Category: Chinese customs

It has been being widely accepted in China that tea is a good drink for preserving one's health. Researched found that the catechuic acid, cholestenone, caffeine, inositol, folic acid, pantothenic acid that tea contains can work together to prevent and restrain adiposity, and many examples have proved that drinking tea, gargling or brushing one's teeth with tea, or chewing tea-leaves are effective with problems of saprodontia and bromopnea. Also, clinical experiments discovery that people who drank three bowls of Tuo tea (a bowl-shaped compressed mass of tea leaves) had a decline of 13% in their blood fat, and their cholesterols were decreased, too. The following table is the main medical effects of green tea, black tea, white tea, and scented tea commonly accepted in China as well as some medical research results (for your reference).

Comprising teacup, teapot, teabowl, saucer, teaboard and some other supporting assistances, Chinese people have expanded the original function of tea set as kitchen ware into exquisite art field. Demarcated by manufacturing material and producing area, Chinese tea set can be generally distinguished as figuline ones, porcelain ones, lacquer ones, glass ones, metal ones, bamboo and other wooden ones, among all of which the red enameled pottery ones are commonly considered as a perfect one for tea making.

Generally, giant pandas can be seen in municipalities, most of provincial capitals and some top tourist cities in China, e.g. Shanghai Zoo, Chongqing Zoo, Chongqing Wildlife Park, Jinan Zoo (Shandong Province), Guangzhou Zoo & Guangzhou Xiangjiang Wildlife Park & Guangzhou Changlong Wildlife Park (Guangdong Province), Hangzhou Zoo & Hangzhou Wildlife Park (Zhejiang Province), and zoos in Taiyuan, Changsha, Wuhan, Nanning, Guilin, Shijiazhuang, Fuzhou, etc. Among all of the zoos or parks allowing to visit pandas, Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu Zoo and Beijing Zoo are the best ones for tourists to visit.

After the founding of People’s Republic of China in 1949, giant pandas used to be sent abroad in three ways: national gift, commercial exhibition, and scientific communication and cooperation. After 1982, the first two ways were canceled and now pandas go abroad for scientific purposes only. As below are the files of the 28 giant pandas living overseas according to Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding:

Strictly speaking, in Chinese "pandas" refer to giant pandas (Latin name: Ailuropoda melanoleuca, Chinese name: 大熊猫) and lesser pandas or red pandas (Latin name: Ailurus fulgens, Chinese name: 小熊猫, 红熊猫), both of which are nearly extinct. But when people mention "panda", they usually mean giant pandas, which are of ursidae; while lesser pandas that share a familiar Chinese name with giant pandas in Chinese are of raccoon, living in Sichuan Province of China and some southern Asian areas. Just as its another name "red panda" indicates, lesser panda gets the names because of its dark red hairs and smaller size.

An adult giant panda is normally 120-190 cm in height and 85-125 kg in weight. Distinguishing from other six ursidae animals, pandas do not hibernate as well as sun bears do.

The most part of the hairs of a giant panda is white and the hairs covering its ears, eye sockets, shoulders and the four limbs are contrastively black. But so far, another two kinds of giant pandas with different hair colors have been discovered: the brown and white ones, and the white ones.

The first discovery of brown and white giant panda was in 1985 on a hirst near a bamboo forest of Shaanxi Foping Natural Reserve, which is at an elevation of 1200 meters. The panda was extremely weak when it was found. By studious rescue, this 13-year-old and over 60 kg panda got out of morbid danger and was kept in Xi’an Zoo with the name of Dandan (丹丹). After that, three adult and one cub brown and white pandas were respectively seen in the reserve in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 2009. With brown hairs covered on ears, eye sockets, eyelashes, shoulders and the four limbs, brown and white pandas are hailed as “the most beautiful pandas in the world” by experts on panda research from Beijing University.

According to a record by Shaanxi People’s Publishing House, white giant panda was discovered for the first time in 1990 in the same reserve. The panda was 70 cm in height, with white hairs covered most of the part of its body except its eye sockets and legs. The unique appearance of it brought it the praise of “treasure among treasures”. Similarly, several white pandas were found in the reserve in 1991, 1992 and 2008 respectively.