How I Love Home-Cooked Food!

Both my husband, Gao Hongyi and I work at the Beijing Xiyuan Hotel. He is the head chef of the hotel's Health Maintenance Restaurant and I work in a dining room where I've worked for seven years. At the hotel, we deal with chickens, ducks, fish and pork everyday. Some people think that we have the restaurant dishes on our own dinner table. To the     

Foreign Teacher Sends Girl to School

WHEN we talk about "Teacher Du" at the Hebei Institute of Finance and Economics in Shijiazhuang, we cannot help but think of the large, smiling man who often carries an oversized camera bag. In fact, his name is Norbert duBois, an English teacher from the east coast of the United States. DuBois is fond of photography and has a wide circle of acquaintances. He has     

Courtyard Charm

MENTION the dwellings of oldBeijing and most people think of themansions of the nobility and siheyuan.But in fact most Beijingers live insimple,ordinary houses with small,quiet and tidy courtyards.For hundredsof years it was such courtyards,countless siheyuan,splendid palaces     

Contract Lost,Love Found

MY husband is a traditional Frenchman who can speak Chinese. Although a total Shandong descendant, I was born and brought up in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. It is the 11th anniversary of our wedding this year and I think we could be called an "old" couple. We got to know each other in a meeting room in Jinjiang Hotel, Chengdu. With two years working experience in a highly disciplined circumstance, I had been trained a     

The Charm of An Ancient Southern City

AN artistic narrow bridge winds into a place of pavilions, terraces and open halls, all under the pleasant shade of green trees. This is Mist-Water Pavilion Park in Gantang Lake in the city of Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province. When you stand here in the quiet and elegant historic garden and look out over the water on all four sides, you can't help but think of the ancient war that took place on this very spot 1,700 years ago. During the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), this was     

A Photographer's Trip to Taiwan (2)

WHEN we came to Lukang,Changhua County in westernTaiwan after leaving Chilung City in the north of Taiwan,we felt a totally different atmosphere. At Chilung,in the heavy rain of an early morning,mycompanions and I hurried to take pictures of a fish market bustlingwith 100 years of history.It was still in that darkness before dawn,wind mixed with rain,but the market was brightly lit and crowdedwith People.Among a confusion of voices were the loud calls of     

Shanghai's Chenghuangmiao Area Boasts Legendary Fare

IF you ask most people, they'll tell you they think their hometown is the best. My husband is no exception. Recently I went with him on my first trip to his native place—a village of rivers and lakes in the southern area of the Yangtze River. He was so pleased when we arrived. You see, he thinks that only the sky of his hometown is truly blue, only the water of his hometown is truly clear. And as far as food is concerned, only the food     

Eternal Love Comes from Sincerity

IT was a time of happiness three years ago when Qian Kui, leader of the Chinese Gymnastics Team, took out a platinum ring with an inlaid diamond from a small velvet box and placed it on his wife's finger. Qian, a senior team leader in his 50s, said to his wife with deep feeling, "Twenty-five years ago when we got married, we just put our single beds together. I didn't bring you any gift, which I have long regretted. Today is the Silver anniversary of our marriage. Please accept     

Retired Worker Writes Novel

SUN Junxian, a retired worker from the Huanghe Machine Building Company in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, spent nearly 15 years writing her autobiographical novel White Snow. With the publication of this novel, Sun has won widespread praise throughout Xi'an. Readers think the novel is effective and true to life. The China Television Play Production Center plans to adapt the novel for a TV series and present it during the     

Ladies'Dress from the Past

WHEN looking at the figures of women of nearly a century ago, it is easy for people of today to think of the clothes of the past as hopelessly quaint and antiquated. But when you look closely at those old pictures, you can see that everyone in them looks so proud of their fashionable garb. Study the pictures carefully and think hard; you will finally