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China is a
country with a long history, splendid culture, beautiful mountains and
rivers, a large number of ethnic groups and abundant tourism resources.
Tourism has become a fashion making people relax and pleasing to
people's bodies and minds.
Tourism may enable people to broaden their vision and increase their
knowledge. In addition, the mysterious and exotic Chinese customs are
attracting an increasing number of visitors both from at home and
abroad.
Calligraphy has traditionally been regarded as
China's highest form of visual art - to the point that a person's
character was judged by the elegance of their handwriting! Decorative
calligraphy is found all over China, in temples and adorning the walls
of caves and the sides of mountains and monuments. The basic tools of
calligraphy - brush and ink - are also the tools of Chinese painting,
with linework and tone the all-important components. Despite the ravages
of time, war and ideology, there's still a lot to see architecturally.
Traces of the past include the imperial structures
of Beijing, the colonial buildings of Shanghai, the occasional rural
village and Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist temples. Funerary art was 
already a feature of Chinese culture in Neolithic times (9000-6000 BC),
ranging from ritual vessels and weapons to pottery figures, jade and
sacrificial vessels made of bronze. Earthenware production is almost as
ancient, with the world's first proto-porcelain being produced in China
in the 6th century AD, reaching its artistic peak under the Song rulers.
China's language is officially Mandarin, as spoken in Beijing. The
Chinese call it Putonghua. About 70% of the population speak Mandarin,
but that's just the tip of the lingusitic iceberg. The country is awash
with dialects, and dialects within dialects - and few of them are
mutually intelligible. Of the seven major strains, Cantonese is the one
most likely to be spoken in your local Chinese takeaway.
It's the lingua franca of Guangdong, southern
Guangxi, Hong Kong and (to an extent) Macau. China's literary heritage
is huge, but unfortunately its untranslatability makes much of it
inaccessible to Western readers. Traditionally there are two forms,
 the
classical (largely Confucian) and the vernacular (such as the prose
epics of the Ming dynasty). Chinese theatre is also known as opera
because of the important role played by music, and has spawned such
diverse arts as acrobatics, martial arts and stylised dance.
Many
western film-lovers are fans of Chinese cinema, with releases enjoying
success at film festivals and in art-house cinemas. Recently there has
been an emergence of talented `fifth-generation' post-Cultural
Revolution directors, including Zhang Yimou (Red Sorghum), Chen Kaige
(Farewell, My Concubine), Wu Ziniu and Tian Zhuangzhuang. Add to them
Hong Kong's East-meets-West action directors John Woo (Hard Boiled) and
Ringo Lam (Full Contact) and you have a full-fledged, extremely
successful film industry. Chinese cuisine is justifiably famous,
memorably diverse - and generally not for the squeamish. The Chinese
themselves like to say they'll eat anything with four legs, except a
table. For the most part, however, it's a case of doing ingenious things
with a limited number of basic ingredients. The cuisine can be divided
into four regional categories: Beijing/Mandarin and Shandong (with
steamed bread and noodles as staples), Cantonese and Chaozhou (lightly
cooked meats and vegetables), Shanghainese (the home of `red cooking'
and wuxi spare ribs) and Sichuan (spicy, with lots of chilli). Tea is
the most common nonalcoholic beverage on sale, although Coca-Cola (both
original and bogus) is making inroads, while beer is by far the most
popular alcoholic drink. `Wine' is a loose term which can cover oxidised
and herb-soaked concoctions, rice wine and wine containing lizards, bees
or pickled snakes. Another favourite is maotai, a spirit made from
sorghum which smells like rubbing alcohol and makes a good substitute
for petrol or paint thinner. |
