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Chinese performers in traditional costumes perform during a sacrifice ritual for Huang Di in Huangling County, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, where legend has it that Huang Di (Yellow Emperor) is buried. About 10,000 people attended the grand ceremony on Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb-sweeping Day that falls on April 5, a day for the Chinese to remember and honour one's ancestors.[Xinhua]

A student looks at a name list of U.S. air force members who died fighting against the Japanese invaders in China during the Second World War, at a war memorial in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, April 5, 2007. A ceremony was held to honor U.S. soldiers, on Qing Ming, the traditional Tomb-sweeping Day. [AP]

Xia Shuqin, a Nanjing massacre survivor, cries during a memorial ceremony in front of a wall which bears the names of victims of the massacre, at the Nanjing Massacre Museum in Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu province April 5, 2007. The ceremony is held in conjunction with the Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb-sweeping Day, a day for the Chinese to remember and honour one's ancestors. [Reuters]


(Source from chinadaily)

Photo taken at 9:26 am Monday shows the partial solar eclipse observed in Yinchuan, northwest China's Yinxia Hui Autonomous Regions, March 19, 2007. Many parts of China experienced a partial solar eclipse on Monday morning, lasting around one and a half hours. [Xinhua]

NANJING -- Many parts of China experienced a partial solar eclipse on Monday morning, lasting around one and a half hours, according to the China National Astronomical Observatory.

In Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, the partial eclipse occurred from 9:25 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Monday, in which the moon covered about 20 percent of the sun, according to Wang Sichao, researcher with Zijinshan Astronomical Observatory under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Sky gazers in northeastern Jilin, central Henan, eastern Shandong Provinces and northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region also witnessed the partial eclipse.

In western China, 70 percent of the sun was eclipsed but in Beijing, however, cloudy and drizzly weather deprived enthusiasts of the chance of seeing their first partial eclipse since 1997.

"Those who missed this one will have opportunities to see total solar eclipses on August 1, 2008 and July 22, 2009, and a partial eclipse on January 15, 2010," Wang said.

During the last century (1901- 1999), 78 partial and 71 total solar eclipses have been reported worldwide.

Chinese astronomers are believed to have been the first to record solar eclipses more than 3,000 years ago.

(Source from China daily)

The Spring Festival is the most important and biggest festival in China. To the Chinese people it is as important as Christmas to people in the West. It is the first day of the lunar calendar and usually occurs somewhere between January 30 and February 20, heralding the beginning of spring, thus it is known as Spring Festival. This traditional festival is also a festival of reunion, thus no matter how far away people are from their home, they would try their best to get back home to have the Reunion Dinner.

The Chinese meaning of this festival is Guo Nian. Guo means pass over and Nian means year. The origin of the Chinese New Year Festival can be traced back thousands of years through a continually evolving series of colorful legends and traditions. According to one of the most famous legends, in ancient China there lived a monster named Year who, with a horn on the head, was extremely ferocious. Year lived deep at the bottom of the sea all the year round and climbed up to the shore only on New Year's Eve to devour the cattle and kill people's lives.

Thereupon on the day of every New Year's Eve people from all villages would flee, bringing along the old and the young, to the remote mountains so as to avoid the calamity caused by the monster of Year.

On the day of that New Year's Eve the people of Peach Blossom village were bringing along the old and the young to take flight when there came from outside the village an old beggar. With a stick in his hand and a bag hanging upon his arm, he had eyes twinkling like stars and graceful beard as white as silver.

Seized with panic, the villagers were in a great hurry to run away. Some were closing the windows and locking the doors, some were packing, and others were urging the cattle and driving the sheep. At a time when the people were shouting and the horses were neighing no one was in the mood to care for the beggar.

Only a grandmother living in the east end of the village gave the old man some food and advised him to flee to the mountains to avoid the Year monster. But the old man stroked his beard and said with a smile, "If you allow me to stay at your home for the night, I'm sure to drive away the monster Year."

The old woman was surprised to hear this. She looked at him unbelievingly only to find that, with white hair and ruddy complexion, the old man had a bearing out of the ordinary. She went on to persuade him to take flight. But he only smiled without reply. Thereupon the grandmother could not help but leave her home and flee to the mountains.

Around midnight the monster Year rushed into the villages. He found the atmosphere was quite different from that of the previous year. The house of the grandmother in the east end of the village was brilliantly illuminated, with bright red paper stuck on the doors. Greatly shocked, the monster gave a strange loud cry.

The monster Year stared angrily at the house for a moment. And then howling furiously, he made a pounce on it. As he approached the door, there came all of a sudden the exploding sounds of bang-bong. Trembling all over, the monster dared not make a step forward.

It turned out that the red color; flame and exploding were what Year feared the most. And when the door of the grandmother's house was thrown open and an old man in a red robe burst out laughing in the courtyard, the monster Year was scared out of his wits and fled helter-skelter.

The next day was the 1st of the first lunar month. When people came back from their hideouts and found everything safe and sound, they were quite surprised. The old woman suddenly realized what had happened and told the villagers about the old beggar's promise.

The villagers swarmed into the grandmother's house, only to find that the doors were struck with red paper, the ember of a pile of bamboo were still giving out exploding sound of bang-bong in the courtyard, and a few candles were still glowing in the room...

The story was soon spread far and wide and everybody was talking about it. They concluded in the end that the old beggar was surely the celestial being who came to expel the calamities and bless the people, and that red paper, red cloth, red candles and the exploding firecracker were certainly the magic weapons to drive out the monster Year.

To celebrate the arrival of the auspiciousness, the raptured villagers put on their clothes and new hats and went one after another to their relatives and friends to send their regards and congratulations. This was soon spread to the surrounding villages, and people all got to know the way to drive away the monster Year.

From then on, on each New Year's Eve, each family stick on their doors antithetical couplets written on red paper, blow up firecrackers, keep their houses brilliantly illuminated and stay up late into the night. Early in the morning of the 1st of the first lunar month they go to their relatives and friends' to send their regards and congratulations. These customs are spreading far and wide and kept for generations. It becomes the most ceremonious traditional festival of the Chinese people.

Playing shuttlecock and boating in Lianhua Park and eating KFC were all my stories happened in Christmas Day,how's your christmas? please write down your stories,let's start stories connecting,thank you.

I was late again:( today is just the second day of Nov.it's not a good sign:mad:

Almost every company in China has set up the exact working time for their employees,some is 8:30-12:00/13:30-17:30 and some is 9:00-12:00/13:30-18:00,our company follows the first one,therefore we employees are required to arrive at office before 8:30 in the morning,or we will be fined,10 yuan for being 5 minutes late,half day's pay for being 30 minutes late....and if you arrive at offcie on time every day of a month, you will get 50 yuan attendance bonus for this month.

To tell you the truth,i have never got the bonus so far,nor do i want to get it,for i know i'm not capable of not being late:sherlock: Every day i have to spend nearly 2 hours on bus,once you get on the bus, it's the driver who controls your time.What's more, the traffic jam is getting worse and worse since the increasing use of private cars,so i dare not to say that i won't be late.

I hate to go to work by bus,i hate the work attendance checking system,i hate the fingerprint machine in our company...

Being late is the only way to go against this rule,haha....