1 . WELCOME TO CHINATOWN!

The Chinatown in San Francisco is the biggest in America, and also the oldest. It is a very popular tourist draw that receives more visitors each year than even the Golden Gate Bridge. The climate is mild all year round, meaning it is always a good time to visit .

Historically, Chinese immigrants settled in the area during the railroad construction and gold rush period. What started as a residential area for Chinese immigrants then turned into a centre for Chinese culture. The majority of residents in Chinatown are still ethnic Chinese, many of whom do not speak English fluently. This allows visitors to experience a real taste of China.

Most of Chinatown was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, but the city and residents rebuilt it, taking care to include lots of Chinese architecture. Traditionally, visitors enter Chinatown through the legendary Dragon Gate, which was built using materials donated from China. Other famous sites include the Tin How Temple and Bank of Canton, to name but a few. Visitors can also spend hours just exploring the interesting sights, smells, and sounds of China. Portsmouth Square is also a key site, being the centre of Chinatown. It has a long and famous history, with the author Robert Louis Stevenson having spent much time writing there. These days, the square is a great place to see traditional Chinese culture in real life, such as games of Chinese chess, and people practising tai chi.

The stores in the Chinatown offer a unique range of souvenirs, goods, and clothing. All kinds of traditional Chinese herbal medicine can be found, too, and there are Chinese tea stores, where visitors can taste and buy varieties of Chinese tea .

But perhaps what many tourists and San Franciscans treasure most about Chinatown is its food. There is Chinese food to suit everyone’s taste, with traditional dishes from all over China.

Chinatowns are an important part of the diverse culture of the USA. They allow visitors who have never been to China to experience traditional Chinese culture first hand.

CULTURE AND CUISINE

The French author Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once wrote, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” Put more simply this means “You are what you eat.” Most people today relate this saying to healthy eating. However, Brillat-Savarin was actually referring to our personality, character, and culture.

Certainly in many ways this seems to be true. Chinese cuisine is a case in point. Prior to coming to China, my only experience with Chinese Cooking was in America, with Chinese food that had been changed to suit American tastes. For example, America’s most popular Chinese dish is General Tso’s chicken, which consists of fried chicken covered in a Sweetsauce, flavoured with hot red peppers. This is probably not an authentic Chinese recipe, however, so it can not tell us much about the Chinese. On the other hand, it does tell us a lot about Americans. It tells us, for example, that Americans love bold, simple flavors. And, since the dish was also invented recently, it tells us that Americans are not afraid to try new foods.

Later, I had a chance to experience authentic Chinese food by coming to China. When my family And I had just arrived in China, we went looking for a good place to eat in Beijing. A Sichuan restaurant had been recommended to us by a friend, and finally we found it. Tired, hungry, and not knowing a word of Chinese, we had no idea how to order, so the chef just began filling our table. With the best food we had eaten. With this, we had the pleasure of experiencing an entirely new taste: Sichuan peppercorns. The food was wonderful and different, but what was even more important was the friendship offered us.

We soon moved to Shandong Province in the eastern part of North China. My favourite dish there was boiled dumplings served with vinegar. I observed that family is important to people there. I have become a favourite traditional dish of the people in North China, where making dumplings has always been a family affair with everyone from the youngest to the oldest joining in to help. Later, I learnt that the most famous food in Shandong is pancake rolls stuffed with sliced Chinese green onions.

Then we moved to northern Xinjiang. Some of our friends were Kazak and Inner Mongolian.These groups traditionally wandered the open range on horses. As a result, their traditional foods are what you can cook over an open fire usually boiled or roasted meat, such as lamb kebab.

Our travels then took us to South China, and then onto central China. In each place we went, we experienced wonderful local dishes from Gungdong’s elegant dim sum -small servings of food in bamboo steamers to the exceptional stewed noodles in Henan. Everywhere, The food was as varied as the people. However, one thing is always true: Through food, Chinese people everywhere show friendship and kindness.

At a minimum, the kinds of food local people consume tell us what they grow in their region, what kinds of lives they lead, and what they like and do not like. Could we also say, for example, that those who like bold flavors are bold themselves? Or, that those who like spicy food tend to have a hot temper? Maybe. Maybe not. What we can say, however, is that culture and cuisine go hand in hand, and if you do not experience one, you can never really know the other.

Learning English

Wang Le

Hey, everybody, what are your biggest problems with learning English?

Liu Wen

Hi!I’ve been studying English since primary school. I used to get high marks in English, but now I’m having a lot of trouble with my listening. When I listen to native English speakers talking in a video, I can catch only a few words. I can never quite get the main idea. Any advice?

Jia Xin

Listening to English radio programmes helps me get used to how fast native speakers talk. I also repeat what I hear to help myself to experience the feeling of the language. Sometimes I even record my voice so I can listen to myself and compare my pronunciation with the radio host’s!My biggest headache is how to be polite in English. It’s so much easier to just say “Open the window!”, but in English that can sound really terrible. I have to think about who I’m talking to and then decide whether to say, “Open the window, please!” or “Could you open the window, please?” or even longer “Would you mind opening the window, please?”

Yeah, that’s really hard! I think it all depends on who you’re talking to. If I’m talking to a close friend, I can use short requests, like “Open the window”—our relationship is close and we’re equals, so I only need a few words to bridge the gap between us. But if I’m talking to someone who isn’t very close to me, I must make my request longer—and I must make it a question, not a demand, e.g., “Could you open the window, please?” If I’m talking to someone senior to me, then I should say, “Would you mind opening the window, please?” For me, vocabulary is my biggest problem—there are just SO MANY new words! I can’t keep all the new vocabulary straight in my head, and I certainly can’t remember how to use them all properly. HELP!

My name is Ann Wells and I’m a Grade 10 student at Lakeside High School. I’m an active person and I love sports. I’m curious about everything. I often ask questions, but I learn best by doing. My favourite subject is physics. Dancing and skating are my hobbies, and I also like to read short stories. I plan to become an engineer in the future.

I’m Thando Gowon. I’m 16 this year. I come from South Africa. I’m a Grade 10 student at South Hill High School. I look good, think fast, and play hard.

You’ll never see me without a book or a pen. If I’m not in class, I’m either in the library or in the computer lab. At the weekends, I play computer games if I’m not busy studying. My dream is to start my own IT company!