Beijing is no stranger to Western food. American restaurants like McDonald’s and KFC have brought more Western dishes to the local food scene in recent years. Now, two new restaurants have joined them.

In August, 2020, Taco Bell（塔可钟）and Shake Shack（昔客堡）opened their doors to eager customers in Beijing. Taco Bell is a popular American fast-food restaurant that features Mexican food. On the menu, you can find hard and soft-shell tacos（玉米卷）, lettuce and tomato. And, of course（墨西哥面卷）-chicken, beef or beans wrapped（包裹）（墨西哥薄馅饼）. However, there are new things on the menu that are special to the Beijing location（牛油果乌龙茶）.

Shake Shack, known for its traditional American-style hamburgers and milkshakes, is also serving up dishes that won’t be found in other Shake Shacks outside of the capital. Harry Wang, visited the restaurant soon after it opened. “The last time I had Shake Shack was more than a year ago when I was in the US, ” Wang said, “The food is pretty similar to what we had in the United States, but there is a milkshake exclusive to Beijing.”

The milkshake Wang is talking about is the Hutong Hawthorn（山楂）. The shake mixes hawthorn, a traditional Chinese snack, a common ice cream drink in Western fast food. The Beijing Shake Shack also offers roasted（炒的）chestnut ice cream.

Both restaurants also show Chinese culture through their decorations（装饰）. Shake Shack’s windows feature cartoons showing hutong life, and Taco Bell has a picture of a palace from the Temple of Heaven on one of its walls.

“From the design to the menus, the two restaurants are adding a touch of local flavor（当地风味）”, noted China News.

2 . We spoke to three students from around the world about different national holidays. There are different customs for each festival.

3 . John Smith is an exchange student from New York. Here is a letter to his friend in his hometown.

Dear Jim,

How time flies! It’s been 3 months since I came to China. I’m having a great time on my student exchange program here. So far, I’ve completely got used to the life here and have known a lot about traditional Chinese culture. I’d like to share some with you.

In China, there are many different kinds of traditional art forms, such as paper cutting, Chinese clay art and so on. Among them, the kite interests me most. The first ancient Chinese kite appeared more than 2,000 years ago. Then flying kites was spread into Japan, Kore an and Malaysia during the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty. Kites are regarded as the earliest crafts (飞行器). They played an important role in the process of inventing the plane.

Tea culture is important in China. Tea was discovered as a kind of drink by accident about 5,000 years ago. It is believed that tea was brought to Korea and Japan during the 6th and 7th centuries. It didn’t appear in England until around 1660. The tea trade from China to Western countries took place in the 19th century. Now tea has become one of the most popular drinks around the world.

Lastly, I’d like to tell you something about one of the traditional Chinese festivals — the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is on the fifteenth day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar (阴历), Chinese people have been celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival and enjoying mooncakes for centuries.

If you’d like to know more about traditional Chinese culture, I will talk about it in the next letter.

Best wishes!

Yours,

John

7 . You are visiting the Eiffel Tower in France, but the next second you are in Thailand. Then, suddenly you may have dinner with Barack Obama in America. But you are not dreaming. This is what might happen in the near future. With the help of virtual reality (VR，虚拟现实) technology, a lot of changes are taking place in our life.

VR is a computer technology that makes an environment and allows users to see and even interact (互动) with it. Just wear a pair of VR glasses, joined to your computer and you can experience a lot of things without stepping out of your room.

“The most interesting part of VR is that it offers an immersive (身临其境的) experience,” said Wang Bing, leader of the Chinese entertainment company Funshow. “That’s why VR movies are popular among users. You become a part of the story.” According to the Report on Chinese VR Users’ Behavior last month, over 960,000 people in China have bought VR products and 83.2 percent of them have watched VR movies.

VR can also be used in some other ways. It can help to train workers before they have to work in highly dangerous environments. VR also helps patients with acrophobia (恐高症) by making them think they are standing on the top of a tall building.

However, VR technology still has a long way to go. Users report feeling sick while wearing VR glasses. Maybe it could take a period of time for VR to be widely used around the world.

8 . Inventions have changed our life a lot. They play important roles in our, daily life. Four students are sharing some interesting inventions.

How many of you feel your heart break when you see an animal that can’t walk? They can’t speak for themselves and they can’t buy their own wheels to move. Over the past years, some kind people and pet owners have come up with the idea to help this group of animals. Wheels for Pets can give animals the freedom to run and play.

These are not the usual recycle bins. This special recycle bin is designed to collect second-hand books. Some students in high school have come up with the idea to help reduce waste and raise money.

________ There is an app for the mug that allows people to set the mug to a certain temperature between 48℃ and 62℃. Some businessmen have come up with this idea to keep the drinks at the temperature for about an hour.

A simple task like taking money out of your wallet can be very difficult for the blind people. This wallet is specially designed for the blind. Some third-grade students have come up with the idea to make a difference for the blind.

9 . Tanghulu, some fruit covered with sugar on a stick, is a traditional snack from northern China. It’s also a necessary snack during the Chinese New Year season. Recently, in northern China, people welcome the return of spring by holding Tanghulu Fair (糖葫芦庙会).

Many Chinese still remember eating tanghulu when they were young. (A) It is said that the fair has a 500-year-old history. (B) Nowadays, tanghulu is not only a kind of snack, but also a sweet memory of our childhood. Every year, a large number of tanghulu, sellers get together to start delicious tanghulu competitions during the Spring Festival.

In the past, people only used haws (山楂) to make this traditional snack, but now people also use grapes, oranges, strawberries and so on. But people like haw tanghulu best. It is rich in Vitamin C and E. Do you know how to make haw tanghulu? (C) First, wash the large haws clean, dig the seeds out, and pierce (穿) haws on a stick. Then heat the sugar, put the sticks of haws into heated sugar and quickly pull them out. When the sugar on the haws cools down and becomes a candy coat, tanghulu is done. Tanghulu is very popular in China, especially in Beijing. Many foreigners also want to taste it.

We hope tanghulu will become one of the most popular snacks in the world.

Say hello to Changesite-（Y）— the sixth new lunar mineral（月球矿物）!

Chinese scientists found it in moon samples（样品）brought back by the Chang’e 5 lunar probe in December 2020. It has become the first lunar mineral found by Chinese scientists, making China the third nation in the world, after the United States and Russia, to have achieved such a success, reported China Daily.

Changesite-（Y）looks crystal（晶莹的）clear like a diamond. But its chemical content is different from any other known mineral.（A）It has a high level of rare earth（稀土）, reported China Science Daily. Li Ziying, chief scientist of the lunar sample research, said that the finding of this new mineral will help researchers study the history and physical traits（特征）of the moon. The value of the rare earth in（B）it will also be studied.

（C）Besides the new mineral, scientists also measured the content（含量）of helium-3（氦-3）from the Chang’e 5 samples. Helium-3 is a valuable fuel（燃料）that can provide safer nuclear energy（核能）. It is not radioactive（放射性的）and would not produce dangerous waste. On Earth, we have only 15 to 20 tons of helium-3 that can be used. But after studying the moon’s soil, scientists said there could be at least 1 million tons of helium-3 on the moon. That’s enough for all people on Earth to have clean energy for 10,000 years!