LETTERS

I have just come back from Shanghai where I visited the World Expo. It was a very enjoyable experience. I picked up a copy of China Today featuring the Shanghai Expo on the cover from a hotel where I was staying. As I was reading I came across, in the Editorial section,     

Adapting to China

正People in Beijing,especially Chinese,often say they feel mystified when meeting me for the first time.I look Indian,but I speak fluent Chinese, and I come from Sudan. I am here because I love languages and I wanted to learn Chinese.But,I am also here because Arabic,the language I speak back at home in Khartoum,is becoming increasingly important in China.When I was a mass communications student at the University of Khartoum,I wanted     

LETTERS

When I told some colleagues at lunchthat I was going to learn Kunqu Operaa form of performance art harking back tothe 14th century, older than Peking Opera, Ireceived stares as if I was off to live with thedinosaurs.I definitely wouldn’t have gottensuch a reaction if I had said I had enrolledin a piano class.Here, in a nation boasting     

Xinjiang People： A Local Photographer＇s Portfolio

I was born and brought up in Xinjiang, and my Iongtime friends often warn me, a photographer, not to take pictures in dangerous places. As a matter of fact I have received many such phone calls in recent years. Each time I finish the call, I become lost in thought. Scenes of experiences in past decades, together with those photos, materialize before my eyes. I decide I will, with my camera and my utmost good faith, continue to record the land and its people that I dearly love.     

THIRTY YEARS AND COUNTING

I cannot begin to conceive that today, October 1, 2006, I am Thirty Years old. Where did the years go? I came into being on August 1, 1976, but as my name had been selected and I was being constantly talked about before I was born, I quickly realised I wa…     

A New Zealand Family in Nanjing

My family and I were invited to Nanjing inorder that I be resident at the printing facility.MY wife Jane and I, and our four children Michelle, Melinda, Niki and Shane, have been living in Nanjing for close to 15 years. I made my first visit to Nanjing in 1992, when I assisted the Amity Printing Company. I felt immediately that I liked Nanjing and its people. My family and I were invited back to Nanjing in order that I be resident at the printing facility. We have been living in Nanjing since May 1993, at which time we had two children. Within two years, however, we doubled our offspring when twins Niki and Shane arrived!     

Walk in the park

NOW begins a long hot summer in Beijing and recent happenings have conspired to change my traveling plans… whatever will I do? I could stay in my air-conditioned flat and wait for fall, race from one air-conditioned store to another,wasting my time looking at things I don‘t need and don‘t even want.But I won‘t! Instead I‘m going to make plans to fully explore Beijing. But it‘s so hot! Do I really want to do this, do 1 really think I can change my hermit habits and brave the hot pavement and grumpy tempers of uncomfortable people? Yeah...I‘m determined and this is how I‘ll start.     

On a Mission for Homeless Children

I had a loveless childhood. I didn’t have loving parents. I didn’t know how to care about others and I didn’t even really know what love was. I always complained, thinking everyone owed me something, and I blamed life for not giving me what other children had. Not until I came to the Guang’ai Family did I truly discover love, thanks to my teachers and classmates.     

Zhejiang, My Second Home

EACH time I left Zhejiang, I hoped that I could return as quicklyas possible. During the past four years, I have left and returned again and again. It seems to me that Zhejiang is my second home. Four years ago, when I first arrived in Zhejiang I never expected to stay here for long. I didn't like its     

A 49-Year-Old Chinese Woman’s Round-the-World Tour

I couldn’t stop traveling once I started. Wherever I went, I had completely different feelings as I experienced each place," says Ma Li. In 19 years, Ma has traveled through an     

Macao and Beijing on the Sly A European＇s Impressions ol His First Visit to China

I recently made a trip to China.Though I only had time to visit three places-Hong Kong, Macao and Beijing-the country made a deep impression on me.For one, it was nothing like I expected. I had arrived with a backpack and a good camera, hoping to capture some snapshots of traditional life in Chinese streets. But at the same time I suspected that the old ways had disappeared to make way for grand buildings and other symbols of newfound wealth. I     

LETTERS

Ihappened to read an edition of your journal published in2008 at the home of a friend of mine in Mexico.I found the report on the Beijing Olympic Games so interesting that I kept on reading your magazines from then on.I have since amassed a large collection.I enjoy their high quality content,and appreciate the design.I am looking forward to reading more interesting stories about what is happening in China.I wonder whether it would be     

Identity Confusion

When I was in high school, I went on a family vacation to Ocho Rios, Jamaica. I was getting lunch at a grilled chicken stand, when the cook asked me, "Miss Chin, where are you from?" (Jamaicans use Miss Chin as an affectionate nickname for all Chinese women.) I answered, "I’m from New Jersey, but I’m Korean." He practically dropped his spatula. "Whaaaat? I never met Korean Japanese Miss Chin fromNewJersey!"heshouted.Thatwas the only time I’ve had someone     

Back Street Bounty

As soon as I stepped into the main street of the old city in Pingyao, Shanxi Province, I had a feeling I would not like the place. In fact, I     

Brought up in Beijing

<正>I think I have the best of two worlds.I was born in Bangladesh,and I grew up in China,the land of Confucius and my second home.The earliest and most prominent memories of my life are from China,and Chinese is a language I have spoken since childhood.When I was just over 2 years old,my parents and I moved to Beijing.My father received an invitation from China Radio International to work     

Q&A of Valentine''''s Day

"My sweetheart, I love you as a mouse loves rice, I miss you, 1 fell in love with you at first sight, and 1 will not give up until you are mine forever!"Baby baby, you are like the phoenix flying in the sky, and I am the jackal chasing you on the earth, I will neither beat nor scold you,I just want to torture you with my love."Fish says to water: I can't see your tears, because I am in water. Water replies: I can feel your tears, for you are in my heart."     

Beijing by Bicycle

okay, I just want to get something out in the open here. I am a bike-oholic. It’s not that I have always had this affliction: In the past, I     

LETTERS

I have been a subscriber to China Today for 27 years,since the time that it was China Reconstructs.I first came across it during a tour to China in 1984,I enjoy reading it each month and have found it very instructive on all aspects of life in China.I have been     

Dancing in the Park

SINCE moving to Beijing eight months ago, I have noriced countless differences between the culture I grew up with back in England, and the one of the people who surround me now. One of the things that I have particularly no： riced as I have got to know Beijing is the attitude people here have towards exercise. Never before have I seen so many people happy to be keeping fit.     

ANINDISPENSABLE PART OF LIFE

<正>A Chinese woman's experience of using WeChat overseas By Lu AnqiWhile many of my friends in China revel in the convenience that the social networking platform WeChat has brought them,Chinese living outside China like me are also grateful forthe positive changes this homegrown application has brought to our personal and professional lives.It helps families,relatives and friends stay closer,making keeping in touch simple and trouble-free.I didn't use WeChat until I came to live and work in South Africa in 2013.Before then,I didn't yet have a smartphone,though I did have Internet access.With my computers at home and work having MSN,Skype and QQ messengers,I was well linked with relatives and friends no matter where they-or I-were.When I arrived in South Africa,I bought a smart phone and WeChat was one of the first apps I downloaded.I was happy to find I could add all my QQ and phone contacts to my new WeChat account.I contacted other friends who were not yet using the app to join me.After that,every morning when I launched WeChat,I