Culture Companion

   之二 （4）北京美食

北京不仅有许多名胜古迹和优美的风景，它还有很多诱人的美食。这些美食历史悠久、名扬天下。这次我有幸品尝了其中的一些， 如北京烤鸭和涮羊肉等。

便宜坊烤鸭

便宜坊烤鸭店是北京著名的“中华老字号”饭庄，创业于明朝永乐十四年（公元1416年），至今已有600年的历史。

便宜坊的烤鸭外酥里嫩，口味鲜美，享有盛誉。因焖炉烤鸭在烤制过程中不见明火，所以被现代人称为“绿色烤鸭”。

铜锅涮羊肉

在北京，提起“涮羊肉”，尽人皆知。因为这道佳肴吃法简便、味道鲜美，所以深受欢迎。又因老北京用铜锅烹饪羊肉为主固亦称“吃锅子”“涮大羊”。涮羊肉起源于元代。
涮羊肉锅子，为岁寒时最普通之美味，须于羊肉馆食之。此等吃法，乃北方游牧遗风加以研究进化，而成为特别风味。

北京小吃

除了北京烤鸭和涮羊肉之外，北京还有许许多多的小吃街和数不清的小吃店。这些小摊子里的东西琳琅满目：冰糖葫芦、昆虫串、烤肉，还有各种各样的甜品。真是千奇百态、丰富多彩！

北京的美食真的是味道不错、名不虚传，让我留恋往返。只可惜旅程太短，还有很多美食之能留到下一次来北京时再品尝了。

Part 2 (4) Beijing Food

Not only does Beijing have historical relics and amazing sights, it also has all sorts of delicious foods. I’m lucky to have tasted some of them, e.g: Peking Duck and Mongolian hot pot.

Bianyifang Peking Duck

Bianyifang restaurant is one of the old Chinese restaurants. It started trading in 1416. It’s about 600 years old.

Bianyifang’s Peking Duck is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. You can’t see the fire in the cooking method used to cook the duck in Bianyifang so modern people call it “the green duck”

Mongolian Hot Pot

In Beijing, everybody knows the term Mongolian Hot Pot. Everyone likes it because it’s easy to make and delicious to the taste. The Beijing people cook their lamb in a bronze pot. This cuisine originated in the Yuan Dynasty, when the Mongols ruled China. It’s most delicious in the cold seasons and it’s even more tasty is you go to a shop that sells this meal especially.

Other Cuisines

There are loads of other small eats aside from the the Peking Duck and the Mongolian Hot Pot. Food streets are common in Beijing. The shops there sold sugar hawthorn, insect rolls, roast meat and countless desserts. It’s really abundant and tasty.

Beijing cuisine is very tasty and I love it very much. Unfortunately, the trip was short and there are a lot of foods that I haven’t tasted yet. Well, I can only taste it next time.

之二 （3）故宫

走过金水桥，穿过天安门城楼，我终于来到了向往已久的故宫。

故宫是中国明清两代的皇家宫殿，旧称紫禁城。它占地面积72万平方米，建筑面积约15万平方米，有大小宫殿七十多座，房屋九千余间。是世界上现存规模最大、保存最为完整的木质结构古建筑群之一。

故宫开建于1406年，到1420年才建好。它南北长961米，东西宽753米，四面围有高10米的城墙，城外有宽52米的护城河。故宫主要有外朝和内廷两个部分，外朝主要是三大殿，太和殿、中和殿和保和殿，是皇帝会见大臣、国家举行重大典礼的地方。内廷的中心是乾清宫、交泰殿和坤宁宫，这些是皇帝皇后的寝宫。

北京故宫被誉为世界五大宫之首（北京故宫、法国凡尔赛宫、英国白金汉宫、美国白宫、俄罗斯克里姆林宫），它在1987年被列为世界文化遗产。

北京故宫博物院建立于1925年10月10日，位于北京故宫紫禁城内。是在明朝、清朝两代皇宫及其收藏的基础上建立起来的中国综合性博物馆，也是中国最大的古代文化艺术博物馆，其文物收藏主要来源于清代宫中旧藏。

故宫的游览，加深了我对明清历史的了解。故宫庄严雄伟的建筑和劳动人民的智慧给我留下了深刻的印象。

Part 2 (3) The Forbidden City

Over the Golden Water Bridge and through the Tian’anmen Rostrum. I’m finally in the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City was the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It takes up 720,000 square metres of land. The area of the buildings is roughly 150,000 square metres. There are about 70 palaces and halls in the Forbidden City, and there are about 9,000 houses. It’s the biggest, most well preserved wooden buildings in the world.

The construction of the Forbidden City started at 1406 and ended at 1420. It’s 753m in length and 961m in width. Walls that are ten metres high surrounded the city as well as a 52-metre-wide moat. The outer and inner dynasties are the two parts of the Forbidden City. The outer dynasty is the part which the emperor meets his officials and conduct important rituals. It’s mainly consisted of the Hall Of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Central Harmony and Hall of Long-lasting Harmony. The inner dynasty is where the emperor and the empress works and sleeps. The centre of this part of the Forbidden City is the Palace Of Earthly Tranquility , the Palace Of Heavenly Purity and the Palace Of Connecting Grace.

The Forbidden City is first on the list of The Five Palaces Of the World. It’s added to the Historic Relics list in 1987.

The Imperial Palace Museum is located in the Forbidden City. It consists of the collections of treasures in the Ming and Qing Dynasty. It’s the biggest art museum in China. Most of these treasures and arts comes from the Qing Dynasty.

The visit to the Forbidden City that I’ve made deepened my understanding of the Ming and Qing Dynasty. The displays were truly beautiful and spectacular.

之二 （2）长城

长城是世界上建造时间最长、工程量最大的军事防御工程，它是世界七大奇观之一。长城的修筑最早起源于2000多年前的西周时期。秦始皇灭了六国、统一天下以后，大兴土木、修缮和连接了早期和战国的长城，使当时的长城达到了10000多公里。500年以前的明朝是最后一个大规模修建长城的朝代，共修建了8800多公里的明长城。加上其他朝代陆陆续续修建的长城，使得长城的总长度达到了21000多公里。

当我登上长城，举目远眺，那时少数民族侵略中原时的战争场景仿佛就在我眼前浮现……

Part 2 (2) The Great Wall

The Great Wall is the longest-building defensive military project in the world. It’s also the biggest on the quantity of work put into building the wall. The construction of the Great Wall started more than 2000 years ago, in the Zhou Dynasty. After the first emperor, Emperor Yin Zhen of the Qin Dynasty took over all of China, he started building and connecting the Great Wall beforehand. At that time, the Great Wall was over 10000 kilometres long. The last dynasty which made major changes to the Great Wall was the Ming Dynasty, about 500 years from now. There is about 8800 kilometres of the Great Wall built in the Ming Dynasty’s rule. Adding up all the parts of the wall built in other dynasties and kingdoms, the Great Wall is about 21000 kilometres in total.

Climbing on the Great Wall, I can imagine the war scenes long ago with the northerners invading the central part of China.

之二（1）天安门广场

天安门广场是世界上最大的广场，有44万平方米，竟然可容纳100万人举行盛大的集会！许多重大的仪式和活动都是在这里举行的，比如阅兵仪式，升国旗仪式等等。我漫步在天安门广场上，心情无比激动。我终于实现了我多年来的梦想，来到了这里，亲眼目睹了天安门广场的雄伟和壮观。

Part 2 (1) Tian An Men Square

Tian An Men Square is the biggest square in the world. It’s 440,000 square metres. It even can fit 100,000,0 people holding an assembly! Loads of important ceremonies are held here. Such as the annual marching of the troops and the daily raising of the flags. When I walked on Tian An Men Square, I was ecstatic. I’m finally at the place I wanted to be since I was a little kid. It’s truly beautiful and spectacular.

之二：北京之旅

  经过一天地休息，我们又登上了从杭州开往北京的高铁。北京是我们祖国的首都和文化、政治中心，有很多名胜古迹。特别是天安门、故宫、长城等等，都是我多年以来梦寐以求想要去的地方。

  高铁真漂亮啊！像一条白色的长龙飞向远方。车厢内环境舒适，一排排座椅干净、整洁。显视屏上不断地显示出高铁的行进速度，最高时速竟然达到每小时三百多公里！经过五个多小时的行驶，我们终于到达了北京。

Part 2: Going To Beijing 

After a day’s rest, we got on the hi-speed train that went from Hangzhou to d Beijing. Beijing is the capital city, cultural and political centre of China. There are a lot of historical sites and relics. Especially Tian An Men Square, the Imperial Palace Museum, the Great Wall and more. I’ve always wanted to go to Beijing, even since I was little.

The hi-speed train was beautiful. It’s like a white dragon stretching into the distance. It’s very comfortable inside the train, the seats are clean and tidy. The  small screen shows us how fast the train is travelling. Sometimes it’s over 300km/h! After five hours of travelling, we finally arrived at Beijing.

之一：在回杭州的旅途上

从珀斯到杭州要飞很长时间，中间还要在香港机场转机、停留四个多小时。特别对我这种会晕机、又不喜欢吃飞机餐的人来说，就特别难熬。当我在香港机场下飞机的时候，已经头昏脑胀、非常想吐了……。经过一段时间的休息后，我才慢慢地恢复过来，也有点想吃东西了。我们在一家拉面店坐了下来，我点了一碗豚骨拉面。这是我第一次吃正宗的日本拉面，感觉味道真的很不错，我一口气把它都吃完了。

中午十二点左右，我们登上了飞往杭州的飞机。我本想在飞机上玩玩游戏、看看电视什么的，可是还是忍不住睡着了。直到飞机在杭州机场降落的时候，爸妈才把我给叫醒……。终于回到杭州了，我非常高兴、激动，也总算可以见到奶奶了。

Part 1: The trip back to Hangzhou

It takes a long time to fly from Perth over to China, and you have to transfer at Hong Kong Airport as well as wait about 4 hours there. I’m airsick and DO NOT LIKE the food on the plane so the trip is especially painful for me. So when I got down from the plane at Hong Kong Airport, I was felling really sick and want to vomit. After a period of rest, I finally recovered and I became hungry. For lunch, we ate at a Japanese Ramen restaurant. I chose the pork ramen with the really delicious soup. It’s my first time eating ramen of any kind. It was great and I ate all of it.

At about 12pm we boarded the plane that will fly from HK to Hangzhou. I was planning on playing games and watching TVon the plane but I was so sleepy that I dosed off. My parents woke me up when the plane was descending in Hangzhou airport.

I’m finally back to Hangzhou. I was so happy and exited. I can finally see grandma again.

Hello Miss Chatto and Mrs Lockyer, we all know that Chinese food is delicious. Have you eaten them before? If you have, name some Chinese dishes for me.

Fun fact: Lots of Chinese dishes actually have a historical story behind them.

Hello Mrs Lockyer, I have heard that you went to lots of places and know a lot about cultures. Here’s a HARD question about the Chinese culture:

What are the four great inventions of ancient China?

Hint: You use one these almost everyday in teaching.

Hello Miss Chatto, here are some easy questions about China that you might be interested in:

1. What is the longest river in China called?
2. Where does the longest river in China come in the list of the longest rivers in the world? 3rd, 5th, or 10th?