Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

Today is August 15 in Chinese lunar calendar, which is the second most important festival - Mid Autumn or Moon Festival (中秋节）after the Spring Festival in China, equivalent to Thanksgiving Day after Christmas Day in the United States, a day for family reunion (家人团圆）.

This year I made a special moon cake - Bing Pi Yue Bing (冰皮月饼）。

Close-up view of Icy Moon Cake (冰皮月饼).

冰皮月饼

 Close-up view of Powdery Moon Cake (粉皮月饼)

粉皮月饼

Enjoy the moon and enjoy the moon cake. Wish everyone the best for the year ahead.

Interested in the icy moon cake recipe? Stay tuned!

Happy Duan Wu Festival

Summer Flowers (Thunder Cat in the Background)

Summer is already here, the flowers in my garden are flourishing, and our cats Lyra and Thunder demand to be out playing everyday, several times a day.

Today, June 23, 2012, is the Fifth of May in Chinese lunar calendar, which is Duan Wu Festival, or the Dragon Boat Festival.

This is a day in memory of the legendary poet QU Yuan, who drowned himself in Mi-Luo River in a way to demonstrate his discontent of Chu King.

Now it is fun day to have dragon boat racing and eat Zong-zi.

Do you prepare your own Zong-zi or shop it from local Chinese grocery store?

Duan Wu Festival Zongzi

My Little World

Here is Einnob's weekly writing piece in Chinese: My Little World, her favorite place in the world.

我的小天地

人们一般都说自己的房间是他们的小天地，但是我可不一样。我的小天地是我们附近的图书馆。

你一进这个图书馆，就能闻到只有图书馆的书才有的香味。我每一次进图书馆都会深呼吸几次。那个香味会让你感到很舒服，很幸福。我很喜欢到图书馆，所以妈妈有时间就会带我们去。

图书馆里，我最喜欢的地方是青少年部。那边有很多好看的书，我每一次都会在那儿待好一会儿。我也喜欢儿童部。那里也有很多有趣的书，还有电脑。如果妈妈允许的话，我们就会玩一会儿电脑游戏。

我现在最喜欢的系列是猫武士。猫武士讲的是几群猫一起在森林里生活的故事。我喜欢在书架之间走来走去，浏览各种各样的书。很多次我都是这样找到有趣好看的书。
图书馆是我的小天地，那里不仅安静祥和，还可以看书增长见识，玩游戏开心，还有经典电影可借。图书馆真是个好地方!

2012 Shanghai SNIEC China Auto Parts and Service Show June 12-15

KingSource will be participating China Auto Parts and Service Show 2012 to present DOT Auto Parts in Shanghai. The big show will be held at Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC), 2345 Longyang Road, Pudong, Shanghai, from June 12th to 15th, 2012.


The exhibition will take place in SNIEC's new 70,000-square meter N-series pavilion equipped with the most comprehensive modern facilities. The event is expected to attract over 2,000 exhibitors from the auto parts, technical equipment, repair and maintenance and accessories sectors. More than 30,000 industry professionals from the domestic and foreign complete-vehicle OEM sector, auto 4S shops, auto repair, maintenance and refitting shops in the Chinese after market as well as wholesalers, agents and distributors of auto parts are expected to attend.

The show aims to leverage the unique position of Shanghai as China's trade hub and one of the world's key trade ports, creating a market-driven international and comprehensive exhibition platform, which provides players in the Chinese auto parts and related industries with access to the country's domestic brands, industry chain-wide services, technologies and trade.

XiYouJi ReadAloud - 中国古典小说《西游记》

Einnob's summer homework is to record her reading of Xi You Ji from Standford Chinese School Ma Liping's Chinese textbook.

Here you are:

XiYouJi ReadAloud - 中国古典小说《西游记》

Chapter 1 The Birth of Monkey King

I have to figure out how to upload a MP3 file. See you later.

Traditional Chinese Paper-Cut Art

Chinese traditional folk art - Paper-cut is all handmade in China, it can be used as an ornament on gates, windows, walls, columns, mirrors, lamps and lanterns.  It is still widely used in some modern festivals in China especially during the Spring Festival.  It is said that the paper-cut pasted on the entrance gate can bring good luck for the family. It can also be used as religious purposes.  The history of the paper-cut of China can be dated back to South-North Dynast, and it was popular at the middle period of Qing Dynasy.  Old paper-cut was cut by the countryside lady with the scissors.  Later, the paper-cut was developed by the city people, the paper-cut actors save time for purpose, they changed the paper-cut way (the scissors) into carving the paper with graver.  The style was very fine.  Although, people's standard of appreciation of the beautiful was very different, traditional folk art can’t fit the reality need. So modern paper-cut was produced instead of folk paper-cut.

Tea from China

Tea culture is everywhere in China. I used to drink jasmine flower tea before I went to the United States. When I took my family back to China after ten plus years, my hometown folks were drinking Iron Budda of Oolong tea, a partially fermented tea. Last time when we visited China again, my fellows are now drinking red tea, a fully fermented tea.

We also got the chance to drink one kind of herbal tea in Laoshan of Qingdao, Shandong Province, the place where the best Chinese beer is brewed. It is a plant picking from Laoshan and I bet it is organic. Guess what is it? Leave your guess in the comment, and I will let you know after I do some research on this.