【推荐1】Taiwan has been part of China since ancient times, which lies in the southeast of China, facing the Pacific Ocean. It is the largest island in China, covering an area of about 36, 000 square kilometers with a population of over 20, 000, 000. Taiwan is rich in natural resources, having world-famous agricultural products, such as pineapples（菠萝）and sugarcane（甘蔗）. This island, with beautiful scenery（风景）and a pleasant climate, attracts tourists from all over the world each year. If you have an opportunity to visit Taiwan, make sure to include Sun Moon Lake in your travel plan.

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Peng Jingxuan, a 28-year-old Chinese girl, is now studying in a music university in Paris.     1     She can often be found on French streets, wearing a silk Han Dynasty-style dress and playing the guzheng (古筝) to passers-by.

    2     After arriving in France in late 2017, she saw many people do street performances, but few of them knew about Chinese music. So she decided to play the guzheng on the streets.

Peng made her first performance in front of a theater in October, 2018. Then she started to perform during weekends and holidays.    3     Her videos have got many likes and made her a very popular guzheng artist. She has millions of fans on the Internet now.

    4     “People come to me and praise me for the beauty of the instrument and the music. Every time they ask me which country the guzheng comes from, I am very happy to tell them it’s from China.”

    5     “What is national is universal (全世界的). I hope to play a bigger role in making Chinese music known by the world,”said Peng.

【推荐2】China has rich food culture. There are interesting stories behind some cuisine (菜肴), as well as table manners relating to tableware (餐具).

Hotpot

Hotpot has been popular among Chinese people for a long time. As early as in the Shang Dynasty (16th century—11th century BC), people boiled foods in bronze cauldrons (青铜鼎). The cauldron had two parts-one was the pot to cook foods in soup, and the other part was a layer (层) or a space inside the cauldron to hold firewood.

People started to have lattice (分格的) hotpot during the Han Dynasty (206 BC—AD 220). They divided pots into several parts to enjoy different flavors (口味).

Yuan Mei was a poet and foodie (美食家) in the Qing Dynasty (1644—1911). He mentioned huoguo, the Chinese name for hotpot, in a book about all kinds of food. At that time, hotpot was very popular. People put all kinds of meat and vegetables into the hotpot. They also used different materials, such as copper (铜) and iron (铁), to make pots.

Dongpo pork

There is a famous Chinese dish called “Dongpo pork”. Does it have anything to do with the great poet Su Dongpo?

Yes. Su Dongpo (Su Shi) was a poet who lived during the Song Dynasty   (960—1279). He was the first to make this dish. When he was a local official in Huangzhou, Hubei, he fell in love with cooking pork. In his article Ode to-Pork (《猪肉颂》), Su wrote about how to cook it.

According to folk stories, the dish became well-known when Su went to Hangzhou, Zhejiang, to take office. One day, there was a big flood and Su went out to help people. People heard that Su loved eating pork, so they gave him a lot of it. But Su wanted to give it back. He/cooked the pork in his own special way. Then he gave the dish to every family in the city and every worker on the street. Very soon the dish became famous in Hangzhou and got the name “Dongpo pork”.

Chopsticks

What are the dos and don’ts of using chopsticks?

For Chinese people, chopsticks are not just simple tools to pick up food. They come with their own special rules and traditions.

First, people should not make noise with chopsticks. Playing with chopsticks is seen as rude, just as playing with forks and knives in a Western country is.

There are also some superstitions (迷信) related to chopsticks. For example, some people believe that chopsticks should not be left standing upright in a bowl. It looks like the incense (香) that Chinese people use to honor (祭奠) the dead. Doing it at the dinner table is believed to bring bad luck.

You should not tap chopsticks on the edge (边缘) of the bowl either, as beggars do this to ask for food.

【推荐3】There’s no doubt (怀疑) that it is a great adventures (历险经历) to travel into space. However, living in space is not always as interesting as it is on TV or in movies. In real life, sometimes astronauts must stay in the International Space Station for several weeks at a time. The station is not very big, so the astronauts don’t have a lot of room to move around. What’s more, the spaceship that carries astronauts into space is even much smaller. Astronauts have to eat, sleep, and do their work in its very small space.

However, astronauts can still have fun and relax after a hard day’s work. They can watch movies, play cards, or talk to their friends and family on Earth. Some astronauts even play a music al instrument (仪器). You can show your talent, no matter where you live!

They enjoy doing silly things while they are in weightless (失重) conditions, such as turning somersaults (翻筋斗) in midair. They run in circles, up and down walls, and across the ceiling (天花板). They laugh as their hair sticks out in all directions (方向). Astronauts are not only brave, but also humorous to deal with the pressure of living in space.