Archive for September, 2009

Sep 21 2009

Get in Hangzhou by train

Published by David.Ge under Hangzhou

A train from Shanghai is the easiest way to get to Hangzhou. Frequent trains run from Shanghai Zhan (Main) Railway station and from the new Shanghai South Station, both on Metro line 1. Check the train schedule for the duration of the trip as some trains are considerably faster than others. In general, the train will take between 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours and 30 minutes, but "local" trains can take over 3 hours. New high-speed "D" trains can take 1 hour and 18 minutes and mostly depart from Shanghai South Station. Travel from Shanghai to Hangzhou by D train is 54 RMB in Second Class and 64 RMB in First Class. Also, it is better to arrive in Hangzhou at the main Hangzhou station, rather than the East Hangzhou Railway station as the main station is right in town.

Second Class on the "D train" from Shanghai to Hangzhou

Second Class on the "D train" from Shanghai to Hangzhou

In addition to Shanghai, Hangzhou Train Station serves trains from Guangzhou, Beijing, Chengdu, and everywhere in between. For destinations further away, such as Kunming and Urumqi, you would first want to go to Shanghai or some halfway-point train station. There is an East Train Station as well, but it is not in such a smart part of town. Trains returning from Shanghai often only stop here rather than at the main station.

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Sep 21 2009

Get in Hangzhou by plane

Published by David.Ge under Hangzhou

Despite the name, Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (HGH) generally services domestic Chinese flights. There are frequent services to Beijing and Hong Kong, but using Shanghai’s domestic Hongqiao or the international Pudong airports and connecting by bus or train is also a viable option. International flights are possible. International cities that have service to Hangzhou include Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok, Seoul, and Singapore. The service to Bangkok may not currently be operating.

The airport is about 30km east of the city centre, taking 30 minutes – 1 hour by taxi. A taxi to or from the airport from the city centre is around ¥90; on the way back, you should ask if the driver is willing to take you that far before just jumping in the car with all your bags. No additional fee is payable for travel to/from the airport, the normal metered fare applies. A cheaper route would be to buy tickets for the shuttle service (¥15) to/from the Xiaoshan Bus ticket office on Tiyuchang Road next to the KFC just west of Wulin Square. The shuttle bus also stops at the main railway station en-route. Buses run every 30mins during the daytime and take about an hour; join the queue for your ticket at the booth just outside the exit before boarding the bus. The Shangri-La Hotel also has a shuttle service to/from the airport for ¥50, inquire within.

Alternatively, if flying into Pudong Airport in Shanghai, there are direct buses to Hangzhou. They leave from the 2nd floor parking lot across from Gate 15 of Pudong Airport, departing every 1.5 hours from 10:30AM until 7PM. It costs ¥100 (Summer 2008 price). These buses arrive at the Hangzhou Yellow Dragon Sports Center (football stadium), 3km to the west of the city centre.

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Sep 21 2009

About Hangzhou Tourism

Published by David.Ge under Hangzhou

Hangzhou is renowned for its historic relics and natural beauty. It is often known as one of the most beautiful cities in China. It has been ranked as one of the ten most scenic cities in China. Although Hangzhou has been through many recent urban developments, it still retains its historical and cultural heritage. Today, tourism remains an important factor for Hangzhou’s economy. One of Hangzhou’s most popular sights is West Lake. The lake itself covers an area of 6 km2 (600 hectares) and includes some of Hangzhou’s most famous historic and scenic places. Adjacent to the lake is a scenic area covering over 50 square kilometres. The area includes historical pagodas, cultural sites, as well as the natural beauty of the lake and hills. There are two causeways across the lake.

Scenic places near West Lake:

  • Jingci Temple (净慈寺) is located just south of West Lake.
  • Lingyin Temple (灵隐寺 "Soul’s Retreat") is located about 2km west of West Lake. This is believed to be the oldest Buddhist temple in the city, which has gone through numerous destruction and reconstruction cycles.

Hangzhou pagoda bridge

  • Baochu Pagoda (保俶塔) is located just north of West Lake on top of Precious Stone Hill (宝石山)
  • Yue-Wang Temple (岳王庙, "King Yue’s Temple") or Yue Fei Miao is on the north west shore of West Lake and was originally constructed in 1221 in memory of General Yue Fei, who lost his life due to political persecution.
  • Leifeng Pagoda

Other places of interest:

  • The world’s largest tidal bore races up the Qiantang River through Hangzhou reaching up to 40 ft (12 m) in height.
  • The Residence of Hu Xueyan 胡雪岩故居 located on Yuanbao Street was built in 1872 by Hu Xueyan, a native of Anhui, a very successful businessman. After restoration it was opened to the public in 2001
  • Liuhe Pagoda or six harmonies pagoda is located on Yuelun Hill on the north bank of Qiantang River
  • Confucius Temple
  • Chenghuang Temple and Pagoda Scenic Area
  • Dreaming of the Tiger Spring

View from the Chenghuang pagoda area

  • The Immaculate Conception Cathedral of Hangzhou is one of the oldest Catholic churches in China, dating back 400 years to the Ming dynasty.
  • Fenghuang Temple (凤凰清真寺) is one of the oldest mosques in China, the current construction at the intersection of Xihu Road (西湖大道) and the Central Zhongshan Road (中山中路) dating back 700 years to the Yuan dynasty.
  • Xixi National Wetland Park established with the aim of preserving the wetland ecological system, it covers an area of about 10km2. Fish ponds and reed beds have been restored and it is home to many types of birds. There is a temple and several historic rural houses.
  • Hangzhou Botanical Garden
  • Hangzhou Zoo
  • Old China Street on He Fang Street (He Fang Jie), which offers various kinds of souvenirs and renowned Longjing tea
  • Jade Springs (Yu Quan)
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Sep 21 2009

History of Hangzhou

Published by David.Ge under Uncategorized

Early history

The celebrated Neolithic culture of Hemudu inhabited Yuyao, an area (now a city 100 kilometers east of Hangzhou), as far back as seven thousand years ago when rice was first cultivated in southeastern China. The area immediately surrounding the modern city of Hangzhou was inhabited five thousand years ago by the Liangzhu culture, so named for the small town of Liangzhu not far to the northwest of Hangzhou where the ancient jade carving civilization was first discovered.

The city of Hangzhou was founded about 2,200 years ago during the Qin Dynasty, but the city wall was not constructed until the Sui Dynasty (591). It is listed as one of the Seven Ancient Capitals of China.

Hangzhou is at the southern end of China’s Grand Canal which extends to Beijing. The canal evolved over centuries but reached its full length by 609.

It was the capital of the Wuyue Kingdom from 907 to 978 during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. Named Xifu at the time, it was one of the three great centers of culture in southern China during the tenth century, along with Nanjing and Chengdu. Leaders of Wuyue were noted patrons of the arts, and especially of Buddhism and associated temple architecture and artwork. It also became a cosmopolitan center, drawing scholars from throughout China and conducting diplomacy not only with neighboring Chinese states, but also with Japan, Korea, and the Khitan Liao Dynasty.

In 1089, while the poet Su Shi (often known as Su DongPo) was the city’s governor, he used 200,000 workers to construct a 2.8 km long causeway across the West Lake, which Qing Emperor Qianlong considered particularly attractive in the early morning of the spring time. The lake was once a lagoon tens of thousands of years ago. Silt then blocked the way to the sea and the lake was formed. A drill in the lake-bed in 1975 found the sediment of the sea, which confirmed its origin. Artificial preservation prevented the lake from evolving into a marshland. The Su Causeway built by Su Shi, and the Bai Causeway built by Bai Juyi, a famous Tang Dynasty poet who was once the governor of Hangzhou, were both built out of mud dredged from the bottom of the lake. The lake is surrounded by hills on the northern and western sides. The Baochu Pagoda sits on the Baoshi Hill to the north of the lake.

Southern Song

The Liuhe Pagoda of Hangzhou, built in 1165 during the Song Dynasty.

Hangzhou was chosen as the new capital of the Southern Song Dynasty when they regrouped after their defeat at the hands of the Jin in 1123. It remained the capital from the early 12th century until the Mongol invasion of 1276, and was known as Lin’an . It served as the seat of the imperial government, a center of trade and entertainment, and the nexus of the main branches of the civil service. During that time, the city was a sort of gravitational center of Chinese civilization: what used to be considered "central China" in the north was taken by the Jin, an ethnic minority dynasty ruled by Jurchens.

Numerous philosophers, politicians, and men of literature, including some of the most celebrated poets in Chinese history such as Su Shi, Lu You, and Xin Qiji came here to live and die. Hangzhou is also the birthplace and final resting place of the famed scientist Shen Kuo (1031-1095 AD), his tomb being located in the Yuhang district.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, commercial expansion, an influx of refugees from the conquered north, and the growth of the official and military establishments, led to a corresponding population increase and the city developed well outside its 9th century ramparts. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Hangzhou had a population of over 2 million at that time, while historian Jacques Gernet has estimated that the population of Hangzhou numbered well over one million by 1276. (Official Chinese census figures from the year 1270 listed some 186,330 families in residence and probably failed to count non-residents and soldiers.) It is believed that Hangzhou was the largest city in the world from 1180 to 1315 and from 1348 to 1358.

Lakeside Buildings on the West Lake

Because of the large population and densely-crowded (often multi-story) wooden buildings, Hangzhou was particularly vulnerable to fires. Major conflagrations destroyed large sections of the city in 1132, 1137, 1208, 1229, 1237, and 1275 while smaller fires occurred nearly every year. The 1237 fire alone was recorded to have destroyed 30,000 dwellings. To combat this threat, the government established an elaborate system for fighting fires, erected watchtowers, devised a system of lantern and flag signals to identify the source of the flames and direct the response, and charged more than 3,000 soldiers with the task of putting out fires.

The Lingyin Temple

The city of Hangzhou was besieged and captured by the advancing Mongol armies of Kublai Khan in 1276, three years before the final collapse of the empire. The capital of the new Yuan Dynasty was established in the city of Khanbaliq (Beijing).

The Venetian Marco Polo supposedly visited Hangzhou in the late 13th century. His book refers to the city as "beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world." He called the city Kinsay which simply means "capital" in Chinese (actually Polo used a Persianized version of the word). Although he exaggerated that the city was over one hundred miles in diameter and had 12,000 stone bridges, he still presented elegant prose about the country: "The number and wealth of the merchants, and the amount of goods that passed through their hands, was so enormous that no man could form a just estimate thereof."

The renowned 14th century Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta said it was "the biggest city I have ever seen on the face of the earth."

Ming and after

The city remained an important port until the middle of the Ming Dynasty era when its harbor slowly silted up.

As late as the latter part of the 16th and early 17th centuries, the city was an important center of Chinese Jewry, and may have been the original home of the better-known Kaifeng Jewish community

In 1856 and 1860, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupied Hangzhou and caused heavy damage to the city.

Hangzhou was ruled by Republic of China government under the Kuomintang from 1928 to 1949. On May 3, 1949, the People’s Liberation Army entered Hangzhou and the city came under Communist control. After Deng Xiaoping’s reformist policies began in 1978, Hangzhou took advantage of being situated in the Yangtze River Delta to bolster its development. It is now one of China’s most prosperous major cities.

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Sep 21 2009

Brief introduce of Hangzhou

Published by David.Ge under Hangzhou

Hangzhou is a sub-provincial city located in the Yangtze River Delta in the People’s Republic of China, and the capital of Zhejiang province. Located 180 kilometres southwest of Shanghai, as of 2004 the entire Hangzhou Region or Prefecture-level city had a registered population of 6.4 million people.The urban agglomeration of the Hangzhou metropolitan area has a resident population of 3,931,900 as of 2003, of which 2,636,700 are permanent residents. There are 1,910,000 residents in the six urban core districts.

As one of the most renowned and prosperous cities of China for much of the last 1,000 years, Hangzhou is also well-known for its beautiful natural scenery, with the West Lake as the most well-known location.

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Sep 17 2009

Useful website for learning Chinese language

Published by David.Ge under Chinese Language Stuff

These are some website collected by David.Ge for you  to leaning chinese. hope they will give you progress.

Confucius Institute Online  http://www.chinese.cn/ just look the domain, you will know the postion of website in china, just go to it.

Chinese-Tools.com, http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese this is a website which have long history, it provide so much tools to help you improving skill of chinese so that i can’t use them complete.

zhongwen.com, http://zhongwen.com/ it is a amozing pleace that most of chinese character are showed to you.

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Sep 17 2009

Fargo students learning Chinese

Published by David.Ge under Chinese Language Stuff

Fargo students learning Chinese

Fargo high school students are among the first students in the state to studying the Mandarin Chinese language.

After teacher Weiwei Qian instructed 20 North High School students last week on proper Chinese greetings and titles, she said she aims to teach them not just the language but culture.

“If you only learn language, you’re not going to know how to use it properly,” she said. “I want to try and teach them more authentic things.”

The Chinese native and former graphic designer came to the area more than a decade ago and is the only teacher for the program.

While about a dozen Minnesota schools offer the language, Fargo is the first district in the North Dakota to offer Mandarin Chinese – the most spoken language in the world.

Qian estimated about 1 billion people in the world speak Mandarin Chinese in contrast to about 340 million English speakers.

“This will just give one more opportunity for students to learn another language,” said Bob Grosz, the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, adding that Chinese is increasingly being taught at schools as part of a more “global society.”

While the district is continuing to offer Spanish, French, German and Latin this year, Grosz said they’ve increased interest for the Chinese classes.

About 80 students are in Qian’s four classes, which take place at the two high schools and South Campus II.

The district may expand the program next year beyond the introductory course if students are interested, officials said.

“It’s really different,” said North High School senior Breanna Bauer, who hopes to travel to China. “It seemed like it would be difficult, but it’s fun.”

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Sep 17 2009

kindergartners learn Chinese in Indiana

Published by David.Ge under Chinese Language Stuff

Walk into any classroom at the International School of Indiana, and you’re just as likely to hear Spanish or French being spoken as English.

In a new program at the school this year, kindergartners even had the option to be immersed in the Chinese language.

For two and a half days a week, instructor Sherry Yang gives lessons to her kindergarten students only in Chinese. The rest of their class is taught in English.

Westside resident Jasmine Cheung enrolled her daughter, Samantha, in the program, so she’d learn about her roots.

Cheung and her husband both grew up in the United States, but their parents are from different parts of China.

"We speak Chinese at home, but several different dialects because we’re from different areas," Jasmine Cheung said. "Being Chinese, we speak the dialect, but the kids speak back to you in English."

Cheung said Samantha now comes home and asks her parents about Chinese words and topics.

"To not learn the language is doing them a disservice," Cheung said about her children.

In the immersion program, the students are learning Mandarin — the standard language in Beijing — through regular classroom activities, such as songs, stories and written words that are presented both in English and Chinese.

"I believe with this type of immersion program, the children will have basic conversations," said Yang. "I sing lots of songs and rhymes with them."

Children are learning the meanings and tracing Chinese characters, too, at the same time that they are learning the English language from their English teacher, Yang said.

The International School’s Chinese classroom — as well as Brownsburg’s entire Chinese program — were recognized by the Chinese government as Confucius Classrooms that boost the teaching and learning of Chinese culture and language.

The program is starting small, with just three kindergarten students at the lower school. But it has potential to connect children to the international world.

"When we talk about international development, all eyes are on China," said David Garner, head of school.

But the private Northside school at 4330 Michigan Road also has to balance cost and efficiencies with class offerings, Garner said.

"We ultimately want to see Mandarin offered throughout the school," Garner said. "We don’t want to wait 12 years until it’s in the 12th grade."

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Sep 17 2009

Why is chinese language so difficult to learn

Published by David.Ge under Chinese Language Stuff

For Most foreign, learning chinese is so headache, Why?

在一些外国人看来,学习中文已成为他们最为头疼的事情。汉语的语调和汉字好像都是个难题。

In some foreigners eyes’, the learning of Chinese has becomethe most difficult thing for them. T he tones of Chinese andChinese characters all seem to be a difficulty。

Then what has made the learning of Chinese difficult?

原因一:书写方法简直是天方夜谭

Top 1 Because the writing system is ridiculous

汉语之所以难学,就是因为要学的汉字实在太多,这也是绝对的事实。

It is absolutely true that Chinese is hard because of the hugenumber of characters one has to learn。

还有,汉字的拼写方式也不是很规则,也就是说,如果从一个汉字的组合方式中得不到任何显而易见的语义提示,或者其中没有包含什么有用的偏旁部首,就会把一个汉字的写法忘得干干净净。

And Chinese is not very phonetic, which means that often you just completely forget how to write a character, if there is noobvious semantic clue in the radical, and no helpful phoneticcomponent somewhere in the character。

原因二:汉语是不能用通俗意义上的字母排列来表意的

Top 2 Because the language doesn’t have the common sense touse an alphabet

英语之所以好学,就是因为掌握英语书写方法所需要的技能也就是26个字母而已,而且只要沿水平方向、从左到右、从页面的一边写到另一边就可以了。

The English is so easy because of the skills needed to masterthe writing system are 26 letters and they are written from left toright ,horizontally, across the page, with spaces to indicate wordboundaries。

相比之下,尽管中文也有组成汉字的那些共用的偏旁部首,却没有相应的字母。

In comparison, Chinese has nothing that corresponds to analphabet, though there are recurring components that make up thecharacters。

可以说,组成汉字的偏旁部首是按照两个方向来排列的,而不象字母那样只按一个方向排列,看起来很整洁。

It can be said that the components of Chinese characters arearrayed in two dimensions, rather than in the neat one-dimensionalrows of alphabetic writing。

原因三:即使在字典中查汉字也是非常复杂

Top 3 Because even looking up a word in the dictionary iscomplicated

学习汉语最莫名其妙的困难之一,就是即使仅仅学会怎么查字典,也要耗费一个秘书学校整个学期的学习时间。

One of the most unreasonably difficult things about learningChinese is that merely learning how to look up a word in thedictionary is about the equivalent of an entire semester ofsecretarial school

汉语一定是地球上最精于运用字典的语言了,因为各种各样的字典实在太多。

Chinese must also be one of the most dictionary-intensivelanguages on earth for there are various dictionaries。

原因四:中文里面还有古汉语(文言文)

Top 4 Because there’s classical Chinese (wenyanwen)

古汉语确实含有数千年来积累起来的各种宫廷秘闻,用词简洁扼要,简直象某种密码,只适合那些天生的知识精英,他们对文学的一切了然于心。

Classical Chinese really consists of several centuries ofesoteric anecdotes and in-jokes written in a kind of terse, miserlycode for dissemination among a small, elite group ofintellectually-inbred bookworms who already knew the wholeliterature backwards and forwards。

原因五:(罗马式)拼音方案太多且都让人精疲力尽

Top 5 Because there are too many romanization methods and theyall suck

也许听起来有些刺耳,但汉语的拼音方案确实太多,而大多数的拼音方案不是什么文字委员会提倡的,就是语言学家提出来的,更糟糕的是由那些语言学家组成的文字委员会提出来的。

Perhaps that’s too harsh, but it is true that there are toomany of them, and most of them were designed either by committee orby linguists, or — even worse — by a committee of linguists。

原因六:汉语语调稀奇古怪

Top 6 Because tonal languages are weird

在学汉语过程中,最容易听到的抱怨正是这一点,西方人对汉语最害怕的也是这一点,简直是妇孺皆知。

It’s one of the most common complaints about learning Chinese,and it’s also one of the aspects of the language that westernersare notoriously bad at。

如果不是从小就会说汉语,那你就等着不停地去死记那些元音辅音吧。

As non-native speakers, you must memorize along with thevowels and consonants。

汉语的那些语调和强调习惯简直是与生俱来的,根深蒂固的,简直不可思议。

Intonation and stress habits are incredibly ingrained andsecond-nature。

原因七:存在文化差异

Top 7 Because there is culture difference

东方、西方相互之间文化分隔的时间太长,这也是汉语对于西方人来说为何那么难学的主要原因。

One of the main reasons Chinese is so difficult for westernersis that the culture between the East and the West has been isolatedfor so long。

尽管在过去几十年里中国和西方之间有了广泛的接触,然而,中国人的知识和思想浩瀚如海,西方人却无缘享用。

China has had extensive contact with the West in the last fewdecades, but there is still a vast sea of knowledge and ideas thatis not shared by both cultures。

即使有朝一日西方人想和中国人融合成一体,其障碍往往也并非只是语言一个方面而已,最大的障碍是巨大的文化差异。

When westerners and Chinese get together, there is often notjust a language barrier, but an immense cultural barrier aswell

End, by David.Ge,  there are something we must to know, when you can read 1000 chinese charater, you will can read more than 95% of chinese newspaper, when you can read 1000 english words, you can’t do anything except the samply communication.

Everybody learning chinese, just insist on it, you will get success.

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Sep 17 2009

Where can i change foreign currency in Beijing

Published by David.Ge under BeiJing

Can I change Chinese Yuan into GBP at Beijing Airport?

Question from some foreign

Is this possible to do at Beijing Airport and if so is there a limit to how much I can exchange? I have been told I can’t take yuan out of the country and also that I may only be able to get US$, which I don’t want!

Answer

You CAN change it to GBP, have done it. They may be funny if you have a LARGE amount of currency, but as long as you can prove that you either brought that quantity of money with you, or have ATM receipts showing you withdrew it there, then they will still change it.

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