality management
marketing and advertising management
business Administration
golf club management
early childhood care and education
electromechanical technology
computer networking technology.

And now there are plans to expand to four more Chinese colleges.

Golf club management is one of eight Holland College programs offered in China. (Holland College)

"We should hopefully go from 1,200 students to over 2,000 students," said Dave Beaton, the college's director of programs.

"People in China are seeing the results of their sister institutions and they're wanting to come on board as well."

Golf club management is one of eight Holland College programs offered in China. (Holland College)

Holland College's style of teaching is very different from what students in China are used to, says Beaton.

'Incredible' and 'challenging'

"The traditional Chinese model of learning is very much rote, where an instructor is standing at the head of the classroom and it's just repetitive, repetitive, repetitive. Very little hands-on training. And our model at Holland College has always been competency-based. You learn more by doing."

Beaton says more than 2,000 students in China have received diplomas from Holland College over the last 15 years.

Although the college knew the program was growing and that it was successful, it was nice to see it first hand, says Maria Driscoll, director of the college's international office, who has visited China twice.

"It was incredible to walk in the door of a classroom in China and to see the Holland College posters up on the wall and to see the excitement with which they greeted the people that came to visit."

Instructor Shawn MacDonald has taught in China 10 times since 2008.

"It's an incredible experience. It's challenging. We're giving instruction in English, but we do have Chinese counterparts, we have co-teachers in the classroom with us and they can help us translate to the students. But, ultimately, we want to deliver the programs in English for the students," said MacDonald.

There are plans to celebrate the project's 15th anniversary this fall when a delegation of Chinese educators will visit the Island.

Holland College president Brian McMillan has been involved with the educational joint ventures since they started 15 years ago. (Holland College) - cbc.ca

Who Tops the Class – 'China Tigers' or 'Western Softies'?

Beijing Letter: BBC documentary sparks debate on education philosophy

Children at Chongshan primary school in southern China’s Guangxi. One head teacher told the BBC website that Chinese teaching methods were on a collision course with teenage British culture and values. Photograph: Johannes Eisele/AFP

"SET" - Work to Create Entrepreneurship City Gets Going

The capital of Sichuan has far more to offer than just pandas and hotpots.

An artist’s impression of the first phase of the new airport in Chengdu, which will be finished by 2018

Pandas and hotpot are often the first two things that most people learn about the city of Chengdu.

However, the capital of Sichuan province has far more to offer.

• Milan Expo visitors get a taste of Chengdu

One thing many people don’t know is that one out of every five desktop computers worldwide is made in the city, one out of every two laptops have their chips packaged and tested in Chengdu and two out of every three iPads also come from the provincial capital.

Chengdu has long been home to big companies, including Intel and Dell.

A total of 265 Fortune Global 500 companies have a presence in the city and more are arriving to make the most of the opportunities offered by national strategies to develop the Silk Road Economic Belt, the Yangtze River Economic Zone and Tianfu New Area.

Local officials said the Tianfu New Area would change Chengdu Plain’s single-centre pattern of cities, which has lasted thousands of years, into a double-centre pattern.

'' Chengdu will be built into an internationally renowned city of innovation by 2025 ''

The core area stretching from Tianfu Square to Tianfu New Area is not only the central axis in the geographical sense, but the axis line in terms of economy, industries, transportation and cultural landscape in the double-centre pattern of cities.

Earlier this year, the city government initiated the Entrepreneurial Tianfu programme to encourage university students, scientific and technological professionals and overseas workers to start businesses and boost innovation in the city.

According to the plan, Chengdu will be built into an internationally renowned city of innovation and entrepreneurship by 2025.

Chengdu is a huge market itself with a population of 17 million residents. With its influence in neighbouring areas, businesses in the city can reach a market of 250 million people.

In addition to its market potential, the city is appealing to many companies as it boasts a well-developed logistics system.

Shuangliu Airport is the largest in China’s central and western region, with 83 international routes linking the city to London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, San Francisco and Melbourne.

Shuangliu Airport saw 37.5 million passengers pass through last year, ranking it fifth among the 202 civil airports on the Chinese mainland. The figure is rising at the fastest rate on the Chinese mainland and is expected to reach more than 40 million passengers this year.

Experts expect annual passenger volume in Chengdu to reach 62 million travellers by 2020 and the city plans to build a new airport to handle increasing traffic.

'' ... passenger volume has kept rising in recent years, so we need a larger airport... ''

“Our Shuangliu Airport is almost running at full capacity, but the passenger volume has kept rising in recent years, so we need a larger airport,” said Pan Gangjun, general manager of the Sichuan Province Airport Group.

Pan said the new airport would mainly serve international routes, while Shuangliu Airport would handle domestic flights.

According to the plans, the first phase of the new airport will be finished by 2018, with annual capacity of 40 million passengers and 700,000 tonnes of cargo.

The long-term goal for the airport is to handle 90 million passengers and 2 million tonnes of cargo annually.

The new airport will make Chengdu the third city on the Chinese mainland to have a second airport, after Beijing and Shanghai.

Chengdu also has a railway that runs to Europe. The express, which runs close to parts of the legendary Silk Road, is a weekly freight train that starts in Chengdu and ends in Lodz, Poland.

The rail service is part of China’s national strategy to build the Silk Road Economic Belt. During his visit to Kazakhstan in September 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed that China and Central Asia work together to build the belt, a vision that has been echoed by other countries.

The railway is the fastest direct freight route from China to Europe, according to the local logistics office. It takes at least 40 days to transport products from Chengdu to Europe by sea, but only 12 days by rail.

'' The Chengdu-Europe express rail is a new Silk Road that links western China and Europe ''

“The Chengdu-Europe express rail, which goes through the Silk Road economic belt, has become a new Silk Road that links western China and Europe,” said Ding Gang, vice director of the Foreign Economic Research Institute of National Development and Reform Commission.

The Chengdu-Europe express railway helped attract consumer goods manufacturer Unilever to choose Sichuan to set up its third global production base in China.

The trip to Europe will be about 1,500 kilometres shorter for each shipment than for goods sent from Unilever’s Hefei plant in Anhui province, said Marijn van Tiggelen, president of Unilever North Asia.

This article was originally produced and published by China Daily. By Li Fusheng, 27 Jul 2015

Thursday, 27 August 2015

Another Great Civil Engineering in China!

To avoid destroying a forest, authorities have built a 10.9-kilometer road linking Gufu to Zhaojunqiao in Xingshan county, Central China's Hubei province, that completely bypasses the nearby mountain. Two stretches of the project are two bridges, altogether 4.4km, built over two rivers. Photo taken on Aug 9, 2015.

It has been dubbed "road on water", Aug 9, 2015.

With beautiful landscape around it, the project is also called "the most beautiful road on water", Aug 9, 2015.

The road has made the journey easier in Xingshan county, which is located in the Three Gorges Reservoir region, in Central China's Hubei province, Aug 9, 2015.[Photos/chinanews.com]

Explore in China - Miao People Celebrate Coming Autumn

With a population of 8,940,116, the Miao people form one of the largest ethnic minorities in southwest China. They are mainly distributed across Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan and Sichuan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and a small number live on Hainan Island in Guangdong Province and in southwest Hubei Province. Most of them live in tightly-knit communities, with a few living in areas inhabited by several other ethnic groups. (Read - 56 official recognized ethnic groups in mainland China)

On the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and in some remote mountainous areas, Miao villages are comprised of a few families, and are scattered on mountain slopes and plains with easy access to transport links.

Much of the Miao area is hilly or mountainous, and is drained by several big rivers. The weather is mild with a generous rainfall, and the area is rich in natural resources. Major crops include paddy rice, maize, potatoes, Chinese sorghum, beans, rape, peanuts, tobacco, ramie, sugar cane, cotton, oil-tea camellia and tung tree. Hainan Island is abundant in tropical fruits.

History

As early as the Qin and Han dynasties 2,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Miao people lived in the western part of present-day Hunan and the eastern part of present-day Guizhou. They were referred to as the Miaos in Chinese documents of the Tang and Song period (A.D. 618-1279).

In the third century A.D., the ancestors of the Miaos went west to present-day northwest Guizhou and south Sichuan along the Wujiang River. In the fifth century, some Miao groups moved to east Sichuan and west Guizhou. In the ninth century, some were taken to Yunnan as captives. In the 16th century, some Miaos settled on Hainan Island. As a result of these large-scale migrations over many centuries the Miaos became widely dispersed.

Such a wide distribution and the influence of different environments has resulted in marked differences in dialect, names and clothes. Some Miao people from different areas have great difficulty in communicating with each other. Their art and festivals also differ between areas.

Below are photos of people of Miao ethnic group hold a celebration for the coming of autumn in Paibi Township of Huayuan County in the Tujia-Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Xiangxi, central China's Hunan Province, Aug. 8, 2015. (Xinhua/Long Yuanbin).

More reading:

File Photo

The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. Start of Autumn, (Chinese: 立秋), the 13th solar term of the year, begins this year on Aug 8 and ends on Aug 22.

Start of Autumn reflects the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. The fruitful season is approaching.

In China, the 24 solar terms were created thousands of years ago to guide agricultural production. But solar term culture is still useful today to guide people's lives through special foods, cultural ceremonies and even healthy living tips that correspond with each term.

The following are 9 things you should know about Start of Autumn.

File Photo

"Autumn Tiger"

Although Start of Autumn indicates the beginning of autumn, hot weather will not come to an end. The period of hot days after Start of Autumn, usually lasting for 30 days, is called "Autumn Tiger" or "Indian Summer." Because of decreasing precipitation, it is even more sweltering during this period than during Major Heat (July 23-August 7).

Steamed buns[File Photo]

Fleshing out in autumn

On the first day of the Start of Autumn, usually people will weigh themselves and compare their weight to what it was at the Start of Summer. If one has lost weight during the summer, then at the beginning of autumn, he or she needs to flesh out by eating many different kinds of delicious food, especially meat.

A vehicle helps villagers in Shimen village,Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region during the rush to harvest the early rice crop. [Photo by Meng Zengshi/asianewsphoto.com]

Gathering crops

Start of Autumn is a big solar term for farmers. It is time to gather crops. There is a saying: "If it rains on the day of the Start of Autumn, a good harvest is expected."

Peaches. [Photo/IC]

Eating peaches

In Hangzhou, people eat peaches on the Start of Autumn day. The peach stones are kept until New Year's Eve and thrown into the stove, burned into ash. People believed that in this way, plagues could be prevented for the whole year.

Longans.[File Photo]

Eating longans

The Start of Autumn period is harvest time for Taiwan longan. People believe that eating longan will help their descendants become senior officials.

Dumplings.[File photo]

Eating dumplings

In Shandong province, people make dumplings during the Start of Autumn, and they call it "Eating the Autumn". On the day of Start of Autumn, senior members of the family will stand in the middle of the hall, worshiping a bowl of cereal, and praying for the harvest in autumn. Most of the families will eat dumplings together after Start of Autumn day.

Red beans.[File Photo]

Eating red beans

Starting from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the Song Dynasty (960-1279), people in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, have eaten red beans on Start of Autumn day. They take seven to 14 little beans, swallowing them with well water. When taking the beans, one must face west, it is said, so as not to get dysentery during the autumn.

Towel gourds.[File Photo]

Eating gourds

During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), people would put gourds outside for a day before the Start of Autumn, and eat them on Start of Autumn day to drive off the summer heat. Today people in Tianjing still keep this custom, believing that eating melons such as towel gourd, white gourd and bitter gourd can prevent diarrhea in autumn and the coming winter and spring.

"Touching Autumn". [Photo by Yang Lanzhen/asianewsphoto.com]

"Touching Autumn"

There is the custom of "Touching Autumn" in the northern part of Yancheng, Jiangsu province. On the eve of Start of Autumn, people can touch and take for free all kinds of fruits as they like in private or public gardens, and the owners will not be angry, no matter how much they lose. Many gardeners even leave some mellow fruits in the field on purpose for the guests during the night.

The 24 solar terms are determined by changes in the sun's position in the zodiac during the year. They were first used in China and now are followed in many other parts of the world. In China, the 24 solar terms were created thousands of years ago to guide agricultural production. They also reflect China’s rich history through the seasonal festivals, special foods, cultural ceremonies, family gatherings and even healthy living tips that correspond with each solar term.

Here is a peek into the 24 terms in 2015.

Solar Terms	Date	Meaning
Start of Spring(立春)	Feb. 4	Spring begins.
Rain Water（雨水）	Feb.19	It begins to rain.
Awakening of Insects（惊蛰）	Mar. 6	Hibernating animals awaken.
Spring Equinox(春分)	Mar.21	Day and night are equally long.
Clear and Bright(清明)	Apr. 5	It is warm and bright.
Grain Rain(谷雨)	Apr. 20	Rainfall increases for grain to grow.
Start of Summer(立夏)	May 6	Summer begins.
Grain Buds(小满)	May 21	Seeds of summer crops begin to plump.
Grain in Ear(芒种)	Jun. 6	Wheat grows ripe.
Summer Solstice(夏至)	Jun. 22	The longest daylight hours and the shortest night of the year.
Minor Heat(小暑)	Jul. 7	Heat sets in.
Major Heat(大暑)	Jul. 23	The hottest time of the of a year begins.
Start of Autumn(立秋)	Aug 8	Autumn begins.
End of Heat(处暑)	Aug 23	Heat recedes.
White Dew(白露)	Sep. 8	Dew forms.
Autumn Equinox(秋分)	Sep. 23	The middle of autumn comes.
Cold Dew(寒露)	Oct. 8	Dew is very cold.
Frost's Descent(霜降)	Oct. 24	Frost descends.
Start of Winter(立冬)	Nov. 8	Winter begins.
Minor Snow(小雪)	Nov. 22	It begins to snow.
Major Snow(大雪)	Dec. 7	It snows heavily.
Winter Solstice(冬至)	Dec. 22	It has the shortest day light hours and the longest night of a year.
Minor Cold(小寒)	Jan 6	It is rather cold.
Major Cold(大寒)	Jan 20	The coldest time of the year begins.

Source - en.people.cn

Study and Explore in China to Expand Your Horizon

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