Elementary - Hungry Traveler: Hangzhou

xinjiapo2703, that's a good question.  I can't speak for worldwide frequency.  However, I think all three terms are widely used.  That said, I seem to hear the first two more commonly in conversation.

In U.S. overseas communities, cāntīng/餐厅 is widely used on signs/ads.

你也会做东坡肉！

Bill

Xihu suyu shi hao shang a! 

I'm definitely considering making HangZhou 杭州 a part of my China trip next year. Apparently it's quite easy to make a day-trip of it and return to Shanghai at the end of the day.

When I see these type of geographical based lessons, I often wonder where the place is. In the lesson you say it is near Shanghai, so here is a map showing the promixity.

light487,

When my parents visited China for the first time in 2007, I had them see only three cities: Shanghai, Beijing, and Hangzhou. True, there are more exotic places they could have visited, but they wanted a more relaxing trip, and Hangzhou is definitely slow-paced (plus it's so convenient to get there from Shanghai).

I highly recommend Hangzhou (my home for 3.5 years)!

.

The Chinese Character of 2008 … 殇 (premature mortality)

Sorry, it's completely off-topic. “殇” (shang1) was selected as “The Chinese Character of 2008” here in China on December 25. This less commonly used character means “premature mortality”, and it indicates the numerous children who mainly died at collapsed schools in the Sichuan Earthquake this year, and most Chinese people attribute the tragedy to shoddy school construction and local governments. I would like to show much respect to the “heartbreaking” character selected by Chinese people.

Selecting “The Chinese Character (Kanji) of the Year” started in Japan in 1995, when “震” (zhen4, shake) was chosen because of the severe earthquake in the year that hit the Kobe area and took the lives of more than six thousand people. Recently China and Taiwan also began to select the 汉字 of the year, although the events in those countries are not as popular as that in Japan. For the record, the Kanji of 2008 in Japan is “变” (bian4, change), and Taiwan “乱” (luan4, mess), which is very understandable.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji_of_the_year

http://www.china.com.cn/news/txt/2008-12/25/content_17006600.htm

I remember seeing adds on the Chinese TV saying that Hangzhou was the most beautiful place in China, (not sure if that's true) But it is gorgeous!!

@ qingdaossadventuresdotcom

You'll be able to keep all your old content, but will not be able to access new content.

Happy Holidays! :)

Portraits of Su DongPo:

One of his poems:

Shui Diao Ge Tuo
By Mr. Su Dong Po (Mr. Su Si) , Song Dynasty
Translated by Laijon Liu

O bright moon, how often do you appear?
I held up the wine cup and asked the gray sky.
Tonight, in heaven's palace,
what is the time and year?

I would ride the wind to go back there,
But I’m afraid of its marble mansions, jade eaves,
That they are too high and too chill.
So I rise and dance, and my shadow swings,
How is this human world compare with yours?

Your circling rosy chambers;
Your lowly curtained gates;
Shine upon the sleepless ones.
And I should not have any complaints,
But why do you shine your fullness in departure times?

Life meet griefs and joys, in departure and reunion;
Moon circles in clouds and fine, in fullness and wanings;
Such things never suit our desire since ancient time.
But I still wish that lovers may live a long life,
And share their grace even if a thousand miles apart.

His calligraphy:

and a wikipedia article here.

Bababardwan

Those were nice photos of the West Lake. One reminded me of this one I took last year.  The good news for my wife and me is that we will stay in Hangzhou for 3 months this spring. I look forward to the good food also.

svik,

Thanks.They weren't hard to find.Wow.You took that photo yourself ! Very nice.I love the interesting subject in the foreground contrasted against the misty [almost mystical ] background.Yeah;it looks like the same boat as in the first photo I posted.Lucky man;I'd love to be going there myself.Have fun mate in 杭州西湖 :)

有一句话说：

上有天堂，下有苏杭。

Shàng yǒu tiāntáng, xià yǒu Sū Háng.

“苏杭” 就是苏州(Sūzhōu)和杭州(Hángzhōu)。它们跟天堂一样美。

In addition to the Connie's post above, it's also worth noting that there is a saying "上有政策，下有对策", which represents one of the most characteristic ways of thinking in China.

长夜老师您好！

试试这个：

"上有老 下有小"

每次遇到朋友向我借钱 当我推辞他时

他总会说：救救我吧！我上有老 下有小嘛！

All roads lead to Rome

tiáo tiáo dà lù tōng luó mǎ

条条大路通罗马

Hi wchan,

It seems that "上有老下有小的一代" is also called "三明治一代" （sandwich generation） in China. I must say that I also belong to the sandwich generation, but maybe sandwhich is better than big mac (巨无霸, ju4 wu2 ba4). I hope so! 

Incidentally, there is also an interesting Chinese chengyu I sometimes use. It's "比上不足，比下有余" (bi3 shang4 bu4 zu2, bi3 xia4 you3 yu2). It means "to fall short of the best, but be better than the worst". 应该知足了, 哈哈！

长夜老师您好！

我们同意你的想法 其实三明治馅就是精华。

还有

昨天你提及"失败是成功之母"

孙中山先生当年走革命时也有以下一句：

"华侨是革命之母"

陈博士

Things I learned about U.S. celebrities from this lesson:

1. Audrey Hepburn was xiang.

2. Sammy Davis, Jr. was a latter-day Su Dong-Po. (Not to mention a good person to name-check on Hanukah.)

changye says:
In addition to the Connie's post above, it's also worth noting that there is a saying "上有政策，下有对策", which represents one of the most characteristic ways of thinking in China.

Haha.. this made me laugh out loud when I worked what it meant. :)

Hi everett,

You can use "拍" for both video recording and photographing, like 拍电影，拍录像，拍照片。

@Bill

seems dōngpōròu would be great for the arteries.

but looks delicious.

thanks for the video

These lessons always make me hungry.  There is a dish I've had several times called mei cai kou rou (美菜扣肉, I think, or "beatiful vegetables covered by meat").  The meat portion seems to be the same as the dongporou.

Once you get past the idea that you are eating what is essentially a braised slab of bacon, it is extremely delicious.  Or maybe comparing to bacon should help us westerners?

The lesson dialogue immediately made sense to me once I realized that the Hungry Traveler had a dinner companion.  I thought it was the fuwuyan and him carrying on a conversation initially, and none of it made sense.  Maybe I don't distinguish voices well, or maybe telling us at the intro that there are three people speaking would help.

I completely agree with Inland : I often get completely lost in the voices. Specially the last "Lao Wang" episode (without Lao Wang), I think there's only one actor there, right ?

It would greatly help if you could choose more different voices...

About food now, we've been to Hangzhou this week-end, and I must say that we tried the 3 specialties and it's pretty good, but I would never trade a Xihucuyu against a kaoyu in Huairou ! :o)

Anyway, Hangzhou = +++. Clean, neat, charming city, and amazing mountains.

I worked for one year in Suzhou.  I ate many times in restraunts overlooking Xihu.  I even walked around it a couple of times.  It has been four years since then, and I believe that even though I do like Shenzhen, that was the best time of my working life from the standpoint of being in an area I really loved.  I miss it very much.

We just returned from Hangzhou and this podcast served us well.

One note, we went through so many toothpicks after the Dongporou!

From the expansion we have the Chinese for the famous last words[这个花一点也不香] before the oldest trick in the book:

From this site,we have the following interesting article:

"China's Queen of Teas

LongJing (Dragon Well) Tea

LongJing or Dragon Well Tea is considered the National Tea of China, and for good reason. It is famous not only for its delicate flavor, but for the legends surrounding it. It is also has the most complicated and time consuming processing of any Chinese tea. Due to these reasons it has also become one of the most expensive teas in China. Last year in Hangzhou a man paid over $14,000 for just 200 grams of Dragon Well Tea. This is an extreme example, but it show how much Dragon Well Tea is respected in China.

Dragon well Tea received its name from a small village located on Phoenix Mountain in Hangzhou. It has been documented that since the Three Kingdoms Period (221-280) residents of this village believed that a dragon lived in the village well and controlled the rainfall. Because of this people would travel to this well to pray for rain. It has also been said that Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) made a point of visiting the village to have a cup of the local tea. During one of his visits to the village, Emperor Qianlong was picking tea. While he was picking the tender tea shoots he received work that his mother the Empress Dowager was seriously ill, and he was requested to immediately return to Beijing. Upon receiving this information Emperor Qianlong put the new tea shoots in his sleeve, and immediately sped back to the capitol.  Upon his return, the Empress Dowager recovered considerably.  While talking to her son, she smelled a beautiful aroma coming from his sleeve. She asked what it was and Emperor Qianlong removed the now dry tea leaves and had them brewed for his mother. Upon drinking the tea her health was completely restored. Overjoyed by the Empress Dowagers recovery he designated 18 of the village's teas as producers of "Imperial Tea". This ensured Dragon Well Tea's reputation, and the tea trees which are still alive have turned the village into a major tourist destination for tea lovers.

The original Dragon Well tea came from Lion Peak Mountain in West Lake (XiHu). Due to its popularity it is now cultivated throughout China. Today any tea that is produced using the same technique is called Longjing."

The above long jing cha is not to be confused with jing cha 警察:

Has anyone tried this long jing cha?

Chevy Chase in Chinese vacation:

你可以帮我们拍一张照片儿吗？

Hi bababardwan

How did you come across the official mascots of Chinese Internet Police? Initially I thought it was a bad joke when I saw those uncool characters for the first time a few years ago.

changye,

Ah,I plead ignorance.Pray tell more.I was just looking for a pic of police going by the name of jing cha to get Chinese police,and these looked like ones that would stick in my memory because of the cartoony nature and the fact that I thought it was making a bit of a pun of their name and the name of the dance,namely cha cha.But yeah,please tell me the significance.

bababardwan,

you asked if anyone has tried the long jing. Yes, this is the only tea I drink. I picked it out during a taste test in China several years ago and have found none better since. I buy some every time I return to China and I drink it every day. I recommend it highly. Its coffee for breakfast and green tea for lunch. My work mates dont share my enthusiasm for green tea however, they feel tea should come in "bags" and belongs in the cup of some limp wristed British chap. Fine, more for me. My wrists are strong and I love my tea.

RJ,

Thanks for that mate.I can't wait to try it [even though I'm usually not a tea drinker,I do like the when in Rome philosophy].I'm glad to hear you're a大腕

it sounds so totally cliché, but my friend the coffee-dependent fell in love with longjing (and all 中国茶) on a day trip to Hangzhou, at a teahouse by the 西湖.  since that eye-opening pot of tea she started studying to become some kind of 中国茶-sommelier or concierge or whatever they call it, so i persuaded her to start taking Chinese classes.  actually this is kind of a common way for Japanese women to find themselves taking up Chinese.  longjing is very popular in Japan. we love green teas anyway, and the longjing seems to suit our palate (and the water here?) particularly well.

Hi bababardwan

Here is a Wiki article on Jingjing and Chacha.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingjing_and_Chacha

Hi zhenlijiang

I enjoyed a wonderful Chinese tea ceremony here in China a few years ago. Japanese tea ceremony (茶道, sado) is kind of a "spiritual" art (and rather costly), but Chinese one is a lot more entertaining! Here is a video of 中国茶道, where foreign guys are enjoying a tea ceremony with a nice Chinese female performer who explains a tea manner in English.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxXgY50FPy8

hi changye

we sat at a 功夫茶 (also 工夫茶) gōngfuchá like that, in Shanghai's 新天地 Xīntiāndì area. our 茶芸師 (this is the Japanese term, don't remember the term in Chinese) was a bit older and really elegant.

as you know, another really enjoyable place to watch tea being prepared is the tea markets. at a market in Shanghai we walked all over until we found a nice-looking vendor from 福建 we liked, then sat the whole afternoon watching her do all those things with the paraphernalia, tasting a dozen different teas including 3-4 kinds of longjing, then haggling with her in our beginner's Chinese, sort of like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGDRw10iV1k

the Japanese 茶の湯 (cha-no-yu) has always been esoteric and intimidating to the outsider but there's been an effort to make it more accessible and it's enjoying a quiet boom in recent years; i think it's a by-effect of the 中国茶 boom. i have yet to sit in 茶の湯 myself, but understand it is the quintessential package of Japanese design--nature experienced within the architecture and interiors, symmetry, flow of time, expression of season, relationship among the participants even.

Hi zhenlijiang

The word 茶艺师 is also used in Chinese in the same sense as that in Japanese. Actually, the Japanese word 茶芸師, which exclusively indicates a Chinese tea ceremony performer in Japan, is an imported word from China.

For the record, the traditional form of 艺 (yi4) is 藝 (yi4) in Chinese. 芸 is pronounced as "yun2" and doesn't mean "art" in Chinese, unlike Japanese 芸. In short, the traditional character 藝 was simplified as 艺 in China, and 芸 in Japan.

Honestly, I know almost nothing about Japanese tea culture. I had my first and last experience of a tea ceremogy at a high school festival more than three decades ago. My main purpose was .... eating a traditional Japanese cake served at the ceremony, haha.

I went to Hangzhou last summer for 汉语桥 and after tasting that delicious 龙井茶，I downed the remainder of my glass thinking it would wake me up a bit (I was tired, and it was hot). Then I heard my tour guide say "我们最地道的龙井茶会让失眠的休息好了". I was thinking tea has caffeine, I should be fine... then I passed out and had to be awakened by a friend. As embarrasing as that was I would go through it again. 我很想杭州， 很想西湖， 很想我的汉语桥朋友们... Matt C, you're included, of course... hell, I should say most of all. 北京 and 长沙, crazy times, eh?

Ni hao, if someone has time, can someone post the saying that Jenny mentioned right at the beginning of the podcast? It was really nice. Thanks!

Hi, if I want to say "My favorite movie", can I say:

Wǒ de zuì xǐhuan de diànyǐng

?

Thanks!

Hi Carlos

Connie's posted the saying ↑. Likening the beauty of Suzhou and Hangzhou on earth to heaven above.

For "my favorite movie", no de after wǒ:

我最喜欢的电影  wǒ zuì xǐhuan de diànyǐng

我最爱的电影  wǒ zuì ài de diànyǐng

I know I'm getting to this a bit late, but does anyone know the significance of 西湖藕粉 (West Lake lotus powder)?

@kdogg36

西湖藕粉 xīhú ǒufěn 

藕粉 is mixed with hot water to make a cheap snack particularly enjoyed by Hangzhou locals and visitors. (You can also buy the raw ingredient in the supermarkets around China and make it at home but I have never quite got the knack.)   It goes to a semi-liquid consistency, has a delicate aroma and is quite sweet.  Best enjoyed on a visit to 西湖 (West Lake); you will find it at any of dozens of little food outlets around the edge of the lake.    

xi hu ou fen is beneficial to stomach and blood.

杭州的河坊街（he2fang3jie1）很有名,有很多小吃……炸蝎子(Deepfried Scorpions)，你敢吃吗？

谢谢你们！我去杭州的时候尝尝这些东西! Thanks - I'll have to try all these things when I get to Hangzhou.  (Maybe not the scorpions.)