Trip Advisor Part 4

冶春茶社早餐

This was the place where we ate our first Yangzhou breakfast. We were shocked by the amount of food we had on the table. It was literally lunch, except there were more buns and dim sum. The dishes served at the teahouse include cow's intestine, mushroom, cold meat, buns, dumplings and other type of dishes. The favour of the dishes were rather strong and oily.

A huge soup bun was serve on a late with a straw given to us. Because it was so huge and mostly filled with soup only, we had to use the straw to poke into the bun and drink the soup first before eating.The gravy in the bun is quite oily but fragant. If you did not drink finish all the gravy before eating the bun, it will burn your tongue.

While eating the breakfast most have in Yangzhou, we found out that Yangzhou people have a heavier breakfast because they only eat two meals a day.  There were many other buns and dishes that were delicious. A lot of us couldn't finish all the food on our table. That first breakfast in Yangzhou was definitely a filling one! This experience was a good one because we rarely ate such a full breakfast and enjoyed the delicacies in Yangzhou while understanding part of their daily live.

Rating: 4/5

The delicious soup bun XD 

-Alyssa 

Trip Advisor Part 2

Hai Di Lao

This restaurant is legendary in Shanghai, for several reasons in addition to the excellent food quality. Very good hotpot, with a great selection of sauces and condiments that you can get yourself and make your own concoctions. 

What's great about these restaurants is the service. When we sat down, they put any mobile phones we placed on the table into plastic bags. Those of us wearing eyeglasses were given glass wipes. When I placed my jacked on the back of my chair, they placed a satin cover over it. 

I've been told that the owner who started this chain has gone out of the way to provide this over the top service. Even if you wait for a table, you are given drinks, game to play with, or even do your nails and other entertainment.

Always fun, always good, and reasonably priced.

1. The staff are extremely cheerful, and helpful, nothing is too much for them.

2. Although the restaurant is usually full, people enjoy the pleasures of the waiting area, snacks are provided to those waiting, also various games are played, ladies are offerred a free manicure. In our group several ladies paused thier meal and returned to the waiting area for a manicure and to have thier nails painted.

3. The ambiance is amazing, really a lively warm welcoming atmosphere where everyone feels at home.

4. Prices are extremely reasonable.

5. Adequate car parking, free of charge for up to two hours, we always overstay.

6. Noodles are hand made at the table, this is in fact a form of entertainment.

7. Unlike most hotpot restaurants, the restaurant has an English menu card. I was given a copy to take home.

We consider Hai di Lao as much more that a place to eat, It is also an attraction!

Rating: 5/5

Customers getting a nail treatment! 

Chinese Paper Cutting Museum

Paper-cutting Museum is near the East Gate Street（东关街） A variety of arts and crafts masterpieces are being displayed inside the museum , everyone's hands were cutting pattern and have its own characteristics, but they are interesting and very detailed, pretty pretty!! We got to try out the paper cutting and we realised that it was really hard to cut nicely and perfectly as the shapes were so small and detailed. Hence, it was easy for us to cut wrongly. After the cutting, they told us that we are allowed to bring the 3badao scissors home and the rest of the paper cutting. Although there are very few people or tourists there,it was still very exciting and we learnt many things. 

They also have a souvenir shop where they sell many pretty stuffs like the Chinese paper fan with many different types of pattern. They also sell bookmarks, books, paper cutting in a frame and many other things.

Some of the paper cuttings that we saw at the museum ^^

One of the fan designs we bought at the souvenir shop at the museum :))

Written by: Isabelle 

Trip Advisor Part 1

Location: Daming Temple

           This temple is extremely large. However, it does not seem to be maintained well. Plants are withering all over the temple. Next, the temple requires both an entrance fee, and a fee which is needed to be paid, if you wish to visit the pagoda, which is clearly the main attraction of the temple. Worth a visit if you want to know more about the history of China. There is a souvenir shop in the temple, and many washrooms are situated around the temple. However, the washrooms all stink, and are clearly only cleaned once a blue moon.

Location: Shouxi Lake (Slender West Lake)
 Decent, But Crowded     
Fantastic scenery, making this a must-go whenever you visit Yangzhou. However, the serene atmosphere was ruined by the loud chattering of mainlanders and locals. Would be better to visit on a weekday.

Rating: 4/5

Location: Former Residence of Zhu Ziqing
The house was rather small, and it would be hard to explore around if there are many visitors. You can learn a lot about Zhu Ziqing's background and view some of his famous work. Due to the small area and the surrounding walls, it can feel stuffy and hot most of the time

Rating: 3/5

Location: Geyuan

There is a variety of Bamboos all over the garden. There is also many artificial rocks, which i heard was taken from another province in China by a wealthy man, There is also a mini lake in this Garden. There is an endless maze of seemingly alike rooms of the wealthy family in the garden, coupled with antique furniture. At first, it might seem interesting, but you will find it hard to take any more meaningful photos after awhile as many of the bamboos looked the same. Washrooms are also scarce. Nevertheless, certain sceneries in the Geyuan still looks beautiful.

Rating:3/5

Literature and Culture of Yangzhou (Written Report)

CID  Written Report

ZHU ZIQING

Zhu Ziqing (November 22, 1898 – August 12, 1948), born Zhu Zihua, was a renowned Chinese poet and essayist. Zhu studied at Peking University, and during the May Fourth Movement became one of several pioneers of modernism in China during the 1920s. Zhu was a prolific writer of both prose and poetry, but is best known for essays like "Retreating Figure", and "You. Me." His best known work in verse is the long poem "Destruction".

TRADITIONAL DIMINISHING CRAFTS

1. FILIGREE CRAFT

Filigree is a delicate kind of jewellery metalwork, usually of gold and silver, made with tiny beads or twisted threads, or both in combination, soldered together or to the surface of an object of the same metal and arranged in artistic motifs. Most filigree work revolves around images of deities.

The art may be said to consist in curling, twisting and plaiting fine pliable threads of metal, and uniting them at their points of contact with each other, and with the ground, by means of flux such as borax, by the help of the blowpipe.

Due to lack of patronage and modern design ideas, it is a dying art.

2. SUGAR ART

Sugar painting (糖画) is a traditional Chinese form of folk art using hot, liquid sugar to create two dimensional figures. This snack is popular among children. Selecting a figure is normally determined by spinning the arrow on a wheel.

It is disappointing that some of the people who have learned the art care more about making money than the art itself.

诗名：《黄鹤楼送盂浩然之广陵》，是一首送别诗

"故人西辞黄雀楼，烟花三月下扬州"

意思：

老朋友孟浩然，辞别西楚的黄鹤楼； 

阳春三月烟花如海，他去游历扬州。 

公元730年三月，李白的好友孟浩然要去广陵（如今的江苏扬州）， 就约了他在江夏（今武汉武昌区）相会。这天，他们在江夏的黄鹤楼快乐地重逢，各诉思念之情 。几天后，孟浩然要离开时，李白亲自送他到江边。离别后，李白便写了这首《送孟浩然之广陵·故人》。

原文：

故人西辞黄鹤楼，烟花三月下扬州。 

孤帆远影碧空尽，惟见长江天际流。

[注释]：

故人：老朋友

黄鹤楼：中国著名的名胜古迹，建在湖北武昌西边的黄鹤矶上，下面就是长江。 

烟花：暮春浓艳的景色。 

碧空尽：指船消失在水与蓝天相接的地方。

 

Literature and Culture in Yangzhou (PPT slides)

Dilemma between pursuing high economic growth and escalating pollution due to industrialization

Benefits of pursuing high economic growth:

-Improvements in living standards: Growth is an important avenue through which per capita incomes can rise and absolute poverty can be reduced

-More jobs: Growth creates new jobs as there will be more factories and offices etc

-Potential environmental benefits – as countries grow richer, they have more resources available to invest in cleaner technologies. And, as nations develop, energy intensity levels fall.

Causes of escalating pollution

-Fast growth can create negative externalities for example more noise pollution and lower air quality arising from air pollution and road congestion

-Increased consumption of de-merit goods which damage social welfare, result in the huge increase in household and industrial waste.

These externalities reduce social welfare and can lead to market failure.

Pollution may lead to many health effects, such as respiratory problems.

Thus, even though there are benefits of pursuing a high economic growth which may not last long, there will be a long term effect, pollution, caused by it.

Alyssa Chua (1)

Reflection on China's dilemma between pursuing higher economic growth and escalating pollution due to the industrialization

       Environmental degradation in China is now so severe that pollution now poses a major long-term burden on the Chinese public. Cancer has become China's leading cause of death due to the pollution and the air pollution alone is to be blame for hundreds of thousands of death in China every year. The fast growing economy the derives from a staggering expansion of heavy industry and urbanization that requires colossal inputs of energy, almost all from coal, the most readily available, and dirtiest, source. 
        
        For air quality, the major culprit is coal. China has  an abundant supplies of coal and burns more of it than the United States, Europe and Japan combined. 
   
        Heavy traffic and low-grade gasoline have also made vehicles the leading source of air pollution in major Chinese cities. In 2007, only 1 percent of China’s urban population of 560 million breathes air considered safe by the European Union, according to a World Bank study of Chinese pollution published in that year. 

         As China continues along its path of industrialization and urbanization, more and more of the available water will be rendered useless for drinking, irrigation, and hydro-power purposes. More and more water is being allocated to industrial and urban demand than ever before, and that leaves even less water to be used for domestic and agriculture. Also, as more water is being used for industry compared to domestic and agriculture, China’s dwindling water sources will become more heavily polluted as the industrialization is responsible for a great deal of pollution.

-Clarissa 

Sources: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.arlingtoninstitute.org/wbp/global-water-crisis/457