Buddhist Longmen Grottos (龙门石窟) Posted by Stephen on Dec 3, 2011
To understand the vast Buddhist influence upon Chinese culture, one must travel to the Longmen Grottos (龙门石窟－Lóng mén shí kū) located just outside of Luoyang (洛阳－Luò yáng), Henan province. Nestled around the Yi River (伊河－yīhé), these Longmen Grottos are home to some of China’s most famous stone and rock sculptures, depicting, among other things, images…
What’s in a Chinese Character? (Vol. 1) Posted by sasha on Dec 2, 2011
For foreigners studying Chinese, one of the most difficult aspects can be reading and writing Chinese characters (汉字 – hàn zì), which number in the tens of thousands. Functional literacy in the language requires a knowledge of about 3-4,000 characters. If you know this many, you should be able to read a newspaper (报纸 –…
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…
Qingdao (Part Two) Posted by sasha on Nov 29, 2011
After a fun day getting settled in Qingdao, we headed out to hit some of the major attractions of the city. We visited St. Michael’s Cathedral, the Protestant Church, the Governor’s mansion, and another beach, before we headed out to the main reason for our visit to the coastal city – the Qingado Beer Festival…
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 Taklamakan Desert (塔克拉玛干沙漠) Posted by Stephen on Nov 27, 2011
The Taklamakan Desert or 塔克拉玛干沙漠 (Tǎkèlāmǎgān Shāmò), is the world’s 17th largest desert (and one of the largest sandy deserts), running north-south throughout western Xinjiang, Mongolia and even parts of Russia and Afghanistan. It is bordered by the KunLun mountains to the south and the Tianshan (later post) to the north. Taklamakan is a cold desert, elevated more than…
Qingdao (Part One) Posted by sasha on Nov 23, 2011
After a solid summer back home in the US, we got back to Beijing only to head out again two days later, this time to the coastal city of Qingdao (青岛). On the Yellow Sea, this famous Chinese city still shows its German influence, and it is known mostly for its namesake – Tsingtao Beer…