In the center of Reykjavik, Iceland, stands a museum     1     (create) by Lillian Hopps, which symbolizes the friendship between Icelandic and Chinese people. A passionate admirer of Chinese heritage, Lillian began her journey to learn about China in the 1990s, a time     2     she deeply engaged herself in exploring China’s rich culture. Her passion transformed her home into a place filled with Chinese artifacts, which     3     (eventual) led to the establishment of a museum in Reykjavik.

The museum     4     (house) an extensive collection of cultural relics, from ancient clothing     5     contemporary art, displaying thousands of years of Chinese civilization. Lillian’s work goes beyond just     6     (exhibit) these items; she brings the culture alive through highly     7     (interact) activities like tea performances, calligraphy classes, and traditional medicine talks, promoting the Icelandic understanding of China’s rich traditions.

Lilian’s museum, attracting thousands of visitors annually from around the world,     8     (recognize) by the Icelandic government in 2021 for its impact. As Marta Jonsdottir, a director at Iceland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, put it in an interview, “Lillian, with her enthusiasm and expertise, has developed diverse cultural     9     (link) between Iceland and China. Her museum has not just enabled both peoples to better understand each other     10     strengthened our relations.”

Zanhua Wei, known as “the garden on the head”, is a kind of flower headwear     1     (wear) by local women in Xunpu, a fishing village in Quanzhou, Fujian Province.

The production of it needs to go through multiple     2     (process), including cutting, laying, inlaying, coloring and so on. Main materials for making hair-pinned flowers are metal wires, jewelry stones and colored pearls,     3     (delicate) combined to form a variety of flower patterns.

Opinions vary about the origin of Zanhua Wei, with some saying     4     originated from the custom of Central Asian women wearing flowers and was brought back through the maritime Silk Road during the Song and Yuan dynasties,     5     Quanzhou served as one of the few leading trading ports on the southeastern coast of China. The ships carried spices and all kinds of     6     (value) goods to Quanzhou for trade, notably countless jewelry stones and pearls.

In 2008, the custom    7     (include) in the national intangible cultural heritage list. Besides    8     (use) as hair accessories (配饰), head-pinned flowers play     9     undeniable role in traditional Chinese culture. Zanhua Wei carries the emotions and memories of the fisherman’s family, reflecting the diligence and simplicity of Xunpu, as well as the    10     (expect) for a better life.

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.

Stretching from east to west for over 60 kilometers, Songshan Mountain is acclaimed in folklore (民俗学) as the “origin of all mountains”. Its well-preserved angular rock shapes     1    (form) by three violent movements in the earth’s crust, and the most recent happened 570 million years ago,     2     the Himalayas and the entire Qinling Range were submerged under the sea.

However, it is the 1,529-year-old Shaolin Temple,     3    (locate) in a mountain forest near Dengfeng, and its style of kung fu that have left the biggest impression on the world. Today, Shaolin Temple attracts     4    (rough) 7 million Chinese and international tourists and martial arts enthusiasts every year.

While the area is famous around the world for Shaolin Kung Fu, it is also becoming known for other cultural     5    (aspect) including Chan Wu Yi, which combines Zen meditation, kung fu and traditional Chinese medicine, and has been promoted by Master Shi Dejian for 30 years.

In 1994, Master Shi Dejian, under the     6    (guide) of his teacher, started the restoration of the academy’s damaged buildings     7    (study) and promote Chan Wu Yi. Eleven years later, with Shi Dejian     8    (work) as its director, the Songshan Chan Wu Yi Research Institute was established. “It has become     9     normal part of our lives to practise internal cultivation, and     10     can be said that Chan Wu Yi is our basic way of life.” he said.

    1     (locate) at a strategic point along the Silk Route, at the crossroads of trade and     2     (culture) influences, the Mogao Caves are famous for their statues and wall paintings, presenting 1,000 years of Buddhist art (佛家文化).

It was first constructed in 366AD and represents the great achievement of Buddhist art from the 4th     3     the 14th century. 492 caves are presently preserved, housing about 45,000 square     4     (meter) of wall paintings and     5     (much) than 2,000 painted carvings.

    6     (reflect) the development of Buddhist art of China, the Mogao Caves are of unique historical value. These works provide rich materials     7     cover ancient politics, economics, culture in western China.

The Library Cave at the Mogao Caves was discovered in 1990.     8     there are tens of thousands of manuscripts (手稿) and relics, it     9     (recognise) as the world’s greatest findings of ancient Eastern culture. This important heritage provides invaluable     10     (refer) for studying the complex (复杂的) history of ancient China.

The painting Prosperous Suzhou, ink and color on paper, 1,241cm in length and 36.5cm in width, is     1     (current) housed in the Liaoning Provincial Museum.The painting     2    (complete) in 1759 during the Qing Dynasty.     3    (paint) in hand scroll format (手卷) with cavalier perspective painting methods, the entire piece vividly illustrates     4    urban life of Suzhou during the High Qing era, with lively trades, countless businessmen and various goods. The whole scroll describes the local conditions and customs in the southern     5    (region) of the Yangtze River, including the landscape of lakes and hills, city wall and     6    (it) gates, ancient ferries and rowing boats, towns along the river, folk customs, and shops of all trades, all of     7    reflect the prosperity (繁华) of Suzhou in the mid-18th century. Therefore, it     8    (hold) extremely high historical and artistic value.       

China Post issued a set of six special stamps based on this painting     9    May 18,2022. This set of stamps, designed by Xing Wenwei, fully reproduces the artistic conception of the original painting,     10     (create) a unique visual effect.

As an old saying in Xunpu, Fujian province,     1     (go),” Wear flowers in this life and you’ll also be pretty in the afterlife”. “Head-pinned flowers”, a kind of flower headwear     2     (wear) by local women in Quanzhou Xunpu, known as zanhua or zanhuawei, is     3     highlight of Xunpu women’s dress culture.

The production of Quanzhou head-pinned flowers is very complicated and needs to go     4     many processes, including cutting, laying, inlaying, coloring and so on. The main materials for making hair-wearing flowers are metal wire, jewelry stone and colored pearls,     5     are cleverly combined to form a lot of flower patterns. They come in a wide     6     (various) of styles, such as butterflies and magpies. Each hairpin has a profound meaning,    7     (convey) people’s expectations for a better life and good luck. It is not only a kind of manual skills,     8     a kind of cultural inheritance and expression.

In 2008, the custom of Xunpu female     9     (include) in the national intangible cultural Heritage list. Head-pinned flowers carry the emotions and     10     (memory) of the fisherman’s family, reflecting the diligence and simplicity of Xunpu, as well as the yearning for a better life.

Located near a wide stretch of cornfields in Xinjia Village is a museum focusing on Mahu Opera, a traditional art of the Manchu ethnic group in Northeast China. Developed on a site     1     (former) used as a primary school, this museum has five exhibition rooms with nearly 2,000 objects or t display, including manuscripts, masks, costumes, instruments and books, most of     2     were donated by a local inheritor of intangible cultural heritage.

Besides cultural artifacts related to Mahu Opera, other old objects in the museum     3     (collect) from the local area, such as traditional agricultural implements (农具) also reflect     4     history of this village situated in Shuangyang District in Changchun City.

Shuangyang District,     5     more than 300 years of history in the field of deer breeding, has a sika deer museum.     6     (wander) through the 7,200-square-meter building, people can learn in detail about this local history and tradition of raising deer, and the development of the industry. People here have gone through hardships in developing the deer industry, and they need to pass on this spirit to     7     (they) future generations through the museum.

The Mahu Opera and the sika deer museum are among the     8     (achievement) of a project of rural museum construction in Jilin Province, which was initiated in 2016. So far, 91 museums     9     (build) in rural areas in the province.

While modernizing its rural regions, China is also seeking solutions     10     (preserve) the distinct history and vibrant culture of different regions, with the building of rural museums being an important part of this strategy.

The 74-year-old art historian Mimi Gates has     1     (enthusiastic) participated in the conservation of the Dunhuang relies for years. When speaking about     2     topic, she goes from the cultural and historical background of the caves to the vivid details of certain paintings there.

Looking back, Gates says     3     changed her life was the decision to visit Asia when she was young. She found herself     4     (attract) to Asian culture, and decided to start with China as her primary interest. She paid her first visit     5     Dunhuang in 1995 and “had a brief glimpse of the     6     (great) of Dunhuang”. The Dunhuang grottoes are a 1,600-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site     7     (comprise) about 500 caves and a large collection of Buddhist art. She was invited to return in 2009     8     (present) a paper at a conference there. Spending a few days there, Gates visited the caves whenever she had free time.

When Fan Jinshi, the then-head of the Dunhuang Research Academy,     9     (visit) the US to raise funds for the protection of the site, Gates suggested setting up a foundation     10     accepted Fan’s offer to help organize and chair the foundation, for it was such a spectacular site and so important to humanity in her mind.

The Chinese Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, celebrates the beginning of spring and is the occasion     1    families show respect to their ancestors by visiting and cleaning their tombs. The festival takes place on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox (春分), which falls on April 4th    2     5th. As Qingming comes, temperature rises and rainfall increases,    3    (indicate)an important time for sowing seeds.

The Qingming Festival     4    (date) back more than 2,500 years and it originated from Hanshi Day, meaning “a day with cold food only”. One story has it that Jie Zitui, who was a loyal man to his lord Duke Wen, died in a fire in 636 BCE. So Duke Wen ordered three days without fire     5     memory of Jie. The next year, he ordered that the day after Hanshi Day should be the Qingming Festival, a day to honor     6     dead. Over time, the two festivals     7    (eventual) combined and the traditions of eating cold food and honoring ancestors became     8     (attach) to the Qingming Festival.

While there is much sadness surrounding Tomb Sweeping Day, there is also     9    (celebrate) , happiness and a festive atmosphere. Nowadays, the Qingming Festival is a time of multiple     10    (activity) , such as tomb sweeping, spring outing, flying kites and eating festive food like Qingtuan.