China Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival 2012 Tours

The Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival which is annually launched on January 5, is one of the largest ice-carving festivals in the world, and features a range of ice-related activities including ice swimming, hot air ballooning, ice sculpture competitions, and various winter sports.

Winter outdoor swimming at Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival

Blocks of ice chainsawed from the Songhua River provide the material for the sculptures, and competitors use knives and saws to carve the large blocks into animals, mythical figures, buildings, or copies of artworks. Past sculptures have represented such things as castles, towers, the Statue of Liberty, the Great Wall of China, and an onion-domed Russian church. Teams of sculptors come from all over the world and their work – glowing from the neon tubes of purple, pink, blue and green that shine from inside – fills the city square.

Large buildings and sculptures made of ice at Harbin Ice and Snow World

The festival includes ice lantern and sculpture exhibitions. Thousands of ice lanterns, ice carvings and snow sculptures turn the city into a dreamlike world of pure whiteness and gleaming crystal. A highlight of the festival is the “Ice and Snow World” – the world’s largest amusement park devoted to ice and snow.

Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Art Fair

Temperature
Harbin is one of China’s coldest cities, located in the northeast province of Heilongjiang, where the mercury in January often drops to minus 20 degrees centigrade (-4F).

Best Time to Visit
Harbin Snow and Ice Sculpture festival begin officially on the second week of January annually till late February. But they are actually open to the visitors right after the Christmas, when ice lanterns are complete and 80% snow sculptures are done. By then, you can see sculptors working on them.

Ice Lantern Show at Zhaolin Park

Getting there
Travelers can fly in to Harbin from over a dozen domestic airports or take trains from some main cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin etc.. There are also international flights to Harbin from Hong Kong, Russia, Niigata, Seoul,  Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and Los Angeles.

The Ice and Snow World opens from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, and the Snow Sculpture Expo opens from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

Beijing Imperial Palace Museum to open online ticketing system on September 20

The Palace Museum or Forbidden City in Beijing will run an online ticket reservation trial system starting Sept. 20 to encourage visitors to save time by buying tickets at home, giving them more time to tour the museum, its official website said.

the Forbidden City or Beijing Imperial Palace Museum

A maximum of 80,000 tickets will be available each day during the upcoming seven-day National Day holiday (from Oct. 1 to Oct. 7) next month, with half of the tickets available online and the other half sold on site, according to its website.

During last year’s National Day holiday, the Palace Museum averaged 90,000 visitors per day, far exceeding its 60,000 visitor limit. Measures to limit visitors have been urged in order to protect cultural relics and historic buildings, according to the museum.

Tickets can be booked online five days in advance.

The Palace Museum, founded in 1925, is in the Forbidden City, which served as the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). For travelers, it is a must-to-visit site on their Beijing tour itinerary.

(Source from Xinhuanet.com)

Shanghai Tourism Festival 2011 Opened on September 10

Shanghai welcomed the start of its annual tourism festival on the night of September 10 in Shanghai International Fashion Center with a grand parade. The festival will offer a succession of celebratory activities and special treats for visitors until October 6.

Float, sent by Tibet Autonomous Region, on the opening parade.

A total of 21 floats and 30 perform teams from across the world participated in the opening parade, which attracted more than 500,000 tourists. And a fireworks show featuring fireworks from Germany, South Korea, Portugal, Greece and Sweden will be staged on the night of the closing ceremony.

The theme of this year’s festival is discovering the cultural heritage of Shanghai. Special tour routes have been set up to steer visitors into the depths of the city’s historical districts. More than 40 activities will be staged in the following month, including an exhibition on travel souvenirs, a gourmet festival and a photography competition.

A performer from Finland participate in the opening parade

According to the organizing committee, more than 400 scenic spots, hotels and restaurants will sell tickets at discounted prices during the festival.

The Shanghai Tourism Festival was first held in 1990, and lasts nearly one month every autumn. Each year, over eight million visitors flock to the city for sightseeing, leisure, entertainment, culture, sports, conventions, exhibitions, food and shopping.

A Brief Introduction of Chinese Cuisines and Cooking

The Chinese saying “food is heaven for the people” is no exaggeration. Chinese people, at all levels of society, enjoy eating delicious food. And cooking has developed into a very sophisticated art.

Husband and wife lung slices - pieces of addictively spicy beef offal served cold.

The development and diversity of Chinese cuisine is also representative of China’s long history. With each dynasty, new recipes were created. However, the most significant development in Chinese cuisine took place in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). At the time, a most famous dinner, called “Man Han Quan Xi” (literally Manchu Han Imperial Feast), consists of at least 108 unique dishes from all the very best of Man and Han Cuisines.

China is divided into 34 provinces, each with its own distinct culinary heritage that reflects its unique geography, climate, history and culture. Cooking styles are inspired by fresh, local ingredients and spices. All these factors lead to the evolution of what are called the “Eight Cuisines” and “Four Flavors”.

Eight Cuisines
Chinese cuisine is classified into four schools (the north, south, east, and west), which are further divided into eight main regional cuisines, namely Eight Cuisines.
1. Shandong Cuisine
2. Sichuan Cuisine
3. Cantonese Cuisine
4. Fujian Cuisine
5. Jiangsu Cuisine
6. Zhejiang Cuisine
7. Hunan Cuisine
8. Anhui Cuisine

Buddha jumps over the wall - a rich stew made from sone of the most expensive ingredients from the land and sea.

Of course, there are many other local cuisines which are famous, such as Beijing Cuisine and Shanghai Cuisine. In addition, China also has imperial dishes, dishes of ethnic minorities, as well as Buddhist and Muslim sub-cuisines within the greater Chinese cuisine.


Four Flavors
Importantly, cuisine in China is always appreciated through all the senses. A dish is first judged for its appearance and aroma, then its taste and texture. And a good-quality dish should have one of the following characteristics or a combination of several.

Lion's head - Fist-sized meatballs made from three parts meat and seven parts fat.

1. Xian (鲜) – the natural, heightened flavor of ingredients, such as the sweetness of prawns, or the taste of high-quality butter.
2. Xiang (香)– a fragrant aroma found in dishes that combines smell and taste harmoniously.
3. Nong (浓) – the richness of a sauce; a concentration of flavor.
4. you er bu ni (油而不腻) – the taste and texture of fat without greasiness of stodginess or stodginess.

For travelers, there has never been a more exciting time to eat in China. Easy Tour China offers several “China culinary tours” for choice. There would be great opportunities for visitors to try a variety of regional dishes, as well as participate in cooking classes.

13-Day China Tibet Tours

A pleasant journey full of discovery, cultural and sightseeing, starts from the great cities Beijing, Xian and extends to the mysterious Tibet plateau for the dramatic landscape and minority culture; stops one day at Chengdu for the universal-loved giant pandas. The last contrast ends at the sky-scrapers Shanghai.http://www.easytourchina.com/tour-v41-13-day-china-tibet-tours

Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival falls on September 12, 2011

The 15th day of the eighth lunar month is called “Mid-Autumn”, and the night “Night of the Moon”. Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Festival, takes places on that day when the moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest. For Chinese people, the full moon is a symbol for family reunion. At the Mid-Autumn Festival, all the family members would gather together to taste moon cakes and appreciate the round moon. The date in the Western calendar changes annually. In 2011, the Mid-Autumn festival falls on Monday, September 12.

Moon Goddess & moon cakes at Mid-autumn Festival

Origin

Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the Moon sacrifices in ancient times. In ancient China, emperors followed the rite of offering sacrifices to the sun in spring and to the moon in autumn. Later aristocrats and literary figures helped expand the ceremony to common people. Historical books of the Zhou Dynasty (1066 B.C. – 221 B.C.) have had the word “Mid-Autumn”. At that time, people hold ceremonies to greet winter and worship the moon. The custom was passed down to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) when people enjoy and worship the full moon. In the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the 15th day of the eighth lunar month was formally named the Mid-Autumn Festival. People sent round moon cakes to their relatives as gifts in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. And since the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties (1644-1911), the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival celebration has become unprecedentedly popular.

How to Celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival
Mid-Autumn Festival is an evening celebration for family reunion. Most activities follow the custom of worshipping the moon in ancient times. At the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, people invite friends and relatives to hold family reunion feast for celebration. After the feast, they would sacrifice moon cakes, fruits and wine to the full moon at the open space. Every one prays for the blessing of Moon Goddess. Then, they would admire the full moon, taste moon cakes, drinking, chatting even dancing under the moon. Actually, contents of celebration varied in different areas of China: putting pomelo rinds on one’s head, lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns, burning incenses to the moon, planting Mid-Autumn trees, perform the Fire Dragon Dances…

Moon Cakes

various moon cakes eaten at Moon Festival

Moon cake is an indispensable delicacy on Mid-Autumn Festival. For Chinese people, those palm-sized round cakes symbolize family unity and perfection. They eat moon cakes to express their homesickness and love for their family member. A traditional moon cake is made of a sweet bean-paste filling with golden brown flaky skin. And a golden yolk from a salted duck egg, which looks like a bright moon, was placed at the center of each cake. Over time, both crusts and the fillings of moon cakes have diversified, for changing taste preferences. Moreover, to adapt to today’s health-conscious lifestyle, fat-free and even high-fibre low sugar moon cakes also appeared. Customers can freely choose and pick the size and filling of moon cakes that suits their taste and diet.

A China tour to enjoy Mid-Autumn Festival by tasting moon cakes, listening to famous fairy tales – Chang’e Flying to the Moon, taking part in sacrifice rite, a reunion part … which offer you a impressive experience of Chinese festival culture.

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