【推荐1】Get a taste of Hangzhou

As one of the eight great cuisines of China, Hangzhou dishes gain great popularity. Here are a few must-try meals, each of which has an age-old story.

Dongpo Pork (red-braised pork belly)

Dongpo Pork was named after the Song Dynasty poet and official, Su Dongpo. Su launched a thorough dredging (疏浚) of the West Lake, which had great benefits for the locals. To express their gratitude, they gifted Su a lot of pork. Su transformed the traditional cooking process—adding yellow wine and stewing it on low heat. After that, the dish became widely favored.

West Lake Carp in Vinegar Gravy

Legend has it that two brothers surnamed Song lived in Hangzhou. The elder brother was murdered. In fear for his safety, the younger brother decided to leave. During his farewell dinner, his sister-in-law cooked a dish that was both sweet and sour, implying that he should “not forget the sour amid the sweet”. The younger brother later returned as a high-ranking official, avenged (报仇) his brother’s murder and sought out his sister-in-law. Since then, West Lake Carp in Vinegar Gravy has been handed down.

Sister Song’s Fish Soup

During the Song Dynasty, a woman nicknamed Sister Song made a living by selling fish soup alongside the West Lake. During a trip to the West Lake, Emperor Gaozong tasted her fish soup and spoke very highly of it. The soup’s reputation spread far and wide, and it became a calling card for the city.

Sauteed Shrimps with Longjing Tea

The story of this dish relates to the Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty. On a tour to Hangzhou, one of the emperor’s chefs accidentally dropped Longjing tea leaves into the sauteed shrimps. The fragrance of the tea combined with the texture of the shrimp won the emperor over and a classic Hangzhou dish was born.

【推荐2】You can tell a lot about a country by what's on its television sets. Britain's TV screens are completely steeped in class, and have long been so.

From laughing at poor people in reality shows to laughing at posh people in Downton Abbey, this is how Britain likes to unwind in the evening: by laughing at other classes, and laughing at people for laughing about class.

Like it or loathe it, many see the class system as a quite essential element of British life, together with our obsession for tea and cake and talking about the weather.

Whether you are a lord, a lady, or just the king of your own middle class   kingdom, everyone in the UK fits into the class system. How the class system works is a hard question even for a British person to answer.

There are four main groups in the British class system: lower, working, middle and upper class. Although recently the BBC has tried to confuse everyone even more by adding three more categories.

The British are very aware of class; it is often said that we have an in-built 'class radar'; we pick up on subtle social clues which indicate which class a person comes from. Class is not just about your job, where you live and how much you earn. It's about who you are.