No trip would be complete without experiencing the local food culture. Actually, China has various kinds of delicious food, including     1     wide variety of local snacks.

Without doubt, for the majority of the foreigners I contacted, and myself included, Peking duck, dim sum and Sichuan hotpot are the favorite Chinese     2     (dish). China is a place     3     the food is not only the most delicious, but the     4     (cheap) I’ve ever found.

On    5     (I) last night in Beijing before returning to the United States, I went to a Peking duck restaurant that had been suggested for me to try. What a beautiful place! Splendid woodblock prints on the walls, fresh flowers in the vases on the table, attractive silverware(镀银餐具)     6     beautiful chopsticks. I     7     (hand) a menu and I surprisingly found that most of the prices were especially low. The duck came in whole or half, along with all the little decorations that you know if you’ve ever eaten Peking duck-a little tortilla(玉米粉薄烙饼) to put the sliced duck, vegetables, chopped onion and sauce in.

Anyway, I ended up ordering a whole duck and thought that if l couldn’t finish it I’d just take the rest back to my hotel     8     (eat) later.     9     (believe), in the end there was none of the whole duck     10     (leave) on the plate. Unm, yummy!

Frost’s Descent (霜降), the 18th solar term of the year, begins this year on Oct 24 and ends on Nov 7.

Frost’s Descent is the last solar term of autumn, during     1     time the weather becomes much     2     (cold) than before and frost begins to appear. As Frost’s Descent comes, the world     3     (fill) with the atmosphere of late autumn.    4     (eat) persimmons (柿子) during Frost’s Descent can help people resist the cold and protect     5     bones.

In south Fujian province, it’s     6     custom to eat duck on the first day of Frost’s Descent. There is a saying in Fujian which goes, “    7     nourishing (滋补) all year is not as good as nourishing the human body on the first day of Frost’s Descent.” Eating duck is a way for people there     8     (gain) weight.

People in areas such as Daxin county in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region celebrate the     9     (one) day of Frost’s Descent. In the Frost’s Descent Festival, the Zhuang people offer sacrifices, dance and sing folk songs.     10     a history of more than 360 years, the festival is to honor Cen Yuyin, a heroine in battles against foreign aggression.

By drawing patterns on the surface of a cup of tea, Zhang Zhifeng, a practitioner of chabaixi, displayed a special Chinese tea trick in a recent TV drama,     1    (arouse)great interest among ordinary people due to its apparent     2     (similar) with modern latte art (咖啡拉花艺术).

Chabaixi, with     3     name Shuidanqing, can create endless patterns such as bamboos and mountains or even calligraphy. It is different from making latte because people use clear water as the object     4    (put) into the cup instead of milk. But when the water     5     (touch) the surface of whipped (搅打起泡沫的) tea, it turns into a white color and disappears in 20 minutes. The process before the drawing is known as the tea-making technique, diancha,     6     quality is crucial to whether patterns can be successfully produced later.

Chabaixi     7     (list) as part of China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2017, after it was recovered by Zhang Zhifeng, who started researching the origins of chabaixi in     8     1980s and brought the technique back in 2009 after decades of trials and practice.

“Chabaixi, as one of the     9     (vary) forms of tea-making techniques in China, gives us a window into people’s lifestyle in the Song Dynasty, a period of time when leisure activities in some ways resemble     10     we have now. It would be a shame to let it fade. This technique must be passed on to the next generations so they can understand its history,” Zhang said.