Experience Fork Culture
General facts
China, an ancient, mysterious and beautiful land, is always appealing to adventurous foreign visitors. As the third largest country in the world occupying an area of 9,600,000 sq km, it spans 62 degrees of longitude and 49 degrees of latitude. A wide variety of terrain and climate shape its numerous natural attractions. Abundant in a variety of resources, plants, animals, and minerals, the land has nurtured countless generations of Chinese people.
History of China
China, one of the countries that can boast of an ancient civilization, has a long and mysterious history - almost 5,000 years of it! Like most other great civilizations of the world, China can trace her culture back to a blend of small original tribes which have expanded till they became the great country we have today.
It is recorded that Yuanmou man is the oldest hominoid in China and the oldest dynasty is Xia Dynasty. From the long history of China, there emerge many eminent people that have contributed a lot to the development of the whole country and to the enrichment of her history. Among them, there are emperors like Li Shimin (emperor Taizong of the Tang), philosophers like Confucius, great patriotic poets like Qu Yuan and so on.
Public Holiday Calendar
2014 / 2015 / 2016 Major Public Holiday Calendar | |||||
Name | Date | Legal Holidays | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
New Year's Day | Jan. 1 | 1 day | Jan. 1 off | Jan. 1 - 3 off | Jan. 1 - 3 off |
Spring Festival | subject to | 3 days | Jan. 31 | Feb. 19 | Feb. 8 |
Qingming | Apr. 4 or 5 | 1 day | Apr. 5 | Apr. 5 | Apr. 4 |
May Day | May 1 | 1 day | May 1 - 3 off | May 1 - 3 off | Apr. 30 - May 2 off |
Dragon Boat | 5th of 5th | 1 day | Jun. 2 | Jun. 20 | Jun. 9 |
Mid-Autumn Day | Aug. 15 of | 1 day | Sep. 8 | Sep. 27 | Sep. 15 |
National Day | Oct. 1 | 3 days | Oct. 1 - 7 | Oct. 1 - 7 | Oct. 1 - 7 |
At the above seven festivals, Chinese people can enjoy days off. Besides, they celebrate four other festivals on which some people have a half day off - Women's Day, Youth Day, Children's Day and Army Day. Many other galas and anniversaries are celebrated even without days off, such as Arbor Day and Teachers' Day.
Paper-Cuttings
Chinese Painting is divided into three genres - figures, landscapes, and birds-and-flowers and each type has its distinctive characteristics. In addition, difficult skills are required to the painters.
Chinese Painting
Paper-Cuttings is diversified patterns cut into red paper with scissors. Different patterns such as monkey, flowers and figures can be cut vividly and perfectly by some female artisans in rural areas. People paste paper-cuttings onto their windows and other places to express their hopes and wishes.