[Extensive Reading] The builder

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.

[Chinese Poems] The Magpie-Bridge Legend

Fairy Of The Magpie Bridge,Among the beautiful clouds...

[Extensive Reading] Date with Qi Qin 2

I have a home in the States. So I always go there. When I first went there, somebody talked to me, I kept on sweating. Because it was my first time to really talk to a foreigner. I kept on sweating, and said nothing.

[Extensive Reading] Date with Qi Qin 1

Qi Qin was a juvenile delinquent as a boy. After spending three years in juvenile detention center, music became his only inner support. Following the release of his first album 'The Wolf', Qi Qin's cool expression, his long hair, and his black clothing attracted the attention of the public. Although living among the masses, the image of the lone wolf was always in his heart.

[Extensive Reading] Yao: A Life in Two Worlds

This is my philosophy about everything: the most important thing is to live your life the way you want it. I don’t believe in a certain way of thinking for everybody...

[Chinese Poems] Saying Goodbye to the God of Disease

Mao wrote some poems, two poems actually, about getting rid of a disease that was a plague for the country.

[Extensive Reading] Dam completion washes away old China 2

The dam is but the centrepiece of a colossal endeavour to transform the cities of the Yangtze along a 400-mile stretch from the wartime capital of Chongqing, in the west, to the old British treaty port of Yichang, in the east, towards Shanghai and the sea.

[Extensive Reading] Dam completion washes away old China 1

CHINA has paid homage to the "sacrifice" of more than 100 nameless workers who died to build the Three Gorges dam, hailing its completion at 2pm yesterday as the greatest feat in thousands of years of Chinese civilisation.

[Extensive Reading] China Slaps Tax on Disposable Chopsticks

In a move that has cheered environmentalists but worried restaurant owners, China has slapped a 5 per cent tax on the chopsticks over concerns of deforestation. The move is hitting hard at the Japanese, who consume a tremendous 25 billion sets of wooden chopsticks a year - about 200 pairs per person.

[Extensive Reading] A Trek Off the Beaten Path Pays Rich Dividends 2

Beautiful but dirty-faced children followed us around and I bought them lollipops. One five-year-old boy appeared with a four-inch bug on a string leash and all three of our kids played with it. We felt millions of miles away from booming Beijing or Shanghai.