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Classification of Chinese Dialects

Chinese consists of a number of dialect continuums. Variations in speech usually become far more pronounced as distances boost, with handful of radical breaks. Nonetheless, the degree of change in intelligibility varies immensely based on region. For instance, the varieties of Mandarin spoken in all three northeastern Chinese provinces are mutually intelligible, but in the province of Fujian, wher the use of the Min range is dominant, the same selecion has to become divided into no less than five distinct subdivisions because the subdivisions are all mutually unintelligible to one anther.
In the book, "The Middle kingdom: a survey of the … Chinese empire and its inhabitants …", published in 1848, the different varieties of Chinese had been described as "dialects", the book acknowledged that they were mutually unintelligible as well as the term "dialect" was utilized in a distinct sense than the western term, in which a dialect was merely indicative of a little distinction in pronunciation, while in China, the entire grammar and idiom had been distinct, the written language was what united the different Chinese dialects. The distinction between Mandarin and other Chinese "dialects" is simply comparable to that between English and its Germanic cousin languages (German, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, and so on.)
Mandarin (Common Chinese) is the dominant selection, far more widely studied than the rest. Outdoors of China, the only two varieties generally presented in formal courses are Mandarin and Cantonese. In China, second-language acquisition is normally achieved by means of immersion in the neighborhood language.

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24 Solar Terms：Winter Solstice冬至

Introduction
“Winter Solstice” falls between the periods of December 21 to December 23. One thisday, the day is the shortest and night is the longest in the year. After this day, manyplaces in China go through the coldest period, which is called in Chinese, “Shu Jiu”,meaning counting nine. In total, there are nine periods with nine days for each. In thefirst and second nine days, people keep their hands in pockets; in the third and fourthnine days, people can walk on ice; in the fifth and sixth nice days, people can seewillows along the river bank; in the seventh and eighth nine days, the swallow comesback and in the ninth nine days, the yak starts working. “Winter Solstice” is not only asolar term but an imp0rtant festival. People eat Jiaozi in north China and eat TangYuan, rice dumpling in south China.

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Chinese Kung Fu 中国功夫 – The Mechanics of the Physical Side of Kung Fu

Kung Fu knows many "schools" (men [門]), "families" (jia [家]), or "sects" (pai [派]), some of which are further subdivided into styles which, for example, mimic the movements of certain specific animals, follow a certain philosophical tradition, or follow a myth or legend. Some styles lean more toward Shaolin Kung Fu while others lean more toward Wudang Kung Fu. Those that lean more toward the latter aspect of Kung Fu tap into the same kind of meditative principles as governs qigong, meaning that the practitioner of Wudang Kung Fu is very acutely aware of being in contact with his qi.

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