关于旅游China Daily上的英文报道
An icy blast
Updated: 2013-01-18 16:14
( China Daily)
While birds fly south for the winter, people in China head north to see one of the country's most spectacular sights - the ice sculptures of Harbin
For a genuine taste of winter, combined with some of China's most amazing, if temporary, sights, the place to head for is Harbin in Heilongjiang province. With a latitude as high as 46, similar to Vancouver, Harbin's winter lasts for about four months a year with temperatures falling to as low as - 40 C, which provides the city with an abundance of natural ice and snow.
Along with Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada's Quebec City Winter Carnival, and Norway's Ski Festival, Harbin Festival, which began in 1985, is one of the world's four largest ice and snow events.
It starts on Jan 5 and lasts for a month, during which time it overlaps with some of China's most important traditional festivals, including Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival.
1. Sun Island Park
Sun Island Park is said to be where Chinese ice sculpture originated. An exhibition of sculptures here runs for 60 to 70 days thanks to the city's weather. With the varied styles and enormous size of its ice sculptures, the Sun Island Festival is also known as the world's largest ice and snow carnival.
The sculptures are inspired by various cultures including those of Japan and Russia, which borders Heilongjiang province.
Besides the ice sculptures the park is packed with other entertainment, including an ice slide, snow puddle jumper, snow motorcycles and a snow maze.
The national snow sculpture competition also takes place in Sun Island Park, showcasing China's most amazing ice and snow creations.
Visiting the park in the day and at night offers different perspectives on the sculptures, with the artificial lighting of the evening giving them a very different look.
Prior to 1949 Sun Island Park was an expat resort and it retains a lot of the foreign architecture. This helps to make it an interesting and fun place to visit in both the winter and summer.
2. Zhaolin Park
Located in the center of the city, alongside Songhua River, Zhaolin Park is a paradise for children. An entertainment park designed by Disney, it has ice sculptures of some of the world's most recognizable cartoon characters.
Some 1,500 ice sculptures are displayed across the park's 6.5 hectares and as much as 2,000 cubic meters of ice are used each year creating them. The ice comes from the nearby Songhua River.
The ice lantern is said to have been invented by local fishermen and farmers who had to work outdoors. In the old days, people would pour water into a bucket, let it freeze into the shape of a lampshade and put in a candle so that the fire wouldn't be blown out by the wind.
It soon became popular among people who couldn't afford a lantern during the Lantern Festival and gained the nickname \
Zhaolin Park contains one of the largest outdoor ice lantern exhibitions. It is listed by the National Tourism Administration as one of the 35 most amazing scenic spots in China. 3. Ice and Snow World
Ice and Snow World is perhaps the most magnificent of the three ice sculpture parks. It holds a Guinness world record as the largest ice sculpture park in the world. Every year, the park takes on a new theme.
Walking, or taking a carriage through the park if trudging through the snow becomes too much, you'll see sculptures reflecting elements of both Chinese and overseas cultures. The sights are a combination of ice lanterns and ice sculptures inspired by traditional Chinese fairytales and world-famous architecture.
In previous years, sculptures have included St. Petersburg Cathedral and the Paris Opera House, but as the ice comes and goes each year, there is a fresh and exciting new set of work.
The world of ice doesn't stop at sculptures. There are also ice bars, ice hotels, snow climbing, snow golf and snow football.
Thundering waters
Updated: 2013-03-14 09:46
By Erik Nilsson ( China Daily)
The Grand and the Thundering falls are two of the most breathtaking rapids in China. Even ancient explorer Xu Xiake, imperial China's Indiana Jones, was captivated, Erik Nilsson reports.
As a country laced with rivers and with a topography crumpled into mountains by three tectonic plates collisions, China is awash with waterfalls.
That said, Huangguoshu (Yellow Fruit Tree) National Waterfall Park outside Guizhou's provincial capital Guiyang attracts the greatest deluge of travelers, as perhaps the largest chain of cascades in the country and on the continent.
And while Huangguoshu's 18 cataracts stand out in China, two rise above the rest - the Grand and the Thundering falls.
Rocks at the top of the Grand Waterfall's crest slice the river into a 101-meter-wide span of water ribbons that flutter 78 meters into the Rhinoceros Pond.
This torrent discharges an aerosol that beads up on visitors, even on the river's other side, and often creates a rainbow or two, especially from 9 to 11 am. You'll leave wet. About 700 cubic meters of water whoosh over the precipice per second.
Ancient explorer Xu Xiake - imperial China's Indiana Jones - compared the cataract's dynamics to \
Visitors can hike behind the cascade through the 134-meter Water Curtain Cave. The tunnel's walls are pocked with six \seen behind a frame of ferns and vines.
Visitors leave the Grand Waterfall via the Grand Escalator, which pulls them up the mountainside to the Miniscape Garden.
The garden's hundreds of bonsais, rock formations and pools create an idyllic quaintness that contrasts with the ferocity of the Grand Waterfall's deluge
May all your springs be white
Updated: 2013-03-11 15:23
By Wu Ni ( China Daily)
A sea of perfumed narcissus is coming into full bloom in the Shanghai Binjiang Forest Park.
With their jade-white petals, golden yellow center, fresh green leaves and
gracefully upright stalks, narcissus grown in Chongming Island feature naturally grown bulbs, little branching and enduring fragrance.
The flower is often cultivated to bloom indoors around the Lunar New Year so that they can decorate the household during festival - people believe it will bring wealth and fortune to the family. And now it is time to enjoy narcissus outdoors.
The park introduced 20,000 bulbs of Chongming narcissus and planted them in the ground, instead of the traditional pots. It is the first time that the famed flowers have blossomed on such a large scale in a park.
In an artistic planting scheme, narcissuses are planted to form various shapes, like squares or ribbons against the tall green arbors and beside brooks. Some 10,000 Songjiang silverbud willows were introduced to be neighbors of the narcissus, adding another flavor of spring to the scene.
Chongming narcissus, silverbud willows originally grown in Songjiang district, and wintersweet flowers in Jiading district are known as the \plants of Shanghai\
Shi Kesong, whose family has been growing narcissus on the island for more than 100 years, says that the fragrance of Chongming narcissus is light at the first phase of its bloom. \
narcissuses come to blossom, the dense perfume can be detected when you are more than 10 meters away,\
As the temperature rises, the flowers are expected to be in full blossom around mid-March and continue their show until early April.
Chongming Island, together with Zhangzhou in Fujian province and Putuo in Zhejiang province, are the three top growing areas for Chinese narcissus. Narcissus was grown around 500 years ago on the island. Legend has it that long ago a boat from Zhangzhou, fully loaded with narcissus bulbs, sank at the mouth of the Yangtze River near the Chongming Island.
A few years later, white and yellow flowers blossomed along the shore. Local people dug them up and transplanted them to their home gardens. The flower eventually became the well-known Chongming narcissus.
Resting place of tranquility
Updated: 2013-03-04 09:21
By Hilton Yip ( China Daily)
Luoyang served as the capital of 13 Chinese dynasties and kingdoms. Hilton Yip lists some of the attractions of the ancient city.
When you ask an expatriate to name the four ancient great capitals of China, most will list them in this order: Beijing, Xi'an, Nanjing and lastly, Luoyang in Henan province. Luoyang may lack the modernization and fame of the other capitals, but it boasts several famous sights, including Longmen Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It also has an impressive museum, housed in a