People work hard in China. On every side there is evidence that they have done so for thousands of years. The fruit vendor rearranging his produce after each sale to make an attractive display, the chatter of bargaining in the free markets, the groaning loads of coal, pipe, brick, and recycled cardboard in every sort of conveyance from the semi-trailer to the horse cart to the back of a man, all add to the background din of large machinery and hammers creating new towers to add to the Beijing sky. These are the sounds of today and they were the sounds of Beijing when the Ming dynasty rebuilt the city in its own image. |
History of Chinese Astronomy, Forbidden City, Qianmen and Dashila neighborhoods and shopping streets, White Cloud Temple, Baiyun Guan, Babaoshan the Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing at Qingming festival - all with historical notes. Beijing has been a foreign capital and a Chinese capital. Its history is as rich as that of China herself. |
Traditional culture includes the love of good food as well as art, calligraphy and acupuncture. Includes text links to further pictures. |
The streets are full of life: markets, shops, and people. Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, games in the park, even Olympic activities in 2008 show a city trying to maintain a sense of community under rapid expansion and change. Everything from the Beijing Zoo to the Chinese Yo-yo... |
The Great Wall was built over centuries and was both a cause and a result of the continuity of culture in China. Includes text links to further pictures. |
Climbing the Great Wall is a tradition in China. It is common to plan a vacation or a weekend around climbing a mountain or a visit to the Great Wall and the surrounding area. |
Called Chang'an during the early dynasties, Xi'an holds the heart of China. As the eastern end of the Silk Road, it was the power center which served to disseminate the knowledge and ideas brought in from beyond the western desserts. The rich farmland and rivers provided the fundamental agricultural support to successive dynasties. |
Called Chang'an during the early dynasties, Xi'an holds the heart of China. As the eastern end of the Silk Road, it was the power center which served to disseminate the knowledge and ideas brought in from beyond the western desserts. The rich farmland and rivers provided the fundamental agricultural support to successive dynasties. |
Xi'an, Terracotta Warriors, Tang Dynasty, markets, Wild Goose Pagoda and the Paleolithic...Han...Tang...Song...Qing at the Shaanxi History Museum. |
Shanghai grew with the expansion of trade with the west during the 1800s. By the 1930s it was famous and infamous as a cosmopolitan world city. Neighboring Suzhou remained a quiet river town, famed for its beautiful parks and landscape. |
The trip along the canal from Shanghai to Tongli in the Suzhou / Jiangnan region recreates history and reflects the dangers of modernization. Yu Yuan, the Yu Garden, shows us 500 years of Chinese history from the Ming Dynasty to the Small Dagger Society. |
A selection of recent titles (since the early 1980s), most are in English. Topical bibliographies include science, Hong Kong, economics, women, dynasties, and others. Bibliographies of dictionaries of various types include agriculture to medicine, Amoy to French to Tangut, and Chinese-English and English-Chinese. |
Addresses of selected publishers. Emphasis on U.S. publishers of materials which relate to psychology or China. |
Ting -- Chinese English Language Center. A database dictionary of basic words and sentences is coupled with study tools for learning Mandarin Chinese or English. Up to six different people say each entry -- women, men, fast, slow. The first step in learning a language is to listen. Ting makes it easy to listen again, and again, and again. Just click. One approach to language learning is to focus on related words which have strong associations. Topics include computers, weather, money, the four tones, practice with pinyin... |
FAQ -- How to see Chinese characters on Windows, Linux, and Apple platforms, how to hear the mp3 sound files, and suggestions for studying Chinese. Description of the basics of Ting - Chinese English Language Center. |
Ting is a dictionary database of basic vocabulary and sentences. You can search the dictionary in English, Chinese characters, or pinyin. If you can't type Chinese characters, you can copy them from the pages of Ting and enter them into the search box. You don't need to login to look things up, but you will need to have an account if you want to save your search results. |
Login or open a free account in Ting. With an account, you can choose sentences and words to study, get review sheets, flash cards and quizzes based on your words. If you want to try it out type demo in both the username and password boxes. |
A downloadable database of the vocabulary from the Reader Series (Beijing Language Institute) built with Paradox. |
Games and stories in English and Chinese to help build vocabulary, character recognition, pronunciation, and fun. |
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The names of the provinces or states appear as you move your mouse over the region. Click on the map to get more information and see the sound links. Play the sounds to hear proper pronunciation of place names. The gold sound icons link to Chinese speakers and the blue to English speakers. |
How to talk about money in China. Yuan, kuai, jiao -- what are they worth? |
Conversion Tables For Chinese RMB and US Dollars -- a gift for travelers. |
Teach in China -- a year, two years. Teach English to advanced students learning to use English in their professions. |
The University of Maine at Farmington's Exchange Program with Beijing Polytechnic University (BPU) offers students the opportunity to study Chinese and Chinese culture in China. It also affords them the on-campus opportunity to study Chinese up to the intermediate level. All courses are taught by a teacher from BPU. |
Notes concerning copyright, credits, making the pages... |
Come in, make yourselves at home. Use the guestbook to talk with one another, exchange information. |
Selected links to sites related to China or psychology. |
The University of Maine at Farmington |
Fred Brittain's images of China. |
If you are using Windows 98 and have installed the Chinese font pack from Microsoft, go to: In Netscape: View -> Character Set -> choose "Simplified Chinese (GB2312)." In Internet Explorer: View -> Encoding -> choose "Chinese Simplified (GB2312)." For more information click on "How to See Chinese Characters." |
Count from 1 to Quadrillion in Chinese. Multiply, count by two, three, and then play a game to see how fast you can count. You will need Flash 6 or better to view the Flash Movies. |
A reading by Bei Dao, March 1996. English translations provided in the Flash movies. You will need Flash 6 or better to view the Flash movies and Real Movie Player to see the video. |
Chinese bronzes from Yunnan Province dating to the Warring States through the Han periods. |
Stone Carving by Deng Jing Ren combines the arts of calligraphy, painting, sculpture, and miniaturization. The art of miniature calligraphy carved into stone goes back centuries. Calligraphers also used ivory, bone, and other soft materials to achieve even smaller characters. Stone carving is difficult because the stone has brittle layer characteristics. |
Selected Chinese paintings from the Tang through Qing Dynasties. |
Selected Chinese calligraphy from the Shang through Qing Dynasties. Examples of oracle bone, seal, official or clerical, cursive or grass and regular scripts from over 30 different artists. |
The prosperity of the Ming dynasty allowed a new focus on the home and on home decorating. Furniture rose to an art form. |
The history of the kite reaches back to beyond the Han Dynasty. The kite is both an art form and a sport in China today. Kites from Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing and Weifang artists were displayed in Beijing in 2008. A sampling of the exhibition is mixed with kites flying over Beijing's skies. |
Jades throughout the history of Beijing from the collection at Beijing's Capital Museum. |
Paleolithic Lantian Man through the Neolithic Era, Shang Dynasty through the Qing Dynasty - pottery, weapons, bronze, gold, and ceramics - over 300 selections from the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum. |