Hope Justman, in 81-year-old American, has just completed her 24th trip along the shudao,     1     ancient road system in Sichuan province that dates back to two thousand years ago.

Running for around 1,000 kilometers, the shudao     2    (wind) through mountains and crosses streams, connecting Sichuan province with the northern Guanzhong Plain, which was once the heartland of ancient China.

Justman’s     3    (connect) to the ancient road system dates back to her college days. As part of a course on Chinese literature and art, she     4    (visit) an exhibition in Boston,     5    a painting captured her attention.

In 1997,after reading almost every English travel book, finally she found the shudao     6    the help of local guides. Since then, she has hiked more than 400 km of it.

Justman created a website to share her     7    (photo) of the ancient road network. In2015, a friend shot a documentary about the shudao and uploaded it to YouTube,     8    (earn) the attention of like-minded people, some of whom asked to join the American on her walks.

Last month, she took some of those friends to the Cuiyunlang section of the shudao,     9    (line) by ancient cypress trees with an average age of 1,050 years, the oldest tree being     10    (approximate) 2,300 years old. She and her friends planted two cypress trees, and promised to meet again there next year.

Bamboo weaving (编织) is a time-honored skill of weaving long and thin pieces of bamboo into various items by hand,     1     has been passed down from generation to generation.

Fu Yelin, a 58-year-old resident of Maoba Township and a skilled craftsman (手艺人),     2     (be) inseparable from bamboo weaving since he was 12. “Back then, I     3       (use) to get cut during bamboo weaving,” he says. It requires     4       (patient) to complete the work. After decades of practicing, Fu has equipped himself with the skill. Fu     5       (eventual) opened a store in 2003 in Yongshun’s Furong Town, a place famous for its typical customs and natural scenery, to observe the aesthetic (审美的) trends in     6       (people) consumption of daily items.

“I want to conduct exchanges with bamboo weavers of different styles     7    (widen) my vision and further train my skills, ” he says, adding that he is confident about his own     8    (create) ideas, and wants to expand the influence of bamboo weaving. Fu would like to teach more people to carry on     9     the craft. For Fu, bamboo weaving is not just a lifelong practice,     10     a reminder of who he is and where he was born.

In a world that is full of different kinds of colors, red quite stands out. In China, people call this color China Red,     1     has become a quite popular expression     2     (catch) the world’s attention.

This expression fully shows Chinese people’s special love for red. So why are the Chinese really fond of it? One reason     3     (lie) in the color’s rich meaning in Chinese history and     4     (tradition) culture. In ancient China, red     5     (regard) as a symbol of health, energy, happiness, hope and so on. Now red things can be     6     (common) found across the nation, for example red lanterns. People can find red lanterns across China, especially during     7     (festival) and holidays. During the Spring Festival, people will see red lanterns hanging on     8     front gates of houses and stores, trees, etc. Besides red lanterns, things     9     Spring Festival couplets (对联) and invitations are also often red.

In a word, red is popular in China and it’s more than just a color. It carries the rich culture of this nation. And you’re welcome     10     (feel) and discover it in China.

Yang Liu, 25, who was born and raised in Zunyi, Guizhou, had many dreams as a child. While developing different interests, Yang grew up practicing duzhupiao, or “bamboo-drifting,”    1     skill which originated in the Chishui River area in Guizhou Province a long time ago. This involves navigating waterways standing on a bamboo raft. However, she didn’t expect it would become a lifelong dream for her     2    (pursue).

When Yang was about 4 years old, her grandmother helped her learn swimming first,    3    (hope) Yang would stay healthy through the physical activity. When Yang was 7, she tried bamboo-rafting for the first time.

When Yang turned 10,     4    (repeat) lost her balance on the bamboo rafts and fell in the river. As a good     5    (swim), she was not scared but found     6     entertaining. “I can still remember the moment when I successfully drifted on the river for the first time. I was so excited     7     I didn’t want to stop,” recalls Yang.

In 2018, she showed drifting with the help of bamboo poles to tourists at a scenic spot in Zunyi. One day, she posted her first short video on social media. The video,    8    showed the young woman’s control and balance,     9    (amaze) viewers. The video went viral and gained over 1 million views.

Since then, Yang has been sharing her short videos of drifting by bamboo online. This has won her a large fan base abroad,    10     followers calling her “Kung fu master on water” or “dancing fairy on water.”

The Mogao Caves or Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟), also     1     (know) as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas and the Dunhuang Caves, is a series of grottoes located about 25 kilometers southeast of the city of Dunhuang in Gansu Province, China.

Mogao Grottoes, inarguably the     2     (great) treasure of Buddhist art found in a single locality anywhere in the world, consists     3     numerous temples that contain countless sculptures, wall paintings and manuscripts.     4     (initial), Dunhuang was only a stopover point — though     5     important one — on the Silk Road. However, it quickly     6     (become) a Buddhist learning center,     7     Buddhist texts were translated into Chinese to be spread from there to other cities throughout China.

These grottoes     8     (carve) out of the sandstone cliffs (峭壁) of Mingsha Mountain and extend some 1600 meters from north to south. The     9     (construct) of these grottoes takes over a period of a thousand years, from the 4th to the 14th century AD. The ones     10     (survive) the natural disasters (only a little more than half of them are still complete) contain some 45, 000 square meters of wall paintings and more than 2, 000 painted sculptures.

I’m not Chinese, but I love Chinese New Year. There are many fun New Year     1     (celebrate), but nothing quite matches the excitement of the lion dance which can wake up the spirit     2     (complete).

The sound of the drums,       3     you can feel throughout your entire body, is quite inspiring. The two performers are very flexible. But it is actually very difficult as the lion head is very heavy and being the     4     (low)part of the lion is tiring as he has to bend his back and also carry     5     person in front sometimes. The lion head is made with paper over a bamboo frame,       6     (cover)in gauze (纱布), and decorated with beautifully-colored materials.

The lion dance     7     (believe)to have first appeared in the Qianlong Emperor's dream during his Southern tour, and he ordered an animal     8     (make)in the likeness of his description and used in festivals from then on.

I love all about the lion dance. The other day, I saw a film about a left-behind teenager who insisted on pursuing his dreams despite difficulties and     9     (succeed)in lion dance. As Master Xu translates: “Heaven has made us talents; we’re not made     10     vain.”