Wearing traditional Chinese dress,some foreigners in Shanghai    1    (show)up at a Chinese-style market at the River Mall in the Pudong New Area on Thursday,    2    (express)their love for Chinese culture and traditional clothing.

A series of activities including    3    market as well as traditional Chinese culture displays and parades of traditional Chinese fine clothing are rolling out in the city between Thursday and Sunday    4    (promote)traditional Chinese culture among young people.

The market drew some foreign Hanfu    5    (love).Zerin Moirang them,a university student from India,arrived in Shanghai last July.He used to participate in a lot of Hanfu activities during his stay in Kunming,Yunnan Province,and he joined a Hanfu society.“I have around 15 collections of Hanfu,and I took friends to the parks,wearing Hanfu,”hetold Shanghai Daily.“I am crazy    6    Hanfu and I really love it,”he said.“In the future,I want to bring Hanfu culture to my country,showing    7    (it)beauty.”

It was the first time for Katrina Andrushkevich from Belarus to wear Hanfu.“I am     8    (interest)in Chinese culture and history,”she said.“I feel    9     (incredible) special today and cherish this moment a lot.”

There is an interactive experience area    10    visitors can enjoy the fun of chess playing, calligraphy,tea ceremony,and riddle guessing to experience the charm of traditional Chinese culture

6 . As Christmas Eve approached, I found myself in New York City, far from my family and friends in Taiwan. I was feeling homesick and lonely, but my Jewish friend, Rachel, who, like me, doesn’t get connected with Christmas due to any religious things, invited me to join her for a dinner in a Chinese restaurant. She explained that it was a tradition for many Jewish people to celebrate this holiday by eating Chinese food on Christmas Eve.

We went to Jing Fong, a fancy restaurant in Chinatown. The place was packed with people, and the atmosphere was lively and festive. We ordered a variety of dishes. Everything was delicious, and I felt grateful to be sharing this experience with Rachel. As we ate, we talked about our families and our cultures. We laughed and joked, and for a moment, I forgot about my homesickness.

A moment later, a group of carolers (唱圣诞歌的人) came into the restaurant, singing Christmas songs. At first, I was puzzled. Why were they singing in a Chinese restaurant? But then I realized that this was part of the magic of New York City. People from all different cultures and backgrounds could come together and celebrate the holidays in their own way. Rachel and I joined in the singing, and soon the whole restaurant was filled with music. It was a beautiful moment, and I felt blessed to be part of it.

What a night! I learned that even when you’re far from home, you can still find joy and connection with others. Rachel and I may come from different cultures, but we shared amazing food, joyful music, and most importantly heartfelt company. And that’s exactly what all the holidays are all about.

7 . The last Wednesday in August marks Spain’s messiest festival. Held in Buñol, 40km west of Valencia, La Tomatina is a tomato-throwing spectacle that draws more than 20, 000 tourists each year.

There are a number of stories related to its beginning of this festival but no one knows for sure the exact origin. One story states a fight between the locals and the city councilmen over an issue, forced the locals to throw tomatoes at the councilmen. The event somehow transformed from a method to display anger to one of fun and entertainment and year after year, the “tomato fight” began to attract the public of Buñol.

On the day of the festival, trucks arrive at the center of town, carrying truckloads of tomatoes belonging to the relatively cheaper kind. The trucks then empty the tomatoes on the streets to be picked up by the participants. The tomato-throwing often starts at about 11 a. m. People pick up the tomatoes on the streets, throwing tomatoes at each other. Certain rules apply during this period. People are expected to squash the tomatoes before throwing to minimize the chances of injury and no other objects except for tomatoes can be used in the play. After the tomato throwing ends, cleaning operations begin. The town authorities get busy cleaning the streets while local residents often help the tourists clean themselves with water from pipes. Many take dips in locals’ pools and rivers to clean themselves.

Over the past years, tourists in Buñol have heavily increased due to the increasing popularity of La Tomatina. However, such a huge gathering in a small town center is believed to be a risk to people. This has forced the government to regulate the number of participants at the festival to 20,000. An entry fee has also been charged while free passes are kept for the locals. Safety officials, police forces and ambulance services are also kept ready to meet any emergency needs during the festival.

As traditional tea processing techniques and their     1    (associate) social practices in China were recently included on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the world is paying more attention to Chinese tea.

Southwest China’s Sichuan province has the     2    (early) history of tea growing in China, with one place in particular standing out: Mengding Mountain in Ya’an. The average annual temperature there is 14.5 degrees, and the year-round mist and rain is     3    (benefit) to the forming of nitrogenous (含氮的) substances in tea     4    (leaf).

Its superior natural and ecological conditions, along with a     5    (high) developed production process, contribute     6     the quality of Mengshan tea.

    7    (origin) in the Han Dynasty (206BC-AD24), the tea has more than 2,000 years of history. Since the year 742 during the reign of the Xuanzong Emperor of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Mengshan tea     8    (serve) as a gift for the royals.

A traditional green tea,     9     includes five varieties, is represented by Mengding Ganlu. Famed as one of the 10 most famous teas in China, the technique for making Mengshan tea was listed     10     the national-level intangible cultural heritage in 2021.

After almost a decade of preparation work, the construction of a new branch of the Palace Museum, China’s largest museum for relics’ exhibition,     1    (formal) kicked off in Beijing.     2     (situate) in Xiyuhe, a village in Haidian district,     3     new branch will include an exhibition space exceeding 60,000 square meters for cultural relics.

“We’ll have a much larger space to meet people’s     4    (expect) and enhance our capacity     5    (show) ancient Chinese civilization,” Wang Xudong, director of the Palace Museum, said in a previous interview with China Daily.

According     6     an official document of the construction project released online, the first phase, which includes relic warehouses and offices, will take about three-and-a-half years to complete. It     7    (estimate) that more than 20,000 to 30,000 relics can be showcased in the new branch every year, and it will offer larger and better-equipped warehouses to house fragile items, such as silk pieces,     8     require greater attention.

“We aim to build the branch into a museum inheriting ancient classics and     9    (lead) the future at the same time,” Zhang Yu, chief architect of the new museum, said in December. “This landmark can be a guesthouse of Chinese civilization with Eastern ethos(理念) and a     10    (globe) view.”