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.

Kunqu, also known as Kunju, is one of the oldest     1     (exist) forms of Chinese opera. It developed     2     (original) from the local music of Kunshan, part of the Wu cultural area, and later came     3     (show) its importance in Chinese theater from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

Due to the extensive performance activities, Kunqu, ranking among the most influential operas now,     4     (introduce) to Beijing in the last years of Wanli. During the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Kunqu spread to Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangdong,     5     developed into a national drama. Having entered various places, Kunqu eventually formed a rich and colorful opera system in     6     (combine) with local dialects and folk music.     7     further development, the opera became more well-known and     8     representative art form of the whole nation.

In the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi loved Kunqu,     9     (lead) to its increasing popularity, but it was during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty     10     Kunqu entered its heyday (全盛时期) and began to influence the “pear garden” greatly.

You’ve heard of planning a trip around a museum you desire to visit or cuisine you want to try, but is the trip focusing on getting a better night’s sleep a choice of     1     (you)? It’s called sleep tourism, a travel trend referring to travel experiences that     2     (design) specifically to improve your quality of sleep.

Going on a vacation might seem like a much     3     (strange) way to improve your sleep than taking medicine. However, many people     4     (undertake) or expressed interest in sleep tourism in the past years and it is growing in popularity, with an increasing amount of sleep-focused stays     5     (appear) in hotels and tourist attractions across the world.

Why has this trend taken off? Some experts say travelers are waking up to the idea     6     traveling doesn’t have to come at the expense of sleep. With sleep tourism, they can gain first-hand     7     (expose) to helpful sleep habits and environmental factors that work     8     them and that they can include into their daily routine. According to Hilton’s third-annual trends report, regardless of generations,     9     No. 1 reason people want to travel in 2024 is to rest and recharge. And they think more investment     10     (make) in travelers’ sleep and sleep-focused experiences could be expected in 2025.

The China Cultural Center in Paris     1     (hold) a special event presenting a poetic Jiangsu to the French public on July 12, 2023.

Titled “Tea for Harmony—Yaji Cultural Salon of Jiangsu”, the event     2     (careful) selected representative intangible cultural heritages (非物质文化遗产) from East China’s Jiangsu province     3     (present) its rich tea culture and provide a panoramic (全景的) view of local lifestyles     4     (associate) with tea.

Yaji, which translates as “elegant gathering”, dates back     5     an ancient type of social event in China where scholars and literati (文人) gathered to engage in a     6     (vary) of refined cultural activities such as tea tasting, guqin playing and poetry composition and recital.

The Paris event featured activities     7     (include) tea tasting, demonstrations of tea-making techniques and tea art, displays of Jiangsu’s intangible cultural heritages, calligraphy and traditional music performances.

    8     stole the heart of the audience was a virtual exhibition presented in a panoramic way using virtual 3D modeling technology and a 360-degree rotating interface. Featuring 40     9     (exhibit) which include embroidered silk fabrics, jewelry, musical instruments, costumes for Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera, as well as incense utensils,     10     virtual exhibition recreated traditional lifestyles and home environments from Jiangsu.

Putian wood carving, one of the four well-known     1     (category) of the art of Chinese wood carving, originated in the Tang and Song Dynasties.     2     (serve) as a national intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) item in China, it is a traditional folk carving technique of southeast China’s Fujian Province.

Zheng Chunhui, Lin Jianjun and Chen Yushu are three     3     (exception) representatives of wood carving masters. Zheng is a provincial-level inheritor (继承人) of the wood carving art,     4     not only excels in traditional wood carving technique,     5     expresses his love for his family and nation through his works. To promote the art, Zheng opened a unique wood carving gallery, which is the     6     (one) in Putian run by an individual and free to the public. The delicately made wood carving works by Lin     7     (shine) at a BRICS summit (峰会) several years ago, and meanwhile, the Chinese-style antique furniture pieces that are made by Chen     8     (show) at many international exhibitions over the past few years.

Putian city is home     9     over 2,600 wood carving companies, and the wood carving works     10     (create) there were sold to more than 20 countries and regions around the world last year.

When we think of the Silk Road, the first thing that appears in people’s minds is trade. However, trade isn’t just limited to goods     1     includes culture.

Since ancient times, strong connections between the Chinese and the Turkish people     2     (build) by cultural exchange along the Silk Road. Some historians believe Karagoz, Turkish traditional shadow puppetry (皮影) , drew     3     (inspire) from Chinese shadow puppetry art. Karagoz originally     4     (find) its place in Bursa, a city in northwestern Turkey, and it first rose to popularity in the 16th century.

Karagoz is a dramatic form of storytelling     5     shadows are projected onto a white screen, with a multitasking performer     6     (sing) the tunes and words of the story and the lead puppeteer controlling the movement of the puppets. The performances     7     (main) center around social events and public criticism, whose primary objective is     8     (educate) people via entertainment.

The tradition’s popularity in Turkey is credited     9     people’s sense of nostalgia (怀旧) . Historically, Karagoz performances served as     10     educational tool for people of all classes. As society progresses, there is often a tendency to reconnect with the past.

Weifang nut carving dates back to the Qing Dynasty, during     1     a craftsman (手艺人) named Wang Dayan spread the skill to the local people. Due to the strict carving skills and its rich artistic content, Weifang nut carving     2     (list) as a national intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) in 2008.

A successor named Tan Wanhai, has studied nu t carving for the past 25 years. He was deeply impressed by a master piece     3     (inspire) by an article about a boat nu t carving. “In just a 5-cm peach pit (核), you can see a boat     4     (carry) five different people, who are all vividly (生动地) shown,” said Tan.

Yet,     5     48-year-old craftsman also admitted that the journey of bringing this kind of masterpiece to life is not a smooth sailing. “Each peach pit has     6     (it) own unique texture (纹理) like human fingerprints,” Tan said, adding that craftsmen have to study   each peach pit     7     (design) their artwork carefully. Craftsmen also need to have a wide knowledge of arts when it comes     8     carving nuts.

In recent years, Weifang nut carving artworks have been     9     (wide) welcomed by people in China. This     10     (popular), in turn, has also attracted many people to learn the skill of nut carving.

Piyingxi, or Chinese shadow puppetry is a traditional opera art among Chinese people. According to historical records, shadow puppetry originated     1     Western Han Dynasty and became popular in Ming & Qing.

Shadow puppetry is an art with a perfect     2     (combine) of light, image, sound and color. In lamp light, the shadow puppet looks crystalline (似水晶的) and graceful, with the cut-out parts brighter than     3     rest.

The performers hold joysticks in their hands that they grab, grind, roll, and press     4     (create) flowing motions, which is exactly     5     the ancient called “a million soldiers in two hands.” In addition to images, performers tell their stories in the locally popular tone with musicians     6     (play) instruments in the background.

The coloring is also an     7     (amaze) step in making a shadow figure. The favorite colors are the pure ones, most of     8     are red, green and black in practice, as yellow is the original color of the skins, and the light leaked through the cut-outs is     9     (natural) white.

The harmonious co-existence of sounds, colors, light and shadow     10     (make) shadow puppetry a colorful addition to people’s leisure time.