Archive for 'Uncategorized'
Chinese Love – Part Seven Posted by sasha on Dec 9, 2011
Now that the wedding and the honeymoon (蜜月 – mì yuè) are over, what’s family life like in China? Well, ever since 1976, Chinese families have lived with the One Child Policy (计划生育政策 – jì huà shēng yù zhèng cè). It is a common misconception, however, that all Chinese are limited to only one child…
Gobi Desert (戈壁沙漠) Posted by Stephen on Dec 7, 2011
The photos below are taken from a 1,500 km trek across the greater Gobi Desert or (戈比) area. The trip spanned from the most western reaches of Xinjiang province (新疆), through Inner Mongolia (内蒙古) and concluding in Gansu Province (甘肃). Check out the diverse climates, altitudes, and scenery as we retrace the steps of thousands…
Kashgar (喀什) Posted by Stephen on Nov 29, 2011
Located roughly 250 km from the borders of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan, Kashgar or 喀什 (Kāshí) is a border city of approximately million people located in western Xinjiang Province. The surrounding countryside is almost all desert, with average temperatures sea-sawing between extremely frigid colds and scorching heat (sometimes both happening within 24 hours). It is…
Chinese Love – Part Six Posted by sasha on Nov 28, 2011
After the Three Letters and Six Etiquettes, the bride’s dowry, the installing of the bridal bed, the hair combing, and the groom’s struggle to fetch his own bride, it’s finally time for an actual wedding ceremony. The physical movement to the home of the groom’s family symbolizes the transfer of the bride from her family…
The Bǎ Construction (把) Posted by Stephen on Nov 20, 2011
With few prepositions in the Chinese language, adding depth to your conversations is often difficult for non-native speakers. That’s why learning the bǎ construction (把) is a helpful way to improve your sentence formation and add grammatical complexity to your conversations. Instead of sticking to basic (and often boring) Subject-Verb-Object sentence patterns, the ba construction gives native…
One Day in Guilin (一天在桂林) Posted by sasha on Nov 16, 2011
After a fun trip in Yangshuo, we spent one day in Guilin, where we chilled by the Li River, strolled through the Seven Star Park, and ate some delicious Guilin rice noodles. 当地的特色菜 – dāng dì de tè sè cài local specialty 桂林米粉 – guì lín mǐ fěn Guilin rice noodles 有些人喜欢钓鱼 – yǒu xiē…
Chinese + English = Chinglish (中式英语) Posted by Stephen on Nov 7, 2011
If you’ve ever visited China, you’ve undoubtably come across a “Chinglish” sign that makes you either stop and scratch your head or burst out laughing. These signs, which usually are the by-product of direct plug and play dictionary findings by a non-English speaker, are a stark reminder of the subtle, yet important differences between English…