Stories of Old Houses

CHINESE people have lived in siheyuan, or courtyard houses, since the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Following large- scale urban construction and other changes to the city, many have since moved to high-rise buildings. Those that can still remember miss the ethos of their old dwellings. Cherished Memories of Old Homes Liu Jie, aged 40, moved out of her old courtyard house ten years ago.     

To Touch Soul of Rakes——Reform school of juvenile offenders

Separated from the women's prison by only a wall is a big courtyard. It is a world of green. We were told that growing in the three hectare courtyard are more than 3,000 of tall trees and bushes in more than 100 species, 3,000 pots of plants, 4,000 square meters of vegetative cover and nearly 10,000 square meters of flower beds, and lawns. There is also a rockery and a fall and more than 700 square meters of roof garden. No one could associate the place with the word "prison." But it is a prison-a prison or reform school for educating and correcting juvenile delinquents.     

Place of Ethnic Fusion

UMAR Abdurehim of the Uygur ethnic group, aged 65, livesin Kuqa County, Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Facing the gate in the courtyard of his home is a row of buildings: from right to left a sitting room, bedrooms and kitchen. In front of the house is a five-meter-wide carpeted corridor. Umar‘s two-year-old grandson swings playfully on a long rope hanging from the trellis. A household specializing in tourism, the family receives countless tourists. The child is obviously accustomed to visitors and poses for photographs like a professional.     

Traditional Folk Toys

ZHU Jianshen（1447-1487）,a Ming Dynasty sovereign of the Forbidden City from 1465 to 1487,was more of a romantic artist than an emperor, and he was fascinated by the lives of those beyond the imperial walls. During the Lantern Festival of 1485,he ordered a duplication of folk celebrations in the palace.In no time,a spacious courtyard was converted into a lantern fair;     

Legacy of Shanxi Tycoons

Aline of visitors files through the small courtyard entrance to the Rishengchang (Rising Sun Prosperity) Draft Bank on bustling West Street at World Cultural Heritage site Pingyao, Shanxi Province. The accrued value of entrance tickets to the bank is a pittance compared to the wealth it earned from bills of exchange, butnevertheless indicates the bank's capacity to regenerateafter decades of dormancy. About a hundred years ago, this residence-like courtyard was financial hub of the Qing Dynasty. Looking at the modest courtyard offices, it is hard to     

Old and New Meet in a Beijin Hutong

JIN Xin, the young owner of the Pass By Bar, looks calm and detached as he talks, angling his head. The Pass By was the first bar to open on Nanluoguxiang （NLGX）, a hutong now packed with bars and cafes in the old part of Beijing. Since 1999, the lane has been transformed from a quiet residential area into a popular place for socializing and buying traditional Beijing cultural products.     

A Typical Example of a Chinese Classical Private Garden:Fisherman''''s Garden

The Fisherman's Garden was constructed during the Sung Dynasty and was rebuilt at the time of the Qing Dynasty in 1766. This garden's name came from a story which happened in the Chu Kingdom when China was split into several smaller kingdoms during the Warring States period (475-221 BC).Being a senior consultant to the King of Chu, the famous poet, writer and esthete, Qu Yuan (340-277 BC) was finally sent into exile. Before he committed suicide in a river, he met with an old fisherman who asked about the reason why he was sent into exile from the capital city for life. Qu Yuan replied:     

Should Custodians Be Held Legally Accountable for Negligence?

正Two children fell from the fourth floor in a shopping mall and died in late February in the northern city of Tianjin.One of them was 5 years old and the other was 2;they were sister and brother.At the time of the incident,their father was holding one in each arm beside a glass fence.Suddenly,one child fell,and as the father tried to catch him,the other child also slipped from his grasp.     

German Famous Rock-and-Roll Star Volunteered to Rear a Panda

At the invitation of the Sichuan ProvincialPeople's Association for Friendship withForeign Countries(SIFA),Peter Maffay,Germanfamous rock-and-roll star,and his party visitedSichuan from June 11 to 14,and donated 150,000RMB yuan to the Chengdu Research Base of GiantPanda Breeding and volunteered to rear a one andhalf years old female panda named Lilly by him.Born in Romania,Maffay grew up in Germanyand became a very popular rock-and-roll singer inGermany 30 years ago.He has won vari…     

Facets of China Lao Beijing renfinds a home

After 17 years involvement with China I wished to feel part of a local community. I was about to experience another aspect of living in the city. The courtyard represented an older life but now my conditions would be similar to most Beijingers who reside in apartments within compounds.     

Love and pain:High-rises in Shanghai

This was a bitter line of land- scape in old districts of Shanghai: around four or five o'clock every morning, in front of night soil collection stations, inhabitants with night-stools and spittoons, both old and young, men and women, crowded the small space. Zhang Qingzhi's home was in a dis- trict called 'Ju Yuan' - a shantytown ex- tending over 200,000 square metres in Lujiazui, Pudong. Over a dozen families lived under the same roof: 'Everything in my home, from table to chair to sofa wa…     

Tibet After 60 Years

The 60th anniversary of democratic reform in southwest China's Tibet gives Beijing Review an opportunity to present the real Tibet to the world from different angles.Democratic reform in Tibet was a milestone in human history,ending the old social system based on oppression and exploitation of serfs and house slaves,and opening a new chapter for the Tibetan people.     

Watch the Sparks Fly in Yuxian!

Hinterland rural towns are the last sanctuaries of old traditions, best honored at the Chinese New Year.YUXIAN in northwestern Hebei Province is a three-hour drive from Beijing.     

Crickets Extraordinaire

AN elderly man enters the main hall of the Impe-rial Palace in Beijing and, under the eyes of a (a curious young Chinese pioneer, takes from be- neaththegoldenthroneasmall,dustyboxwith a holes punctured in its lid and presses it to his ear. This is one of the closing scenes of the remarkable movie in The Last Emperor by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci. The w old man dressed in the Sun Yatsen suit is Pu Yi, last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who at the age of three was enthroned in th…     

Beijing''''s tranquil street of imperial study

When asked which one of Beijing's old streets is the most beautiful, I find the choice very difficult. Why? Simply because there are so many that are a sheer joy to walk through.After some thoughts I usually suggest that Guozijian Jie is one of the finest. Certainly from a historical perspective it is one of the most important in China. In historic times from this street emerged many of the laws and     

Is a Change As Good As a Holiday?

Chinese citizens could see a change in their holiday struc- ture from early 2008,if a recent proposal gets the nod from the State Council. A survey conducted by the National Development and Reform Commission asking for public feedback on a proposed change to China's constitutional holiday system,resulted in a massive 80 percent of 1.55 million netizens responding positively to the suggestion of an annual scheme of 11 holiday days.     

Publishing House Inherits and Disseminates Tibetan Culture

In the eastern part of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, there is a quiet courtyard, where ancient tall trees cast shade over a number of two-storied houses. The courtyard houses the Tibet Tibetan-language Ancient Books Publishing House. In the middle of the courtyard stands the statue of Tunmi Sangbuza, creator of the Tibetan language. A number of scholars devoted to inheriting and spreading Tibetan history     

My dream job

For more than two decades now, China has been travelling a course of reform and opening up, moving away from the old state-planned economy towards a modern, market driven one. In the past, many educated people perceived their ideal job to be pushing pens in a local state-owned enterprise. Ambi- tious young people of today are instead pursuing careers in technology and service-driven industries, on the stage, and even in outer space. More opportunities exist in China now than ever before, but what about the graduates of the next decade? Millions of young kids are growing up in a China that's unrecognisable from yesteryear, yet still very far from the end zone. What do they want to be when they grow up?     

CRADLE OF CHANGE

正A village looks back on its transformation after pioneering targeted poverty alleviation By Yuan YuanIt is hard to find any"old"photo of Yang Chaowen's village as people living there were too poor in the past to buy a camera.By old,Yang means the days before2000.Yang is from Shibadong a village in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Hunan Province,central China,where the     

the Republic of Kore a Youth Visit Beijing

As the 10th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Republic of Korea approaches, the youth associations of the two countries are busy in preparing and launching celebrations.Eighty-two young students from 24 associations of Pusan, Korea, visited Beijing from Jan. 15 to. 18 in a trip sponsored by the Council of Youth Organizations of Pusan.The delegation paid a visit to the headquarters of the All-China Youth Federation as soon as they arrived in