China

Hi everyone, I think you know more about China now, do you?
I just introduced 6 of 660 Chinese cities to you. Each of them is typical but unique.
                               

          China is one of the world's four ancient civilizations. It has 5,000 years of history. The People's Republic of China was established on October 1st, 1949. My birthday is October 1st as well. So I got 7 days national holidays and celebration of my birthday every year. Lol. China's territorial area is 9,634,057 square kilometers. It includes 23 provinces, 4 municipalities, 2 special administrative regions, 5 autonomous regions.  China's territorial area ranked third in the world. Russia is the largest country, Canada followed behind. China is the third largest and the United States ranked the fourth. 

          There are 56 races in China. The majority race is Han nationality. Yes, I'm a Han nationality. The minority distributed throughout the country. 

 

          Most of the minority has their special clothing, culture, language, and characters. But in recent years, the boundary of Han nationality and the minority is more and more fuzzier. People learning Mandarin and Chinese characters. It is a good phenomenon that our country become more unification. However, the valuable minority culture is flowing away. Thus, the Chinese government issued some policy for protecting the minority culture, and encourage them keeping their own culture.

I'm excited to show you the video below. You will not only know the food in China. But also the countryside of China.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrbHOEVohaA

Heilongjiang

          The name of Heilongjiang province is due to the Sino-Russian boundary river called Heilongjiang. It is the most northern and eastern province in China. Because it neighboring to Russia, it is such similar to Russia in some aspects. 

                                     

To compare with California, the climate in Heilongjiang likes a refrigerator. The annual average temperature is between -4 ~ 5℃. The temperature in January is -32~-17℃, and in July it is 16~23℃. Because of the weather is cold in almost half a year. Heilongjiang has its unique art. It is called: Ice engraving. 

                               

                               

Can you imagine how does Elsa feel when she's walking in the frozen world? You can definitely have the same experience in Harbin city which is the capital of Heilongjiang Province. The city in the picture is made all by ice. 

          Because Heilongjiang is close to Russia, the culture is influent by Russia a lot. You can see Russian style buildings in there.

                               

                                 Hagia Sophia established in March 1907 by Russian Empire

                                         

          Bread, also known as the large Leba (Leba is a transliteration of Russian bread). It is a traditional and famous food in Heilongjiang now. Its standard diameter in 23-26cm and the thickness is 16cm. The net weight of Leba is 2kg. 

          People in Heilongjiang is very passionate. They like to make friends and drink alcohol together. In most of China's schools, students learn English as a second language. But in there, schools provide Russian or Korean as the second language course. 

Beijing

         Beijing might be the most familiar Chinese city name you have ever heard. It is the economic, political and cultural center of China. I live there for one year before I came to the United States. I really love Beijing because people can find almost everything they want except good weather in there.
                                     
         Beijing is one of China's four municipality cities. Its location is very similar to Washington's location in the United States. They are both in the northeast of the nations. Beijing is a typical city that with ancient history and most modern lifestyle.
                                       
                              
         The Forbidden City was a palace of Chinese royal family. There were 24 Kings living in there. It covers an area of 720,000 square meters. The construction area is about 150,000 square meters. It is the largest existing palace-type building. It was built in 1406, and complete construction in 1420. I heard that the Forbidden City has lots of rooms. If you change room every night, you would use almost 28 years to sleep in all of those rooms. Travelers are suggested to visit the Forbidden City when coming to Beijing. There is another place tourists should travel to. It is the Great Wall.
                              
          You may think the Great Wall should be like this👆👆👆Yes, it supposed to be. However, the reality is like this👇👇👇
                             
          So many people are visiting the Great Wall every day. On June 5, 2012, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced that after about five years of investigation they find that the total length of China's ancient Great Wall is 21,800 km. In the past, the Great Wall was used to resist the enemy. In the peaceful decade. It is a very memorable and beautiful place to visit.
                           
                           
          Time flies to 2008, Beijing hosted the Olympic Games. American athlete Michael Fred Phelps II got eight golden medals in 2008 Olympic Games. I remembered that he was a legend in that period of time. Can you guess what did Phelps eat in China? Let's check it out!

                                     
                                       

Roast Beijing duck and Zhajiang noodle are Beijing's traditional food. They both have hundreds years of history. In the ancient time, only rich people can eat roast duck, but Zhajiang noodle are more pupular because it is affordble for most people. Nowadays, everyone have chance to tast it. If you go to Beijing, I recommend you to try them. :)

Anhui Province

        Today, I would like to bring to a city that with its unique glamor. It is extraordinary, ancient, and beautiful.

        Anhui is one of the birthplaces of the Chinese nation. As early as about 23 million years ago, there was known as "and apeman" to walk upright ancient human activities in this area.                              

                                         

The most popular place for tourists in Anhui is Huangshan. Huangshan is a mountain that located in Huangshan city in the south of Anhui Province. It covers an area of about 160.6 square kilometers. 

The Pines is a symbol of Huangshan. Huangshan Pines growth is very strange. It is rooted in the rock crevices where is no soil. Its branches are stretched only to one side. The roots grow in the air more than half. It is like a human wants to embrace the world.

The architecture in Anhui is very special as well. The brick, wood, stone is the main material of the frame. The buildings in the picture below have more than hundreds years history. When you step on the stone road and breath the moist air, you would feel that time goes back to hundreds of years ago. 

Anhui likes a young and shy girl. She is beautiful, quiet, and tender.

                                           

                                     

The food part of today, I don't think you will like it because it is kind of weird. Let's take a look!

                              

                             

Can you guess what it is?

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

It is Tofu. Accurately, it is called hair Tofu  :) Hair tofu is the Huizhou region characteristics of the traditional dishes. It is by artificial fermentation. That's why the surface of a layer of white tofu hair growth. As the tofu by fermentation after which the plant protein into a variety of amino acids, so the taste after cooking fresh.

Tibet

Today I will bring you to a place with mystery. It is the highest place on the earth. A lot of people wanted to go there, but they gave up for many reasons. The oxygen there is very rarefied. If you want to visit there, you need to have a very healthy body first.The place is Tibet.
                                          
Tibet is located in the southwest of China. It is located in latitude 26°50' to 36°53', longitude 78°25' to 99°06'. The whole area is 120 million square kilometers, accounting for the total area of 1/8 of China. It is between an average elevation of 4,0000 meters above.The "Roof of the world" is another name card of Tibet. Tibet has more than 4,000 km of land boundary line, it is close to Myanmar, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Kashmir and other countries and regions.

Lhasa is Tibet's traditional capital and the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region. The Potala Palace which located in Lhasa is the symbol of the sacred. There are millions people travel to Tibet only for visit the Potala Palace. 
                                         
Mount Qomolangma is the world highest peak.  Its peak is 8,848 meters (29,029 ft) above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur mountain range in Nepal.The international border between China and Nepal runs across Everest's precise summit point. Its massif includes neighboring peaks Lhotse, 8,516 m (27,940 ft); Nuptse, 7,855 m (25,771 ft) and Changtse, 7,580 m (24,870 ft).
                                               
The life-style of Tibet people is traditional and conservative. They are living like their ancestor. They pasture yak on the Tibet plateau. The milk tea is their everyday beverage. Tibet people has very healthy body because they need to adapt the infrabar and  rarefied oxygen. 

Sichuan Province

Hi everyone, welcome to my blog again. I guided you to my hometown last time, and this time I will bring you to the hometown of Panda.
                         
The red part of the Chinese map is called Sichuan. Sichuan is a province near to Chongqing. Accurately, Chongqing was divided from Chengdu and became an independent city in 1997. Nowadays, China has four “independent” cities, and it means the city municipality directly under the Central Government. They are Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing. The weather in Sichuan is good for living. It is like California. Spring goes through the whole year. So, precious pandas are only born and raise up in here.

There are only about 1590 pandas in the world because of the low fertility rate. The Endangered Animals Association in China named Panda as endangered in special grade. We call it the national treasure.The giant panda is regarded as a living fossil biological. People loves the pandas' black and white color. The world natural foundation was founded in 1961 was marked by the giant panda, the giant panda peremptory has become a symbol of the endangered species protection is the most important. The giant panda is an important part of China's diplomatic activities. There are 12 giant pandas in the United States. They are living at the zoos in Atlanta, Memphis, San Diego and Washington. Zoo Atlanta and the San Diego Zoo have two cubs each. The youngest cub was born in San Diego in July. Have you ever seen a panda in somewhere?

Next part of today's tour is eating





Next part of today's tour is eating Sichuan food. Sichuan food is very similar with Chongqing's. It's spicy and yummy. I think Ma Po tofu are most popular one. It's delicious and nutritious. The Panda Express you sometimes eat is called Sichuan food or Chinses food, but I do not agree with that. It is a reformed food style. Now you see the difference ;P

Sichuannese's lifestyle are more like Australian. Because of the good weather and environment here, people very enjoy their life. There is an old saying that when people are young, they should not be in Sichuan because the life here is too leisurely, young people would not go forward. Senior people should go to Sichuan because they can spend a wonderful twilight years in there.


How do you think about Sichuan?

My hometown

How many Chinese cities do you know?

Beijing and Shanghai?

How do you think about China?

Crowded, underdeveloped, conservative, and panda express?  ;P

Do you have any Chinese friend?

Emmm..at least one. Hope you guys allow me to be your friend.

        This blog will guide you to a journey in China. You will know about the history, culture, people's lifestyle, and food of China from here. I will introduce the genuine China to you. Ok, let's go!!! The first station is my hometown.

        Have you ever heard the name: Chongqing? The city located at the “stomach” of China. Maybe that is the reason why people here are all foodies.

                                         

                                              Map of China. The red area is Chongqing

        

        It is a "hot city" because the weather there in summer is around 100 ℉ every day. You can easily cook an egg on the ground outside. It also a "mountain city" because the city is built on mountains, very similar to San Francisco. I was born and grow up in there. Every time I have homesickness, I'm used to missing the hotpot. Hot pot originated from Chongqing, and every people loves eating it.

                                          

                                         

                                  It looks very spicy, but it's delicious and not spicy as you think

        There is a metaphor floating around Chongqingnese: Life is hot-pot, we can solve any problem like we can cook everything that you can imagine. So when you face on dilemmas, trust yourself and just do it. Life will present you an amazing meal. After dinner, Chongqingese is in the habit of hiking or doing sports at night. Don't like in the United States that you only can see few people on the road or in outside after 8:00 pm, there are a lot of people dancing and running in parks and on the river bank at that time. I like hiking to the mountain top and take a bird's-eye view of the city.

                                

                                                              Chongqing in the night

                                           

                                                        Brown water is the Yangtze River

                                                           Green water is Jialing River

        The Yangtze River pass through the city. It combines with Jialing River in front of pier Chaotianmen and flows to Shanghai then runs into the East China Sea. The pier Chaotianmen used to be the biggest pier of inland cities. With the air transportation developing, pier Chaotianmen nowadays is a vista point instead of a busy wharf. 

        Chongqingese is nice, friendly and warmhearted. Welcome to Chongqing, and I could be your tour guide. When I writing this blog, I can't help to think about the hot-pot. I'm looking forward to having a hotpot in the U.S. as soon as possible. 

Every city in China has its local delicacy. What is in next station? Let's figure it out next week's blog :)

Beauti-Fall

The most beautiful season is coming !!!