One of the most famous Chinese     1     (painting) in the world is the Qingming Shang He Tu by Zhang Zeduan,     2     court painter (宫廷画师) for the emperor during the Northern Song Dynasty.

The art-work captures the     3     (day) life of people from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing, today’s Kaifeng in Henan. Its theme is not to show the holiday’s ceremonial aspects, such as tomb sweeping and prayers (祈祷), but     4     (celebrate) the festive, spirit and prosperous (繁荣) street scene at the Qingming Festival.

The entire piece     5     (finish) in the handscroll format (手卷格式) at that time and the content reveals the lifestyle of all levels of society from rich     6     poor as well as different economic activities. The original painting,     7     measures 24.8 by 528 cm, is now in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing.

This long handscroll has three major sections: the right section is the rural area. A country path broadens into a road     8     we can see it eventually joins with the city streets. In the middle, there are businessmen of all kinds,     9     (sell) grain, musical instruments, paintings, medicine and so on. The left half is the urban area where economic activities, such as people loading things onto the boat, shops, and even a tax office,     10     (be) clear enough to be seen.

A plush toy named “Happy Loong” has recently captured the hearts of visitors to the Gansu Provincial Museum in northwest China.

Modeled after    1     Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) gold decoration in the shape of a loong or Chinese dragon, over 1,000 of these chubby and grinning loong toys were sold in the first week after they    2     (appear) earlier this year. This innovative approach to museum     3     (souvenir) reflects a broader trend of making cultural products more appealing to young Chinese museum-goers,     4     (drive) up the income across various museums.

Cui Youxin, head of the     5     (create) cultural product center at the Gansu Provincial Museum, emphasized that only those deeply     6     (root) in the soil of Chinese history and culture can stand the test of time. In addition to “Happy Loong”, the Gansu Provincial Museum offers stuffed toys inspired     7     the flying apsaras (飞天) of the Mogao Grottoes and the bronze galloping horse from the Easter Han Dynasty (25-220), all of     8     combine rich history with Gen-Z appeal.

China’s central economic work conference in December 2023 proposed that the country should     9     (active) develop new consumption growth points such as China-chic goods in 2024. Looking ahead, the museum souvenir market in China     10     (expect) to continue growing.

In Japan’s capital city of Tokyo, the height of buildings     1     (limit) because of earthquake danger. As one of the most crowded cities in the world, the traffic in Tokyo has become so heavy that it is very difficult     2     (go)from one place to another. The price of the land, too, has always been going up     3     (rapid). All these explain why a group of Japanese land developers came to     4     conclusion that there was nowhere to go but down. So far they     5     (dig) out space underground for fifteen shopping centers.

One of the     6     (advantage) of shopping and eating underground is its clean air. The city of Tokyo has one of the most serious smog problems in the world. Also, while     7     (travel) underground, you escape the ever-present threat of traffic accidents on the city’s busy streets. Still, the advanced underground traffic system makes it     8     (convenience) for people to get around in Tokyo: you are usually right next to, or even in, a subway station. And you can even spend the night underground     9     you like. The Ginza Station, for example, in downtown Tokyo, has a hotel     10     a bar, restaurant, and barbershop.