Today I'd like to make an introduction of Huabiao. Huabiao, as something typical Chinese, is actually an ornamental or symbolic column erected in front of palaces, bridges, city gates, tombs or other places. They used to be made of wood, hence their other name–Huabiaomu. They were difficult to preserve, however, and the Haubiao we see today are mostly made of marble.
Category: Chinese customs
Poem of the classics
1. 山明水净夜来霜，数树深红出浅黄。 The water is clear and the mountain is bright, The frost comes in at night; Trees are covered with deep scarlet leaves Mixed with yellow that is light.
Pigeon Egg-shaped Sweet Dumpling
Ingredients:
500 grams (1.1 lb) glutinous rice flour
250 grams (0.55 lb) sugar
1 gram (1/5 tsp) mint flavoring
2 grams (1/2 tsp) sweetened osmanthus sauce
Directions:
Bookish Dreams
In the small tourist town of Yangshuo, Guangxi, a crowd meandered into a cement structure more akin to a tool shed than a house. They were dressed comfortably: some with necklaces and bracelets, some with tattoos, but all came with a book. This was the opening party for the southern town’s first independent bookstore, One Book Shop.
China’s Crime: By the Numbers
Court statistics revealed in a work report at a recent People’s Congress event are, at first glance, as dry as you would expect from one of China’s least interesting meetings.
China Drinks Its Milk
Forget the slowing economy. Fake news is “the biggest source of harm” to his business, according to beverage tycoon Song Qinghou.
Top Product Scandals of 2017 (So Far)
If the Spring Festival Gala is CCTV’s annual celebration of everything glittery and harmonious in the motherland, the “315 Gala” would be its evil twin. For 26 years, this TV spectacle has been exposing misconducts of Chinese business world on the evening of March 15, also known as World Consumer Rights Day. Local governments and law enforcement usually follow up the very next day by investigating and cracking downs on the unlucky companies and brands on the show—if only reality shows were this satisfying.
Foreign Presence
Foreign journalists have often had a tumultuous relationship with China’s Two Sessions government meetings. Arguably the biggest event on China’s annual political calendar, questions are vetted and approved before they can be asked.
Macau About That?
Peering through the ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral, an iconic facade that justifiably serves as one of Macau’s most instantly recognizable tourist attractions, you can, if you position yourself just right, catch a profound glimpse of the “real” Macau. Framed by one of St. Paul’s stone doorways, the city’s skyscrapers glimmer alluringly in the distance, a striking juxtaposition that neatly summarizes the core appeal of this former Portuguese colony. In Macau, you see, the sacred rub shoulders with the sinful, the high-brow walk hand in hand with the low, and the city’s intoxicating mix of Mediterranean mystique and Pearl River Delta divinity is unforgettable.
The Left-Behind Village
Mae Salong sits along a winding mountain road in Northern Thailand. The village is in an isolated valley, the hillsides lined with terraced fields. Thirty years ago it would have been nearly inaccessible. Today, a paved road deposits tourists at a market at a crossroads not far from the town center. Some come for the tea, others for the scenery, but most are here to experience a cultural anomaly: A lost colony of Chinese soldiers from a forgotten war.
Malay 
English 
French 
German 
Thai 
Vietnamese 
Myanmar