Kaiping Watchtower Houses

AN increasing number of travelers are heading for Kaiping, a small city 122 kilometers south-west of Guangzhou, to see the 1,833 fortress-fashioned resi-     

New Houses,New Lives

CUP of coffee in hand, 40-year-old Qian Yuchen sits leisurely before his French windows, luxuriating in the warmth of the afternoon spring sunshine. Years ago, this was the kind of scenario he could only dream about, or see on a television commercial. Now it is his living reality. Qian and his mother formerly occupied a 50-square-meter room allocated     

Beijing： The Old and the New

As the 2008 Olympic Games draw near, Beijing, a dynamic modern city undergirded by 3,000 years of history, is throwing open its celebrated nine gates to the world.     

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.     

Fuqing, an Old City in New Appearance

Fuqing is a beautiful city in Fujian Province, in the Min River Golden Triangle Economic Belt. Located on the Taiwan Strait, it has been a famous city throughout Chinese history. It was set up as a county in 699, in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). In December 1990, it was upgraded to a city with the approval of the State Council. Covering 2,430 square kilometers of land and 911 kilometers of coastal waters, it has a population of 1.18 million and 20 townships under it. Advantageous Geograp…     

Out with the Old,in with the New

Presenting gifts is an important facet of Chinese etiquette. As such, it has signif icant social ramifi cations. On the one hand, as the Chinese saying goes, “A swan’s feather sent 1,000 miles may seem insignif icant, but the feeling it engenders is profound.” On the other, presenting an appropriately expensive gift can be crucial to cementing lucrative business relationships. Progres- sively changing gift-giving trends in each decade since the 1970s re? ect both China’s economic progres…     

Old Story──New Hit

THE ancient Chinese tale The Zhao Family Orphan is expected to undergo a new surge of popularity this year. Both the China National Modern Drama Theater and the Beijing People's Art Theater recently     

Old Tibet,New Tibetans

EDITOR'S NOTE: From August 11 through 21, 2005, Fernando Garcia, a reporter of Spain's ABC newspaper, undertook a reporting tour of Tibet at the invitation of China. After he returned home, Interviu, a Spanish magazine, carried his story titled Viejo Tibet, Nuevos Tibetanos. Following is his story translated from its Chinese version.     

Old City,New Looks

AUNT Fei lives in Yan'an W.Street of Huai'an City,Jiangsu province.This community,little more than a slum just five years ago,is now generally     

New Life for the Old Industrial Bases

IT was at the beginning of the1950s that Chairman Mao Ze-dong decided to develop heavyindustry in China's northeasternprovinces of Jilin, Heilongjiangand Liaoning. Soon, with the guidanceand supervision of experts from theSoviet Union, a host of automobile,heavy-duty machinery, petrochemicaland other industrial giants were up andrunning in China. The next few decadessaw a prosperous Northeast, as state-owned enterprises provided millions ofjobs, as well as housing for employeesand schoolin…     

长城脚下的别墅——先锋派公社：为中国台商名贵设计的一道风景住宅

身处北京飞速发展的社会漩涡中，想在人群中独具慧眼而又鹤立鸡群，我们会做哪些与众不同的事情呢？     

A New Opportunity for an International Education in Beijing

A building that recently appeared in the embassy area near the Lufthansa Shopping Center in Beijing's Chao-yang District has aroused the interest of local Beijing residents. It is the newly constructed Capital International School (CIS), sponsored by the Chinese government and the education authority of New Brunswick, Canada. The school, with its advanced, international standard teaching methods, offer the best opportunity for an international education in Beijing. Classes start this September.     

Moving Forward, Looking Back: Modern Dance in China Blends Old with New

While traditional dances still abound in China at academies and social clubs, there is more to dance in the Middle Kingdom these days than fans and acrobatics. The first official modern dance company was founded in South China's Guangdong province in 1992. Since then, a small number of other government-approved as well as independent companies have come about, while members from the original company have spread throughout China and to such countries as Germany, Japan and the United States.     

Emperor Yongle

DURING its long history Beijing has had several names. The current one was ordained on February 4, 1403 by Emperor Yongle, named Zhu Di (1360-1424), of the Ming Dynasty. It was he who decreed that Beiping "where the dragon soars" be renamed Beijing, or Northern Capital.     

Ancient Town in Architectural Layers

T HE famous historical and cultural town of Jingsheng, site of the well-known Wang Family Mansion and mil- lennia-old Zishou Temple, is south of Taiyuan, provincial capital of Shanxi Province. Jingsheng is rich in natural resources as well as cultural relics, despite large numbers of historical sites having been destroyed in an earthquake in the early 14th century. The buildings still standing date back to the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Jingsheng was among the fi rst group of Chinese…     

Anecdotes of the Forbidden City

Everyone who passes through Beijing‘s Forbidden City leaves the grounds with two words on their lips: magnificent and awe-inspiring. The seat of imperial power during the Ming and Qing dynasties （1368 - 1911), some twenty-four emperors ruled the nation from within these walls. Now more commonly known as the Palace Museum, the Forbidden City lies at the center of the Chinese capital. Extending 750 meters from east to west and 960 meters from north to south, the 720,000-square-meter city is the largest palatial complex in the world. Guarding the city is a 52-meter-wide, six-meter-deep moat, and a huge wall, which runs three kilometers around the city and stands 10 meters high. Construction lasted 15 years, involving 100,000 artisans and some one million civilians. If the bricks that make up the Forbidden City could speak, they would have many an interesting story to tell. Here are just a few anecdotes.     

Artistic Impressions of Hutong Charm

KUANG Han came to Beijing in 1989, and immediately fell in love with its hutong. He spent his spare time wandering about and sketching Beijing's boulevards and alley- ways until he had amassed a 3,000-pic- ture portfolio. It helped him to draw accurately the gates and houses of old Beijing, as well as the street life that was and still is the cultural heart of this 3,000-year-old city. Kuang's works portray ordinary life and its everyday kindnesses and are imbued with a strong sense of his-…     

New Energy and a Green Olympics

Beijing, once a byword for air pollution, first set out in earnest to improve its environment in 1998, when municipal authorities introduced a series of measures to phase out coal as a primary fuel for everything from cooking to heating. In the process, they also relocated a number of highly polluting factories to the city＇s periphery, and replaced many of the obsolete, diesel-belching trucks, buses and taxis whose emissions once obscured the sun with cleaner-burning hybrid models. ＂What Beijing has achieved in the last half decade would have taken Europe 20 to 25 years to complete,＂     

Liu Hongkuan‘s Scenes Along the Axis of Old Beijing

SCENES Along the Axis of Old Beijing by Liu Hongkuan is a portrayal of Beijing in the early 1900s. Measuring 53 meters and incorporating over 5,000 figures, it is believed to be China's longest jiehua, or boundary painting (a traditional Chinese art genre that focuses on architecture) covering the widest scope of humanity and types of building.Liu, now 64, entered the Beijing Painting Academy straight from high school to study traditional     

Beijing： Architectural Showcase

FIFTY years ago, Beijing was the world's sole well-preserved medieval city. It consisted of four layers: the Forbidden City at the center, theImperial City surrounding it, and the