China Cultural Chronicles October 19, 2012
- Maldivian ambassador offers tips for Chinese tourists
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下载安装Flash播放器Mohamed Rasheed, Maldivian ambassador to China, had an online communication with Chinese netizens at People's Daily Online, on the afternoon of Oct 17th, 2012.
The ambassador said Chinese tourists, often seen in museums and local markets besides the scenery spots, are more energetic and curious comparing with those from European countries. Nowadays, more and more Chinese couples choose the Maldives to spend their honeymoons.
In the past six months, dozens of Chinese tourists have been cheated in the Maldives. The Maldivian Embassy will strengthen the management of travel agencies, the ambassador said.
The food specialties in the Maldives are fish and coconuts. People could eat a variety of fresh fish in the Maldives.
The ambassador suggested people to stay five to seven days in his coutnry to fully enjoy its beautiful scenery and local culture.
- Maldives calls on Chinese firms to invest in hotel constructions
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下载安装Flash播放器Maldives
Mohamed Rasheed, Maldivian ambassador to China, had an online communication with Chinese netizens at People's Daily Online, on the afternoon of Oct. 17, 2012.
The ambassador said tourists in the Maldives were mainly from Europe in the past. However, the number of Chinese tourists has been increasing rapidly in recent years. As a result, hotels in the Maldives cannot meet the needs of Chinese tourists.
He expects Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in the Maldives and help construct dedicated Chinese hotels.
- Maldives strives to preserve its tourism resources
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下载安装Flash播放器Mohammed Rasheed, Maldivian ambassador to China
Mohammed Rasheed, Maldivian ambassador to China, had an online communication with Chinese netizens at People's Daily Online, on the afternoon of Oct. 17, 2012.
Referring to the tourism development plan, the ambassador said the Maldives attaches great importance on environment protection. The development plan is formulated on the basis of environment protection and measures coping with global warming.
The most important task is to protect the 2,000 islands in the country. It is difficult to protect the total 2,000 islands, of which 198 having residents. The government expects people to voluntarily immigrate to bigger islands, which would be easier for them to arrange medical care, education, etc.
Another measure the government has taken is sea-filling. For example, a large part of the Male International Airport is built on sea-filling land.
In addition, the Maldives will not over explore its tourism resources. To control the number of tourists and receive only high-end customers are effective methods to protect the environment in tourist seasons.
Next year, the Maldives will celebrate the 40 anniversary of its development in tourism industry. The country hopes to hold theme activities with Chinese travel agencies and travel magazines at the time.
- Prevent 'ugly buildings' from tarnishing cities
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下载安装Flash播放器Buildings without culture will be called "construction waste". However, ugly buildings can often be seen during 30 years of rapid urbanization in China, highlighting the backwardness and blind imitation of some designers in aesthetic aspects and exposing urban management officials' loss of urban culture.
The emergence of these "ugly buildings" can be attributed to the rapid urbanization of China in the past 30 years, but it is more related to the lack of cultural consciousness in architecture. Due to inadequate cultural aesthetics in city constructions, "ugly buildings" have caused a variety of problems, such as unreasonable functions, being incongruous with natural conditions and surrounding environment, imitating ancient architecture, worshipping foreign architectural style, buildings integrating Western and Chinese styles, and mechanical biological imitations, all of which are nothing meaningful but failures in China's city constructions.
In the future, city buildings must return to the position of showing urban culture and avoiding the "construction waste", rather than acting as a carrier displaying material desires. A unique building with cultural connotation is a monument, embodying meaningful concept and aesthetic taste, and its urban culture can be a reflection of the local cultural traditions and humanistic spirit.
In addition, there is no need to destroy the old and establish the new to truly express urban culture. We should respect the tradition and history. Rome is the home of world architecture because it retains the architectural features of different time periods from ancient Rome to Gothic, Baroque and Rococo. The insistence and respect of history vitalize the city buildings and make them more likely to be remembered.
Therefore, only with urban culture and aesthetic sense, and respect for history and cultural traditions, can buildings with a cultural soul be constructed in the process of urbanization. These buildings will not lose themselves in the crisis of homogeneous constructions, or be easily tarnished by the ugly buildings.
- Dudjom tersar protection, Chinese caption
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- Dudjom Tersar protection
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- Stephanie
- Three Bad Boys
- 'Venice' in Shanghai
- Osmantus flower of fall - How sweet it is
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下载安装Flash播放器Sweet, lingering and seductive, but not overwhelming - these words could describe an ideal date - or an osmanthus flower, a famous Chinese fragrant and tasteful ingredient of autumn. Gao Ceng inhales.
During this season when sweet osmanthus is in bloom, people in a hurry sometimes cannot help but slow their pace and take a deep breath of the fragrance, which is pure, sweet and seductive.
The lingering fragrance is difficult to describe, but it has been called delicate and fruity-floral, somewhat like apricot. The shrub or tree osmanthus fragrance is also known as sweet olive or tea olive.
"Unlike other flowers smelling either too delicate or too intense, osmanthus (guihua in Chinese pinyin) presents a floral scent that is clean enough to wash away the dust in the air and rich enough to spread over miles. It's hard to believe it comes from nature and not the moon in heaven," wrote Song Dynasty (960-1279) poet Yang Wanli.
Yang's comparison of osmanthus fragrance to heavenly scent is inspired by a legend. It was said that osmanthus was originally a plant in the heavenly moon. A sky fairy who could not bear to watch a plague devastating humanity scattered osmanthus seeds over the Earth. They grew into fragrant plants and their flowers were made into wine that helped cure the people.
Osmanthus was praised by literati as a symbol of tenacity since it blooms in the autumn, when weather turns cold and frosty. The tiny flowers of white, yellow and orange seem to evoke beauty and romance. "Seductive" is a term widely associated with osmanthus perfume.
Unlike many other flower petals that are bitter, osmanthus petals have a distinctive taste, which is only slightly bitter but mildly sweet. This makes it ideal for cooking and making tea and wine. It is said that only by tasting osmanthus can one fully experience and appreciate its beauty.
Osmanthus is abundant in Jiangnan, the region south of the Yangtze River, and is widely used in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai cuisines both as an ingredient and fragrance. It can be made into savory dishes and sweet dim sum, adding sweetness with more dimensions and freshness and balancing fatty taste. It is used in making wines and teas, both green and black.
- Glance at Chinese-style street crossing
Pedestrians run a red light in groups of three and four at a crossroad in Beijing on Oct. 16, 2012. Recently, a thread titled "Chinese-style street crossing" became popular on the Internet and attracted much attention from Chinese media. The phenomenon "We Chinese do not care about traffic lights. We run red lights in groups" strikes a responsive chord among many Chinese. People begin to rethink the quality of citizens and the social management.
- Dragppo/Dragphur thangka, circa 1300 CE
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"One of the most effective practices for controlling negativities is Guru Dragphur. This Guru Dragphur, however, is very special because it is the union of Hayagriva, Vajrapani, Garuda and Vajrakilaya as well as Yangdag Heruka. This practice is a terma of my uncle Heka Lingpa, also known as Jamyang Chokyi Wangchuk and Khyentse Yangsid Rinpoche.
In our modern society there are many people who don't believe that other powerful beings really exist but it is important to understand the situation. This doesn't mean we should believe blindly. Instead of believing everything when someone says that there is a deity or a spirit, we should think a little. Then we can discover and understand. For example, in the universe there are many dimensions; that is something we can also understand scientifically. We say there are many galaxies and solar systems, and we know that these stars have immense dimensions. So, if there are these dimensions why should there not be beings there too? How can we decide that there are only human beings?
We have many problems with illnesses, such as cancer and tumours, and now also AIDS. All these illnesses are related with negative provocations. If we do not control this negative energy, but just try to cure this illness with only medicine and therapy, we cannot cure it. However, if we know about that negativity and which kind of practice to use in order to control it, and do that practice together with therapy and medicine, then it really works. So it is very important to understand these provocations. Gyalpo is one of the Eight Classes. The Gyalpo is a very big class and also a very provocative one. Where the Gyalpos provoke, people become nervous; where there are Gyalpos there is war, conflict, problems, and a lot of confusion. Today the class of Gyalpo is really a problem in our society. Provocations from the Gyalpos exist everywhere. Beneath the manifestation of Guru Tragphur there are two figures: the male form is a Gyalpo and looks like Gyalpo Shugden to show that we have this kind of problem in this epoch. For that reason if you do Guru Dragphur practice you cannot receive negativities, the Gyalpos can never dominate you."
Chogyal Namkhah Norbu
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