“Mid-Autumn Festival” which is also known as the “Zhong Qiu Jie” in Chinese, is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. This year it falls on September 25^th.  Mid-Autumn is a time for family members and loved ones to congregate and enjoy the full moon – an auspicious symbol of abundance, harmony and luck. Adults will usually indulge in fragrant mooncakes of many varieties with a good cup of piping hot Chinese tea, while the little ones run around with their brightly-lit lanterns.

“Zhong Qiu Jie” probably began as a harvest festival. The festival was later given a mythological flavour with legends of Chang-E, the beautiful lady in the moon.

According to Chinese legend, the earth once had 10 suns circling over it. One day, all 10 suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The earth was saved when a strong archer, Hou Yi, succeeded in shooting down 9 of the suns. Yi stole the elixir of life but to save the people from his tyrannical rule, his wife, Chang-E drank it. Thus started the legend of the lady in the moon to whom young Chinese girls would pray at the Mid-Autumn Festival.

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Most Chinese remember being told this romantic tragedy when they were children on Qixi, or the Seventh Night Festival, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, which is usually in early August. This year it falls on Sunday, August 19.

If it rains heavily on that night, some elderly Chinese will say it is because Zhinu, or the Weaving Maid, is crying on the day she met her husband Niulang, or the Cowherd, on the Milky Way.

According to the Chinese lore, a cowherd lived with his elder brother and sister-in-law who disliked and abused him, that he was forced to leave home with only an old cow for company. The cow, however, was a former god who had violated imperial rules and was sent to earth in bovine form. One day the cow led the cowherd to a lake where fairies took a bath on earth. Among them was a weaving maid, the most beautiful fairy and a skilled seamstress. The two fell in love at first sight. They ignored Heaven’s strict rules and were soon secretly married. They had a son and a daughter and their happy life was held up as an example for hundreds of years in China. Yet in the eyes of the Jade Emperor, the Supreme Deity in Taoism, marriage between a mortal and fairy was strictly forbidden. He sent the empress to fetch the weaving maid. The cowherd grew desperate when he discovered the weaving maid had been taken back to heaven. Driven by the cowherd’s misery, the cow told him to turn its hide into a pair of shoes after it died. The magic shoes whisked the cowherd, who carried his two children in baskets strung from a shoulder pole, off on a chase after the empress. The pursuit enraged the empress, who took her hairpin and slashed it across the sky creating the Milky Way which separated husband from wife. The cowherd was stopped by the surging river. But all was not lost as magpies, moved by their love and devotion, agreed to let them meet one day (on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month) each year. All the magpies in the world, according to lore, gather on that day to form a bridge spanning the Milky Way so the lovers can reunite. Even the Jade Emperor was touched, and allowed them to meet once a year on the seventh night of the seventh month. (more…)

According to Chinese lunar calendar, June 19th is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, which is a famous traditional festival – Duanwu festival.For thousands of years, Duanwu has been marked by eating Zongzi and racing dragon boats.

The taste of Zongzi, a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves to give it a special flavor, varies greatly across China. Zongzi is often made of rice mixed with dates in Northern China, while Eastern China people like to stuff Zongzi with pork, ham, chestnuts and other ingredients, making them very rich in flavor.

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In Beijing, Temple fairs custom can date far back to the Liao dynasty (916-1125). It became more and more famous in the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). While during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), it was very flourish. Temple fairs were said to have their origins in the ancient ’she sacrifice.’ A she was where sacrifices to the local God of Earth were offered. Altars of the Gods of Earth and Grain were also known as Earth Temples. It is from gatherings that took place at these temples that temple fairs derived their name. Later on other than just sacrifice, it developed as a regular market, where people could eat and shopping there. Visitors to the temple fairs included both city folk and peasants from the outlying regions. Customers could buy a variety of locally made products such as ‘Gold Elephant Zhang’s’ double-edged combs, ‘Iron Knife Liu’s’ fruit knives and ‘Sanheju’ wigs, as well as second-hand clothes or jewelry, bamboo and wicker products, flowers, birds, fish and insects.

In Ancient time, temple fairs were held in turn every 10 days at the Earth Temple, the Flower Market, the White Pagoda Temple, the Huguo (Protect the Nation) Temple and the Longfu (Intense Happiness) Temple. There was also the annual Changdian (Factory Grounds) Fair held during the first 15 days of the first lunar month and the annual Pantaogong (Peach of Immortality Palace) Fair held from the third day of the third lunar month inside the Dongbianmen (Eastern Informal) Gate. The fairs mentioned above took place regularly for over 300 years. (more…)

Matteo Ricci, who lived from 1552 to 1610, was an Italian Jesuit priest who struggled for 30 years to bring Christianity to China. Few missionaries have ever managed to win the respect of Chinese officials, but Ricci managed to gain the confidence and admiration of the emperor himself.

In the 16th century all traces of earlier missions to China had vanished. The Nestorians of the 7th century and Catholic monks of the 13th and 14th centuries had been forgotten and the few priests who were admitted into the country were ignored, or worse, punished for their proselytizing.

Coming to Guangzhou through the Portuguese enclave of Macau, Ricci realized that he would have to study China’s language and customs if he was to have any success spreading the gospel. He also shaved his head to appear similar to a Buddhist monk hoping this would eliminate other obstructions to his preaching. (more…)

The 18th century saw international trade with China blossom, but there was one problem: Western countries had little that pre-industrial China wanted. This trade imbalance frustrated British merchants, who needed to supply an increasing demand for a new drink – tea, which was rapidly becoming popular. They found their answer in the poppy fields of colonial India.

Opium-smoking had been banned by the imperial Chinese government in 1729, but British traders bribed the local officials, who turned a blind eye to their activities, and started shipping large quantities of the drug from British India to the southern Chinese port. Their intention was to create a nation of addicts and thus, an endless market.

2,330 chests of opium were imported in 1788, but that number had risen to 17,257 by 1830. Opium dens spread throughout the country. Officials, often addicts themselves, found it impossible to refuse the sweeteners offered by the now-wealthy British companies. (more…)

Some basic etiquette rules that should be followed when in Tibet include:

Never touch the head of a Tibetan, the head is considered a sacred part of the body.

Show proper respect in the temples, don’t wear noisy shoes, drink alcohol, smoke or make unnecessary noise.

Don’t put your arms around someone’s shoulders. (more…)

Princess Wencheng is the most beloved queen in Tibetan history. A beautiful and intelligent woman, she brought the Tibetans many of the scientific and agricultural advances of the Tang dynasty and is also credited with the introduction of Buddhism into the region. Born the daughter of a courtier, Wencheng became royal only later in life. Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty needed to find a bride for King Songtsen Gampo, the new ruler of the Tubo Kingdom (Tibet), and smart and pretty Wencheng seemed an ideal match. She was conferred the title of princess and sent west.

In AD 641, she set out from Chang’an, capital of the Tang dynasty, accompanied by envoys from both sides where they met King Songtsen Gampo in Baihai (Qinghai province). The delighted king ordered the construction of a nuptial palace by the Zhaling and E-ling lakes. They were married and honeymooned in the mountain valleys further towards Tibet. (more…)

The giant panda is an endangered animal found only in western China, because of human encroachment, the panda’s habitat is now reduced to six isolated patches mainly in Sichuan. Pandas are related to bears, though they are significantly different in many ways.

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