Chinese Terra Cotta

The Chinese Terra Cotta is treated as the 8th World Wonder. Although I had never been there, my husband and I are so fascinated by its greatness. We wish that we would be there one day.

I just read a Chinese newspaper about the thrid excavation which is about 24 years after the last one. The Chinese government hopes to have some mysteries solved through this event. They are:

1. The figurine of the general

2. Any variegated colored army

After traveling in Shaanxi, my mom bought me a book from the Terra Cotta museum (see the cover of the book). What impressed me was that a lot of them had color. It was the oxidation that made all of them look greyish. Hopefully, after 24 years of excavation, the technology is advance enough this time that the color can be preserved.

"HSBC" Bank

Have you ever heard of HSBC Bank? Did you wonder what "HSBC" Means? Do you know that this bank was founded and once headquarted in Hong Kong, my hometown?

You may be surprised this bank which claimed one of the largest in the world coming from a city about a little bit over 1,000 sq. km. (less than 400 sq. miles).

"HSBC" means The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

But why is "Shanghai" part of the name? This involved the history of China and Hong Kong.

Shanghai has been a prosperous city for years. When the communist came to China, many riches migrated to either Hong Kong or Taiwan.

For those decided to stay in Hong Kong back in the mid 1940s founded this bank. When China and Britain were negotiating the handover of Hong Kong to China, HSBC decided to move its headquarter to England.

Believe it or not, this is the story about this largest bank in the world and I am so proud of it coming from my hometown.

National Day

Oct 1 is the National Day in China and Hong Kong. Oct 10 is the National Day in Taiwan. Although there are a few days of difference, the purpose is pretty much the same. It is for the memory of the "Father of the Modern China", Sun Yat Sen, who ended the imperial rule of China.

Being a Chinese and major in Chinese History, I never agreed that he should be named as the "Father of the Modern China". Unlike George Washington, Sun had never been into any revolution. While his colleagues were fighting with their lives, he was somewhere else. Some may say that Sun was doing the negotiation, raising the fund and so forth.

To me, people like Wong Hing, one of the revolutionists at his time should be named.

Anyway, it is just Chinese history shared with you all.

More Olympic Beijing 2008

I watched the Opening Ceremony last weekend again without any interruptions from any company. This time I paid more attention to what the hosts said about different performances. I can understand that without a lot of Chinese cultural and historical background, it is very difficult to explain in details of some of the performances in the opening ceremony. (You can check out some of the highlights at http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/nbcencore/index,page)


There are some of them that I really want to bring up to your attention.


The theme of the whole ceremony was about the 4 Great Ancient Chinese inventions.
1. Compass - It was believed that it was even invented before there was any written historical record.
2. Paper
3. Gun powder - It was the invention of the taoists because they were the first chemists in the ancient China.
4. Printing - It was invented before the first printed Bible.


Do you remember those 2008 drummers? When they did the countdown from 10 onwards, did you see the Chinese numbers at the back together with the Roman in the front?


Before the moving boxes, there were a group of performers wearing a custome with bamboo scrolls on hands. People, especially the riches, wrote and copy their books on these scrolls before the invention of paper. And the custome was worn by the men during the Qin dynasty which was between 221 B.C. to 206B.C.

Now back to the moving boxes. I heard a lot of people impressed by these moving boxes. Did you pay attention to the top of each of them is a Chinese character? It was the symbol of the first invented printer.

These boxes formed the Chinese character of "Harmony" at least twice. It was 2 different styles which showed the evolution of the Chinese character from old to modern Chinese.

And then the Chinese National Anthem. This was the song composed and sung during the Chinese Communist Revolution. The main theme of it is to move forward.

After that, there were 56 children represening 56 different Chinese ethnic groups. Were you surprised? China is just like the United States that there are so many ethnic groups. Although we call all of them as Chinese, they do have their own customs. Most of these ethnic groups were not under the Chinese rule until the end of 17th century. Before that, China was about half of the current size.

Remember there were several sailors in blue riding a big ship in the sea (shown on the LCD on top of the stadium)? That was the prime time of the Chinese maritime history in Ming dynasty by appointing Zheng He (in 1405) as diplomat, explorer and fleet admiral.

Last but not least, the group of Tai Chi practicer. In any countries where there are Chinese, especially in Asia, you always see a group of people pracising Tai Chi in the morning. It was believed that it is very good to your health. It is like the slow motion of Kung Fu.

I am sure if you are interested in learning more about Chinese culture or not, you enjoyed watching the opening ceremony as much as I did.

Hong Kong Establishment Day

Today is the 4th of July. For some reasons, it reminds me the day Jul 1, 1997. It was the day that Hong Kong, my home, was hand over back to China. It was under the Bristish colonial rule for 99 years after the 2nd Opium War 1898.

After this war, the Treaty of Beijing was signed. Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula were ceded to the Britain. The New Territories, north of the Kowloon Peninsula, were leased to the British for 99 years. But when the Chinese and British started their discussion of the Handover, the British decided to give back the Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. The main reason was that the New Territories were not as advanced, urbanized and commercialized as the Hong Kong Island.

About 10 years before 1997, everybody in Hong Kong tried to find a way to immigrate to other countries, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, South Africa and the United States, because nobody knew what it would be like under the communist government rule. My family was one of them. These countries, especially Canada, made several billions of dollars because of the investment of these immigrants from Hong Kong. But we went back to Hong Kong in 1996. So far, everything goes great. Hong Kong still runs its government almost the same as it was under the British rule. We have a BIG financial support from China.

On the 4th of July, every county and/or town has its firework. I remembered that there were a lot of fireworks in 1997. When it comes to fireworks in Hong Kong, it is at least 20 times bigger in scale than anywhere else in the United States. And we had fireworks almost every 2 months that year.

Since 1997, Jul 1 is set as a public holiday to celebrate the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day.

Happy Jul 4th, everybody.