The beauty contest for both natural beauty of places and people, Mei Yue Cup, has ended in Sichuan on the 6th. After a series of outdoor and indoor competitions including climbing, rafting, cycling, dancing and even making traditional Tibetan buttered tea held in carefully picked locations in Sichuan, Shanghai team has won the first place, while the UK and Australian teams won the second and the third places. We think this is great a mingle of natural beauty and healthy green travel.

The Miao People start celebrating their new year already on the 10th of this month. The whole celebration is made up with plenty of singing, dancing, performances of their traditional instrument Lushen and the 100 metre long banquet meal on display. Best of all, they even have traditional bull fighting and pigs fighting, different from the Spanish man vs bull style, this is the flight between the animals, although it mostly is provoked by men. Hell, this is their tradition, we are not here to judge. A little clip from the real pig fight, don’t worry, it is actually rather boring nothing bloody.

While the minorities are busy celebrating their new year, the Bird Nest and the Water Cube in Beijing are planning on taking on some new businesses. According to CE.CN website, the Bird Nest will convert part of the building into a hotel and shopping hall, while the Water Cube will have part of it transformed into a water theme park. Are you looking forward to that yourself?

Booooo

This year’s winter arrived overnight in China straight after the Halloween. While Shanghai might be freezing, Beijing is literally snowing man-made flakes.

While someone is suggesting to build specialised local museums to preserve China’s historic relics, the Shanghai government is hushing their citizens out of their pyjamas off the streets to welcome the big day of 2010 World Expo. I suddenly had a weird moment of imaging 20 years from now, tour guides leading groups of tourists through special museum featuring wax figures of people wondering in 2009 Shanghai street in their pyjamas.

Further more to this week’s news, Disneyland finally signed off the Shanghai project, the phase one is scheduled to open in 2014 and will be 4 times bigger than the Hong Kong Disneyland covering a land of 150 hectares. Will this be the next big reason for you to visit Shanghai then? You tell me.

As the modernisation spreading around China like some kind of virus, more and more traditional architectures are vanishing on a daily basis. It is not just about losing a few old houses but generations of culture and history.

Chinese traditional architectures are almost as vary as the dialects in China. Besides dwelling houses, there are different kind of buildings and architectures for different purposes. Building a new house or any other kinds of architecture is usually treated as a very important event in China. The location, layout, decoration and even the starting date are usually closely monitored and related to the practise of Feng Shui.

Here I will talk about a few traditional architectures (except dwellings, which have too many variations across the country and should be written in a separate blog) that is usually to be seen in rural China. So next time, when you are out and about in China on a bike ride in the countryside or on a long train journey crossing through China, you will be able to spot them.

Temples (寺庙)

small temple outside a village in South China

Yeah, I know everybody knows what a temple looks like. However, I am not talking about these grand temples that you can even find in centre of the busiest city in China. I am talking about small village temples that were built by local villagers outside villages. They are usually a tiny little shelter that only be able to fit one (occasionally you will find one large statue with two smaller ones inside as well) certain Taoist god or Buddha statue within. The most common statue inside those temples are Buddha, the god of earth or the Dragon King, who is supposedly controlled the weather.

Ancestral Temples (祠堂)

According to the Book of Rites, only royal families, dukes, princes and senior officials are allowed to build ancestral temples; for common people, they can only worship their ancestors with a little name badge and some incense sticks in their own house. The rule were broke in the Ming dynasty, anyone as long as they can afford to can build ancestral temples. In villages, where people usual have the same ancestor, there usually is one big ancestral temple. Besides being the place for ritual and worshipping the ancestors, ancestral temple also used as the meeting place for discussing important matters within the village, a gathering place during festivals and sometimes also served as private school.

Tower / Pagoda (塔)

Towers were originally Buddhism architectures. When Buddhism came into China, more and more towers were built. They are used to store Buddhist relics and Buddha statues. In the early year, towers were built in the centre of a grand temple to be worshipped. Later on, as more grand temple halls were built, the temple halls took the centre position in a temple and the tower or pagodas are usually built on the side. Besides in temples, towers can also be found near rural villages in China. Most of these towers were usually built purely for a Feng Shui balancing purpose or sometimes as a memorial tower for celebrities in the history.

Wen Chang Pavilion (文昌阁)

Wen Chang pavilions are usually can be found in south China rural village fields or the village entrances. They are also known as Wen Feng Pagoda. These pavilions and pagodas are mainly built to create a better Feng Shui environment for the village, also as a good fortune bringer for all students in the village to have good imperial exam result and become an important official.

Pailou /Paifang/ Torii (牌楼/牌坊)

Pai lou are usually built at the entrance or centre of a village or town as a memorial architecture for someone or something happened in the history. It is a gate shaped building structure with layers of roof on top and pillars as the stands and usually built of wood and stones. The size of Pai Lou is decided by the number of gates, pillars and roofs. The most common ones have four pillars and three gates, while the ones with six pillars and five gates or more are pretty ones. The most famous Pailous are in Anhui region with outstanding design and size.

Opera Arena (戏台)

Opera arenas usually can be found in gardens, village or town centres or busy street. It is a tall building with three walls and an open front, and usually stands out from the rest of the buildings around it. It has turn-up eaves on its roof and brilliant paintings on its pillars on the sides. So many different types of Chinese traditional operas were born in those arenas.

The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节)

Just by the name, you can imaging the festival is taking place during the middle of Autumn. It is on the 15th of the 8th month in the Chinese lunar calendar. It is the second most important Chinese traditional festival just after the Chinese New Year and celebrated by all Han Chinese and most of the minorities in the country, as well as Japanese, South Koreans, Vietnamese and some Thailand families.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the moon festival, due to its very origin comes from moon worship. Through over 3000 years of evolution, the rather serious worshipping ritual practised by royal emperors becomes a common people’s festival. People gather together on this day, sitting outside in the garden, drinking tea or alcohol, eating moon cakes and fruits, admiring the bright full moon and composing or reciting poems about the moon. Since the time of the festival is usually just after harvest, it is also an occasion for farmers and peasants to rest and celebrate their harvest.

The round shape of the moon is called “yuan” (圆) in Chinese, and it is associated with the word “tuan yuan” (团圆), which means reunion. So the festival is also an important family and friends reunion festival. For those ones who could not make it back home for the reunion, they share their nostalgia with the moon that their family will be watching that night.

The Double-Ninth Day (九九重阳节)

Each ninth day of the ninth month in Chinese lunar calendar is the Double-Ninth Day, another traditional festival of China. Having undergone a history of more than 2,000 years, the Double-Ninth Day was formally set down as a folk festival in the Tang Dynasty and both Emperors and civilians should celebrate the festival.

As time goes by, the Double-Ninth Day has gradually formed the celebrating conventions of going on a journey, ascending height, picking cornel branch, appreciating chrysanthemum, drinking chrysanthemum wine, and eating Double-Nine cake.  As the figure “9″ also stands for longevity and health in the traditional concept of Han people, the Chinese government set September 9 in the lunar calendar as “the Elder’s Day” in 1989. Now, the Double-Ninth Day has been enlisted as Intangible Cultural Heritage of China.

Hui minority (回族) is the most widely existed minority among the 55 minorities in China. Hui people are mainly inhabited in north and north-west of China, although you can almost find their existence in every single provinces in China.  They practise Islam and following Islamic dietary laws. However, you will find Hui people from the north and north-west of China usually are a lot more strict with following their religious belief, while the Hui people down south are a lot more relaxed. Don’t be surprised if you met some Hui people, who don’t mind taking a few bites of some pork dishes.

Hui people have their own dress mode: men will usually wear white round caps while women wear head-scarves and sometimes veils with a long gown. However, most of the younger generations especially men prefer the trendy modern clothes than their traditional dress mode.

The origin of Hui people

are formed by immigrated Muslims from nearby countries. During the mid 7th century, groups of merchants from Parsa and Arab came to China and stayed in the south coast cities as well as inland northern cities. In the 13th century, while the Mongolian soldiers fought their way to the west, more Muslims from central Asia moved into China. These Persian, Arabic people and immigrants from central Asia all practise Islam. They gradually blended into local Han people, Mongolian and Uyghur culture and formed a new ethnic group – Hui.

Freshly Pulled Noodles

Chinese Mandarin is Hui people’s first language, and Arabic is their second language, which is mainly used for reciting and reading the Koran. However, there are limited number of Hui people that can read, write and speak Arabic in China.

Festivals of Hui people

are closely related to Islam religion. They practise fasting every year and celebrate the same major Islam festivals as the rest of the Muslims around the world.

Anyone who has lived in China for a while will notice that there are a few noodle restaurants run by Hui people in almost every single city in China and their noodles are cheap, tasty and served real fast. If you lucky, you can also see how the chef pulls a handful of noodles out of a flour dough.

圆明园遗址

序: 凡人常怨天道不公, 自信才智不凡, 常谈时不予我, 可笑不知雄才可造时势, 知顺势者为智才, 长吁短叹不知主动打破现状者为凡夫, 大抵如此.

风霜湖边多惘然, 薄熙残荷落叶寒.

且看行人多殊色, 多少悲怀可笑谈.

盛世凡夫乱世雄, 天下未平生俗庸.

绝代雄才天生几, 恨不相逢起东风.

A brief intro with samples of the top ten Chinese operas, another dying cultural heritage in China.

Chinese operas are traditional forms of dramas and theatre musical performances with histories going back over 800 hundreds of years. There are different types of Chinese operas in different parts of China and their singing styles are closely related to their local dialects. And the total number of Chinese operas goes well over hundred. Just like the vanishing old heritages and countless traditional Chines culture customs, a lot of local Chinese operas are having less and less people to keep the traditional performances live. Comparing with the modern pop music and imported music, Chinese operas can mainly find their fans among the older generations.

During the 60th National holiday of the People’s Republic of China, CCTV (China Central Television Station) introduced the top ten traditional Chinese operas. Here I will have a brief introduction of them together with a sample podcast of them each.

Top One: Beijing Opera (Jing Ju 京剧)

(Beijing Opera – Zha Mei An 铡美案)

Face of Chou

Beijing Opera was originally developed from the local opera in An’hui, which entered Beijing around early 19th century and gradually formed into Beijing Opera. Beijing opera has four main categories of characters in the opera. They are Sheng (生), Dan (旦)， Jing (净), Chou (丑). Sheng is usually referring to male characters, while Dan is referring to female ones. Jing is usually heroic characters and have a more complicated and colourful face painting. And Chou is referring to comedy characters. Being the local opera of the capital, Beijing Opera has a symbolic position in Chinese operas and is the quintessence of them all, which is also the reason for being the top one in the list.

Top Two: Henan Opera (Yu Ju 豫剧)

(Henan Opera – Hua Mu Lan 花木兰)

Henan opera is a famous local opera in Henan province. The singing tones and style have a strong local accent and its music is often accompanies by slit drums.

Top Three: Ping Ju (评剧)

(Ping Ju – Xiao Er Hei’s Marriage 小二黑结婚)

Ping Ju is a popular musical performance in north and north-east of China. It was originally from a kind of performance practised by beggars, who will usually go up to people’s houses and beg for money and food. So the original contents of the singing usually are about story telling or good luck wishes. Until around 1919, there are official performance groups formed and Ping Ju started to get recognised as one form of theatre performances rather than just a begging trick. Over time Ping Ju’s singing styles, content and its music have improved greatly. With a strong grass-root among average people in China, it continuous to be one of the popular traditional Chinese opera today.

Top Four: Shaoxing Opera (Yue Ju 越剧)

(Shaoxing Opera – Sister Lin off the Heaven 天上掉下个林妹妹)

Shaoxing opera was first born in 1906 and is still a popular traditional opera around Zhejiang province. It usually has a fast and cheery beats and a smooth singing style.

Top Five: Kun Qu/Kun Ju (昆剧/昆曲)

(Kun Qu – Peony Pavilion 牡丹亭)

Kun Ju, a.k.a. Kun Qu is one of the oldest extant forms of Chinese opera. It has over 600 years of history and is also known as the ancestor of all Chinese operas for its great influence on them. Kunqu was listed as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2001. Its melody or tune is one of the Four Great Characteristic Melodies in Chinese opera. There are slightly varied Kun Ju exist in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, Zhejiang.

Top Six: Qu Ju (曲剧)

(Qu Ju – Yang Naiwu and Xiao Bai Cai 杨乃武与小白菜)

Qu Ju usually refers to the local opera originated from Beijing. Don’t get mixed up with Beijing Opera, Qu Ju actually is the opera developed and formed in Beijing.

Top Sever: Huangmei Opera (黄梅戏)

(Huangmei Opera – The Fairy Match 天仙配)

Huangmei Opera is the symbolic opera type in An’hui province. It is probably the second most well known traditional opera in China just after Beijing opera.

Top Eight: Lv Opera (吕剧)

(Lv Opera – Aunt Li’s Second Marriage 李二嫂改嫁)

Lv Opera is a local opera in Shandong province. It is usually accompanied by playing a dulcimer.

Top Night: Yue Diao (越调)

(Yue Diao)

Yue Diao is another local traditional opera in Henan province. Besides dancing and singing performances, Yue Diao also has puppets or shadow puppets show in some of their performances. It is a very popular forms of entertainment among Henan village people.

Top Ten: Shanghai Opera (沪剧)

(Shanghai Opera – The Golden Bird 金丝鸟)

You can find quite a few traditional operas in Shanghai, however, Shanghai Opera is the local opera. All the singing are performed in a strong accent Shanghai dialect.

music sample source: Sogou Music

In order to get a better picture of China, and to immerse yourself in its culture, I would certainly recommend watching it’s award winning cinema.  Although censorship laws exist, as in most countries, Chinese films are often far from saccharine accounts of what it is like to live in China.  Despite China’s reputation for kung-fu films, and of late, epic and truly lavish costume affairs, there are simpler tales, rooted firmly in cinematic realism.  It is this element of Chinese cinema that I enjoy the most with their tales of everyday life and the trials and tribulations of family and society.  The early films of Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige formed my cinematic introduction to China, tales of a mainly rural life that encapsulated Chinese culture and captivated audiences worldwide.  They spanned a varied cross section of  time periods, from the modern, to pre-revolutionary times, and I hope to discuss more about some of these films in the future.

“Peacock”, directed by Gu Changwei, a cinematographer come director who has previous worked on some of Zhang Yimou’s films, is a fantastic debut told in the realist tradition.  The movie is visually amazing, as you might expect, showing the landscape and beauty of a town in Northern China’s Shanxi province, its buildings, streets and general locality all on show.  The film is set during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and tells the tales of two brothers and a sister’s coming of age, continuing all the way up to their respective marriages.  It is rather more epic in scope in this respect, covering issues of personal expression, repression and hardship.  The tone is nostalgic and reflective as told/narrated by the male middle child of the family.

During the telling I was spellbound at the nostalgic details it contained, kind of like seeing a film set in the 70’s filled with Hula Hoops and roller skates.  It was striking for me to see a culture that had not yet become a disposable one, like the ones we are more familiar with today, although in modern China many of the recycling and home made bottling and traditional food drying practices are still prevalent.  Little details like the street vendors and the games the children play add so much texture to the film while it unfolds.

As a picture of day to day family life and its toils, during that not so distant period, it leaves it’s poignant mark.

5/5

MT (http://www.matthew-tompkins.com/blog/)

This medieval yet modern city, Beijing,  has a wide selection of night-life activities to entertain both locals and travellers.

Chinese Opera Face

Shows and games:

Every month, there will be international performances and shows taking place in Beijing, from modern ballet shows, international symphony performances, stage plays to traditional Beijing operas, Chinese acrobat shows and local sport games.

For 300RMB (per person), Rugged Tours (ruggedtoursATgmail.com) can pre-book a night show of Chinese acrobat, Beijing Opera or Kung-fu show for you during your next Beijing trip. You can also find out the latest events in Beijing and book it yourself here.

Bars, pubs and karaoke:

For those who prefer spending the night with some booz and music, there is a pretty long list of places to venture into. Luckily I have discover a pretty comprehensive and practical night-life guide on night-life in Beijing here, hope you will find it useful.

Night market and mid-night snacks:

Night market and its snack stalls in the street of Beijing brings out the authenticity of this ancient city. If you have the guts (seriously), you definitely should try some of the local snacks, which can have well over hundred years of history. And there are millions of made-in-China stuffs lying along the street to make your eyes dazzle. Do remember to bargain.

• Gui Jie (簋街), address: Dongzhimen Nei Dajie/Street map
• Donghuamen Night Market (东华门夜市): map
• Wangfujing Snack Street (王府井小吃街): map

Beijing Night View:

National Grand Theatre in Beiijng at night

Besides all these above, you can also take on a night ride on one of the Beijing viewing Bus take in the capital’s night beauty. For 170RMB per person, the bus will take you on a journey outside the Bird Nest, Water Cube, CCTV Building, Beijing Jianwai SOHO area, Beijing Ancient city wall, NationalGrand theatre, the bar street in Sheshahai and the new Qianmen Street. The dazzling lights on the ancient and modern architecture will sure make your night in Beijing unforgeable. Contact Rugged Tours (ruggedtoursATgmail.com) to book a night bus seat for your next Beijing Trip.

More tips on Beijing Food.

The food choice in Beijing is just as vast as the city itself, however, without knowing much about the language choosing food from the local restaurants can be a daunting experience. Here  is a simple introduction to food in Beijing, I hope it will come in handy during one of your Beijing trips.

The Royal Treats

Beijing has been the capital of China for over 800 years and royal treats are its signature dishes. Royal treats are prepared with hand picked ingredients, and cooked by the most skilful of chefs.  After years of formulation in the Forbidden City they can now be tasted and enjoyed by almost anyone in the country. The Fang Shan Restaurant (仿膳饭庄) (map), located within Beihai Park, and the Ting Li Restaurant (听鹂馆餐厅) (map), inside of the Summer Palace, are the most famous purveyors of the food within Beijing. According to the locals, the chefs in these restaurants leant their skills from ancestral royal kitchen chefs. The decoration and layout resemble royal palaces.

An average meal would cost around 90-200 RMB per head.

Rou Mo Shao Bing

Personal recommendation: Rou Mo Shao Bing (肉末烧饼) – a minced pork stir fried with spring onion, ginger and soy source, served with a baked bread with a sesame seed topping. You should slice open the bread bun and fill it with the minced pork – enjoy!

You can also order the grandest Chinese feast, Man Han Quan Xi (满汉全席) here as well. Man Han Quan Xi literally means Manchu and Han Chinese feast, it includes 108 unique dishes from the Man and Han Chinese cultural cuisine, the feast was only reserved for the emperors during special occasions and the whole feast would go on for 6 days.

The Peking Roast Duck

The roast duck and the Great Wall are the two things no one want to miss when in Beijing. There is over 400 years of history behind the Peking Roast Duck dish. It uses local Beijing duck roasted in a special oven which is heated with fruit tree wood. The roast duck has a dark red crispy skin with tender and juicy meat inside. It is usually sliced before serving and comes with sliced spring onion, soy bean paste, sliced cucumbers and extremely thin steamed flour bread with which you wrap the food together with.

The Quan Ju De Roast Duck Restaurant (全聚德烤鸭店) is famous around the country for its tasty roast duck, having the oldest brand name in the country. There are now quite a few branches in Beijing, and can be found at;

Heping men Branch, address: 14 Qianmen West Street (map)
Qianmen Branch, address: 32 Qianmen Street (map)
Wangfujing Branch, address: 9 Shuaifu Yuan Hutong, Wangfujing Street (map)

Beijing Zhajiang Mian (noodles)

Zhajiang Mian (炸酱面) are boiled noodles mixed with sliced vegetables and fried mince pork in a soy bean paste. It is one of the local favourites, and is eaten daily. It is one of those simple yet surprisingly delicious Chinese food and definitely worth trying. You should be able to get it in most of the medium to small restaurants in Beijing.

Vegetarian restaurant

For vegetarian travellers, you can find vegetarian dishes in regular restaurants in Beijing, however, there is a vegetarian restaurant in Beijing called He Tang Yue Se (荷塘月色) (map) worth checking out. It is a local vegetarians’ favourite and I am sure you will be surprised how creative Chinese vegetarian dishes can be.

More tips on Beijing Night Life