ShangNing.net

12 Chinese Animals Outlook for 2012

ShangNing — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 06:08:54 +0000

Solar Term - winter solstice day

ShangNing — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:35:45 +0000

Winter solstice day (Dong Zhi). It is the mid-winter, after this solar term, the winter has gone a half, the spring will come back.

Customs - Not writting

2010 Winter Solstice day is on Dec 22th.
2011 Winter Solstice day is on Dec 22th.

24 Solar Terms:

Solar Term - start of spring day
Solar Term - rain water day
Solar Term - awakening of insects day
Solar Term - vernal equinox day
Solar Term - clear and bright day
Solar Term - grain rain day
Solar Term - start of summer day
Solar Term - grain full day
Solar Term - grain in ear day
Solar Term - summer solstice day
Solar Term - minor heat day
Solar Term - major heat day
Solar Term - start of autumn day
Solar Term - limit of heat day
Solar Term - white dew day
Solar Term - autumnal equinox day
Solar Term - cold dew day
Solar Term - frost descent day
Solar Term - start of winter day
Solar Term - minor snow day
Solar Term - major snow day
Solar Term - winter solstice day
Solar Term - minor cold day
Solar Term - major cold day

Solar Term - major snow day

ShangNing — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:34:10 +0000

Major snow day (Da Xue), the amount of snowfall become more and more, the snowstorm comes, always snowing heavily.

Customs - Not writting

2010 Major Snow day is on Dec 7th.
2011 Major Snow day is on Dec 7th.

24 Solar Terms:

Back from Ningxia and Show 20 Photos

ShangNing — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 11:49:17 +0000

I travelled with myself when I was a single man. But when I married, I always go travel with my wife. It is the 3rd times we travel togeither.

I think two person better than one person, because we could help each other on the way. This time, we went to Zhongwei city and Yinchuan city, these two cities belond to Ningxia province.

Our another 2 travel before are Nanjing and Tianjin. I think may be we should travelling out of China next time.

Here are 20 photos about our Ningxia travel. The other photos have not upload.

About Ningxia: Ningxia, formerly transliterated as Ningsia, is an autonomous region (Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region) of the People’s Republic of China. It is located in Northwest China, on the Loess Plateau, and the Yellow River flows through a vast area of its land. The Great Wall of China runs along its northeastern boundary. The region is the home of the Hui people, one of the 56 officially recognised Nationalities of China, and its capital is Yinchuan.

Zhongwei: Zhongwei’s main attraction is Gao Miao, a temple that has hosted Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist ceremonies. A bomb shelter was also built beneath the temple during the Cultural Revolution. It has since been converted into a rendition of the Buddhist hell.

Yinchuan: Yinchuan is the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China, and former capital of the Western Xia Empire of the Tanguts. It has an area of 4,467 km2 and a total population of 1.99 million. Its built up area is home to 1,290,170 inhabitants spread on 3 urban districts. The name of the city literally means “silver river”; the character for “river” is the same as that in Sichuan, but not as those in, for example, the Yellow River or Yangtze River.

4 Chinese Teas I Most Like

Wallet — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Fujian Tieguanyin

Tieguanyin is one of China’s top teas and synonymous with oolong tea. It stands head and shoulder above the rest of hundreds of different types of oolong tea. Guanyin in English means the Goddess of Mercy.

The tea was originally made in the Anxi County, Fujian Province in the 18th century. With precision, it is rolled into tightly knit granulated green balls with red spots and white frost. It has a unique taste with an orchid fragrance.

The legend behind the tea goes like this: A sincere Buddhist praying to the Goddess of Mercy daily. One night, he dreamed of a magic plant, which he discovered the next day. The tree sent out unique fragrance. Buddhists believed it was a gift from the Goddess of Mercy and called it Tieguanyin tea.

Xinyang Maojian

XinYang Maojian is a green tea produced in Xinyang City, Henan Province. It has a deep dark green color and straight thin leaves. Xinyang Maojian has a relatively shorter harvest due to the cooler climate in Henan and is best picked in the early spring.

It is treasured for its refreshing taste and pleasant aroma. In its legend, nine fairies of the heaven brought the tea down to the human race on the earth. When drinking the tea, you will see the image of nine dancing fairies in the vapor.

Dongting Biluochun

Dongting Biluochun is a famous green tea originally grown in the Dongting Mountains of Jiangsu Province. Biluochun’s English translation is Green Snail Spring due to its shape of tight spiral, resembling snail meat. It is renowned for its delicate appearance and floral aroma and fruity taste. The tea is harvested in early spring.

It is said that Dongting Biluochun tea plant was first found by a nun when she went for an outing in the spring. With a history of over 1,000 years, it was offered to emperors as the tribute during the Qing Dynasty (1636-1911).

West Lake Dragon Well Tea

The West Lake Dragon Well Tea is a variety of green tea from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. It is well-known worldwide and is highly praised for its green color, long-lasting elegant fragrance and mellow taste.

The tea has a recorded history of over 1,000 years, and was mentioned in the oldest tea book of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The tea is frequently offered to visiting heads of state, including the British Queen Elizabeth II and former US President Richard Nixon.

Solar Term - white dew day

ShangNing — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:40:27 +0000

White dew day (Bai Lu), because temperature become lower and lower, the small water balls will be appeared on the plants’ leaves in the morning. So this day named White Dew Day (Bai Lu).

Customs - People will drink BaiLu tea and BaiLu spirit in this solar term, but these two drinks uncommon today. In acient, there is another custom in Bailu day, cricket fighting, it also disappeared today. In modern, white dew is not important solar term, so people usually forget this day.

2011 White Dew day is on Sep 8th.
2012 White Dew day is on Sep 7th.

24 Solar Terms:

Crayon Shin-chan Cat

ShangNing — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:59:09 +0000

My wife update her blog these days, but I really busy, so I don’t have time to read them. Today afternoon, I open her blog and read the new posts. Suddenly, a funny photo make me laugh, this photo really funny.

The leading actor is our pet cat - todoar, I think todoar is handsome before. But today, I think todoar really like a cartoon player - Crayon Shinchan. OMG, I think I should remove the Photoshop from my wife’s computer.

By the way, todoar is a handsome Mr Cat, he like celery very much. How odd, a cat likes celery…

Upgrade My Blog From WordPress 2.7.1 to 3.2.1

ShangNing — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 11:19:22 +0000

Actually, my blog is http://shangning.net/blog/ and it still running under wordpress 2.7.1. I found wordpress is a good blog system but its upgrade speed is too fast to follow. When I open wordpress’ website today, I found the newest version is 3.2.1, I think my OLD blog is hard to upgrade to the new version.

Then I think the most safety method is re-install it, don’t do anything in the OLD system. This is a good idea I think. Then I installed wordpress 3.2.1 here and copy my blog data from the old database the the new.

It now looks nice and no problem. I think this is a temporary blog, when it runs stable, I will replace the old system to the new. Now, these two blogs are running in the time.

The New ShangNing Blog is here, and these two blogs’ content are same. That is a mirrow of this blog.

Solar Term - limit of heat day

ShangNing — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:20:23 +0000

Limit of heat day (Chu Shu), today means the heat day will be over, the high temperature days will be end.

Customs - Not writting

2011 Limit of Heat day is on Aug 23th.
2012 Limit of Heat day is on Aug 22th.

24 Solar Terms:

Half day tour on Beijing Botanical Garden

ShangNing — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 17:32:35 +0000

Half day tour on Beijing Botanical Garden

The 1st Author: vrans

First Publish Date: August 17th, 2011

There lots of rain durning this summer in Beijing, always cloudy day or raining day, the sun disappeared until August 16th. When sun come back, Vrans and ShangNing decide to have a rest. We went to Beijing Botanical Garden, it’s not far from our home.

Because not weekend, and the temperature is high, so few tourists there. Few tourists is comfortable, it’s not usually in Beijing. The pure summer and cicada’s song let we feel very nice.

Cao Xueqin is famous writer in China. A Dream of Red Mansions was written by him. This was the house of him.

Grass on ancient.

Mushroom on ancient. (PS: these 2 pictures were taken by Vrans. I really don’t know what she think about…)

There are 5 big ball on the plant. (PS: this picture was taken by me, I think it’s better than my wife’s, haha lol…)

We really like cats. I guess cats like we too. This cat likes our Tudoar and Gozi.

The Lion Symbol was designed with the Chinese style, I like Chinese styles and symbols, it’s cool.

Mantis, green mantis looks like a part of tree.

Cicada, I can’t sure the word is right. In Beijing, people named it ‘Zhi Liao’ or ‘Fu Tian’, means the worm of summer.

Leaves, that day really a sun day, the sun light really enough.

This plant is really amazing, it looks like a green flower, we never see it before, and we don’t know its name. When we came back, we started google it, and found it named hosta.

Hosta Plantaginea Aschers, I think wikipedia or EOL are good way to study about it.

Unknown flowers. I dont care, I know it is beatiful, it’s enought for me.

There are many flowers, but no namecard. I like this picture, because this was taken by a tip.

Sedum spectabile Boreau.

The lotus bud. Maybe next month is good time to tour there again.

……

Through the crack, we could see the blue sky.

Wow, yahoo! (PS: my wife is good at sport)

And last, thanks the sunshine, grass and bluesky.