This is the opening of the Ballad of Mulan, a well-known folk song in north China. The heroine of this ballad was a heroic woman in the north named Hua Mulan. The song tells how Hua Mulan disguised herself as a man, and joined the army in place of her father.

It is said that Mulan lived in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and that people in the north were found of practicing martial arts. When Mulan was about ten years old, her father, an ex-soldier, taught her military skills, including martial arts, horse riding, archery and swordsmanship. Hua Mulan also read her father’s books on military science in her spare time.

After Emperor Xiaowen’s reform, the Northern Wei Dynasty saw a picture of socio-economic development and more stable lives. To ward off incursions by the Rouran nomads, the ruler of the Northern Wei ordered that every household provide a man to join an expedition against them. Mulan’s father was old then, and her younger brother was too young to go and fight. So Mulan decided to join the army instead of her father. Mulan spent 12 years in the army. Fighting at the border is even hard for many men, let alone a girl such as Mulan because she had to conceal her identity while fighting against the enemy together with her partners. But Hua Mulan finally completed her mission, and returned home with victory 12 years later. In view of her exploits on the battlefield, the ruler of the Northern Wei offered Mulan a high official position, but she refused it.

Hua Mulan, for her braveness and purity, has been highly respected as a filial daughter by the Chinese people for hundreds of years. In 1998, her story was adapted into an animated cartoon by Disney in the United States, to the acclaim of viewers young and old.

Chinese have many traditional customs relating to the Spring Festival. From the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month, people start to prepare for the event. Every family will undertake a thorough cleaning, do their Spring Festival shopping, create paper-cuts for window decoration, put up New Year pictures, write Spring Festival couplets, make New Year cakes, and also prepare all kinds of food to bid farewell to the old and usher in the new.

New Year’s Eve is the time for a happy reunion of all the family members, when they sit around the table to have a sumptuous New Year’s Eve dinner, talking and laughing, until daybreak, which is called „staying up to see the year out“. When the bell tolls midnight on New Year’s Eve, people eat dumplings. In ancient times, midnight was called 子时 zishi (a period of the day from 11 pm to 1 am), and 12 pm was called 子正 zizheng when the old year ended and the New Year began. Dumplings 饺子 jiaozi are eaten because it sounds the same as „change of the year and the day“ in Chinese.

From the first day of the lunar year, people visit relatives and friends, to greet each other, which is an important custom for the Spring Festival. Setting off firecrackers is the favorite activity of children in the Spring Festival. According to legend, this could drive off evil spirits. The continuous sound of firecrackers can be heard everywhere, adding to the atmosphere of rejoicing and festivity.

Many places hold temple fairs during the Spring Festival. The wonderful dragon lantern dance and lion dance performances, along with various handicraft articles and local snacks attract thousands of people. These customs have been changed a lot over the years, but for the Chinese all over the world, the Spring Festival is the most important day, and firecrackers and dumplings are the two most important things of this day.

At the very beginning, The Book of Songs was known as Poems or Three Hundred Poems. The great thinker Confucius used it as a textbook to teach his disciples. It was named as The Book of Songs after the Han Dynasty.

The Book of Songs is rich in contents. Many of its works depicted the genuine landscape picture of society at that time. Among them, many stories were devoted to love and marriage between young people. Besides, some poems portrayed the hard life of social underclass, some reflected the general public’s resistance to oppression, and aspiration for freedom and happiness. Others denounced the war and the sufferings caused by it. The poems in The Book of Songs mainly consist of four-character verses. They are original in wording, harmonious in rhythm, concise in style, and pleasant to read.

For instance:

THERE SHE IS GATHERING VINE
A DAY WITHOUT SEEING HER
IS LIKE THREE AUTUMNS.

...

This poem entitled Gathering vine expresses a young man’s pinning for his love. The tenor is that she has gone to gather vine and was unseen for one day which is like three years for that young man.
The popular idiom One day without seeing is like three autumns originated from this poem.

The Book of Songs is not only a valuable resource for studying ancient Zhou society, but also the root of Chinese poetry. It has a great impact upon the development of poetry in later times, in terms of both its ideological and artistic achievements.

China is the homeland of tea. The ancient Chinese first used it for medicinal purposes before developing tea as a drink. As regards the method of making tea, the Chinese variety can be classified into green tea, black tea, tuo tea (bowl-shaped compressed mass of tea leaves), and brick tea, each consisting of many types.

Green tea is not fermented. Famous green tea includes the Longjing tea from the region of the West Lake in Hangzhou, the Biluochun the from Jiangsu, the Maofeng tea from Huangshan Mountain of Anhui Province, and the Liu’an Guapian tea from Liuan County of Anhui Province.

Black tea is fermented, and is brilliant red. Famous Chinese black tea is the keemun tea of Anhui Province, and the Dian black tea (Yunnan black tea) of Yunnan Province. Oolong tea is half fermented, its leaves being loose and thick, and the tea is golden yellow. The best oolong tea is produced in Wuyi Mountain of Fujian Province.

Scented tea is peculiar to China, which is made by smoking tea leaves with fragrant flowers. The most famous one is jasmine tea produced in Fujian Province.

Tuo tea, produced in Yunnan and Sichuan, is compressed like a round steamed bun.

Brick tea is shaped like a brick, and is a favorite of the Mongolian and Tibetan ethnic groups. Drinking tea can quench one’s thirst, dispel fatigue, help digestion and prevent some diseases. The constant drinking of tea is quite beneficial for people’s health.

“Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.” Zhuangzi

"Right is not right; so is not so. If right were really right, it would differ so clearly from not right that there would be no need for argument. If so were really so, it would differ so clearly from not so that there would be no need for argument. Forget the years; forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home!”

"Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.”

“When men do not forget what can be forgotten but forget what cannot be forgotten - that may be called true forgetting.”

“Zhuangzi and Huizi were strolling along the dam of the Hao River when Zhuangzi said, “See how the minnows come out and dart around where they please! That’s what fish really enjoy!”Huizi said, “You’re not a fish—how do you know what fish enjoy?”Zhuangzi said, “You’re not I, so how do you know that I don’t know what fish enjoy?”Huizi said, “I’m not you, so I certainly don’t know what you know. On the other hand, you’re certainly not a fish—so that still proves that you don’t know what fish enjoy!”Zhuangzi said, “Let’s go back to your original question, please. You asked me how I know what fish enjoy—so you already knew that I knew it when you asked the question. I know it by standing here beside the Hao.”