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Tanghulu Ⅰ
Tanghulu or bing tanghulu, is not only a snack for Beijing locals, but also a representative of Beijingers’ childhoods. Although this snack is regarded as a food for children, it is also popular among adults. It consists of candied fruits on bamboo skewers that are approximately 20cm long....
Tanghulu or bing tanghulu, is not only a snack for Beijing locals, but also a representative of Beijingers’ childhoods. Although this snack is regarded as a food for children, it is also popular among adults. It consists of candied fruits on bamboo skewers that are approximately 20cm long. This snack can be found widely along the Beijing snack street of Wangfujing and also there are street vendors who travel from place to place selling it.
Tanghulu typically has a hardened sugar coating that comes from dipping the skewer in sugar syrup, but versions can also be found with a second chocolate coating, or sesame sprinkles. Traditionally, the fruit used has been Chinese hawthorn, but in recent times vendors have also used cherry tomatoes, mandarin oranges, strawberries, blueberries, pineapples, kiwifruit, bananas, or grapes, creating tanghulu that resemble fruit kebabs.
Shanghai Marriage Market in People’s Park
Ever since 2004 every weekend a large group of parents and sometimes even grandparents gather in the famous People’s Park, in People’s Square in the center of Shanghai....
Ever since 2004 every weekend a large group of parents and sometimes even grandparents gather in the famous People’s Park, in People’s Square in the center of Shanghai. These parents advertise their single children for marriage with posters showing personal information on the ground or umbrellas. This Shanghai Marriage Market in People’s Park, is a nice example where traditional values meet with modern world.
Who participates, and why?
Traditionally parents played an important role in finding a good partner for their child and the Marriage Market is a nice example where this old value is still visible. They market is full of elder people, mostly parents, sometimes even grandparents, aunts or other relatives, who are concerned about the unmarried status of their offspring. They exchange information in the hope to find a suitable match for their child.
You will not see the children themselves. They often find it embarrassing to be advertised at marriage markets. As such, parents usually attend without their children’s permission.
How does it work?
Like you nowadays see on the online dating sites, the parents write an advertisements for their child. It mostly contains straightforward information and read something like a “marriage resume”:
- Age, height, and might even weight. It’s all laid out there, and while appearance is important, it’s not the deciding factor. However, many parents tend to have specific height requirements for their ideal son/daughter in law (to ensure tall grandchildren.
- Position, degree, current job, and in typical Chinese fashion, their income. This is a very important aspect. What can your child offer a potential spouse? Does he/she have a good income and very important can he offer good housing. For traditional Chinese people housing is very important. You first get a house then get a partner for life. Does he/she have a car? How much does he make a month?
- Origin, and your date of birth. The first question the parents will ask if the person is Shanghainese or not. If one has a local hùkou (housing registration) it will make it much easier to get access to education and healthcare.
In Shanghai Marriage Market in People’s Park, parents focus more on whether the unmarried boys and girls match each other in aspects of materials; whether the family backgrounds are equal to each other. Most of the parents ignore the children’s value of love and life.
A special area is set for parents whose children have overseas study experience, so they have a greater chance to find an equal match for their children.
Does it help?
The reality is that it rarely does. Few real matches are made, in no small part due to many children not wanting to marry someone because their parents found a one-page ad taped to an umbrella. But of course, finding an actual marriage is perhaps not the real point for the market. It has a strong social component, with many parents striking up conversations with complete strangers over their children. In some sense, it’s just a place for parents to do what parents all around the world love doing: talk about their kids.
If you’re ever in Shanghai on a Saturday, the wedding market is a perfect way to see a different side of Chinese culture. It can give you a unique insight into how marriage works, and how it used to work, in China.
Of course it is all in Chinese, but I am willing to show you around and help you with interpretation.
Xu Jin
Best Exercises for Weight LossⅦ
Conclusion
Eat right – that means cut down the calories and make sure that every calorie is working for you, not against you. Find something you like to do and stick with it.
...Conclusion
Eat right – that means cut down the calories and make sure that every calorie is working for you, not against you. Find something you like to do and stick with it.
Vary the intensity of your workout both in your workout and with what you do. Use the big muscle to your advantage. Your butt, thighs and core should be involved for maximum fat burning.
If you have physical limitations, you can still exercise within those limitations. Find a good trainer to teach you who to do exercises properly and build a program for you. Start slowly and build up.
Top China Tours
$238 Per Day
Private Hangzhou Day Trip from Shanghai by Bullet Train
Take in the highlights of beautiful Hangzhou on a private full-day tour from Shanghai. After hotel pickup and transfer by high-speed train to Hangzhou, your private guide takes you to see some city attractions, such as Faxi temple. Moreover, enjoy a tasty lunch at a local restaurant before heading to Longjing village. There, learn about the process of farming and producing dragonwell tea, the region’s most famous product. Finally, enjoy a scenic boat cruise on UNESCO World Heritage-listed West Lake before returning to Shanghai.
...Read more
Take in the highlights of beautiful Hangzhou on a private full-day tour from Shanghai. After hotel pickup and transfer by high-speed train to Hangzhou, your private guide takes you to see some city attractions, such as Faxi temple. Moreover, enjoy a tasty lunch at a local restaurant before heading to Longjing village. There, learn about the process of farming and producing dragonwell tea, the region’s most famous product. Finally, enjoy a scenic boat cruise on UNESCO World Heritage-listed West Lake before returning to Shanghai.
This is a private, full-day trip from Shanghai to Hangzhou. After you are picked up in your hotel lobby in the early morning, you will take a bullet train to Hangzhou. This is the fastest way to Hangzhou and you can experience train speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour. Your tour begins at one of Hangzhou's signature sites, the West Lake. Enjoy a lake cruise to see the top ten West Lake scenic views. You will then be taken to experience the wonderful cuisine of Hangzhou at a local restaurant. After lunch, you will visit Faxi temple, a well-known Temple dating back to the Jin Dynasty. See its famous wooden Buddha. Here, you will see fewer tourists and more locals. Finally, enjoy a cup of green tea when you visit the famous Longjing village to see wild fields of Longjing tea bushes where the locals produce the world famous green tea- Longjing Tea. In the village, all locals are tea farmers and you will see the entire procedure of making the famous tea and will get the chance to taste the best quality emperor tea. Afterwards, you will take the bullet train back to Shanghai and you will be returned to your hotel.
$150 Per Day
Guangzhou
Day 1 Arrive in Guangzhou
Arrive in Guangzhou in the morning, you will be met and transferred to hotel, then visit Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. The Memorial Hall is a very famous historical scenic spot. It is in memory of Sun Yat-sen, the great revolutionary forerunner. After that proceed to visit the Ancestral Temple of the Chen Family. It is a unique site for offering up sacrifices to worship ancestors of 72 Chen families in Guangdong. This ancestral temple is also the largest, best preserved and best decorated ancient architecture existing in Guangdong province.
...Read moreDay 1 Arrive in Guangzhou
Arrive in Guangzhou in the morning, you will be met and transferred to hotel, then visit Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. The Memorial Hall is a very famous historical scenic spot. It is in memory of Sun Yat-sen, the great revolutionary forerunner. After that proceed to visit the Ancestral Temple of the Chen Family. It is a unique site for offering up sacrifices to worship ancestors of 72 Chen families in Guangdong. This ancestral temple is also the largest, best preserved and best decorated ancient architecture existing in Guangdong province.
Day 2 Guanzhou Tour
After breakfast, you will go to Yuexiu Park first, the largest and the most famous park in downtown Guangzhou. There are three artificial lakes and seven hills of Yuexiu Mountain. Then you will visit Temple of Six Banyan Trees, which is one of the four best Buddhist temples in Guangzhou and located on the Liurong Road (meaning the Six Banyan Trees Road). The Nanyue King Tomb Museum is a must-see Guangzhou attraction, which dates back to 2,000 years ago, is the earliest large scale painted stone chamber tomb ever found south of the Five Ridges. Buried with the tomb owner in a jade shroud are a gold seal and a lot of exquisite jade adornments. It has become a world famous museum. After the day tour you will be transferred to airport for your next destination.
$53 Per Day
Pingyao Highlights Walking Tour
Pingyao Highlights Walking Day Tour
With our guide to know the Ancient Pingyao better!
Our guide will meet you at your hotel lobby at 08:00 or 08:30, then show you the ticket office to get the ticket for the museums we will visit later.
...Read morePingyao Highlights Walking Day Tour
With our guide to know the Ancient Pingyao better!
Our guide will meet you at your hotel lobby at 08:00 or 08:30, then show you the ticket office to get the ticket for the museums we will visit later.
First we will visit the 700 years old City wall, We will climb up from south gate and have a walk on the wall. We are not sure how many km we can walk, because of the renovating of the wall. Normally we will walk from south gate to the Yunlu Exit.
Then visit the Confucius temple, there is a old building named Dacheng Hall which is over 840 years old. From outside, we can see the big wood joints to lift the big roof around the building which is named Dougong. Due to this design, there are less columns inside the hall for giving the big space for the statues and the prayer. We have chance to see the Confucius statue and learn the philosophy of Confucius. If you like, you can pray for you and your children to get better study.
There is the Paper Cutting master named Wentao nearby the exit of Confucius temple. She is very smart and create the new style paper cutting with much more details and good wishes on it. Her products are made by hanks. It is worth to visit and buy as a souvenir from Pingyao. From the table standing and wall hangings. Please remember, take the red one because of red is the traditional and happy color. But the white one is the best. It is really difficult to choose, because of all of them are really nice.
Then you can have coffee break or tea break if you need at Chummy coffee, after this, visit the City god temple (ChenghuangMiao) which is most beautiful temple inside the wall. Because of the roof is covered by the colorful glazed tiles. There is not only city god and also the three money gods, Now you know why pingyao was the financial center.
Next we will visit the Ancient government building, to see the pingyao politics center in the ancient time. It is the complete building with officials bed room, kitchen and private garden. Follow the guide to look the official’s life from the 250km far away from the hometown.
Have a stroll in the alley to the Rishengchang exchange bank, which is the first bank all of china.You can not miss it.
After lunch, walk to the Ming and Qing street, this is the shopping street full of the stores on the both side of street. You can find alot things here , from post card to lacquered boxes, and wall panels. One more place to see, it is the Armed escort agency also named security and transport service for the business man before the bank founded.
Inlcusions
1.private english speaking tour guide servcie
2.bottle water for the tour