Taiwan-Podcast

Podcast Script

  Siqi: Hello. I'm Siqi and with me is Sherry. Welcome to Mystery Land, my personal blog which recommends the awesome places you have to travel in a mysterious eastern country--China. Today, we are going to be discussing a small beautiful island in the Southeast of Asia: Taiwan. If you love the warm comfortable beach and ocean, and if you love sea food, desserts, and shopping, you must come to Taiwan. We recommend you listen to this podcast very carefully as it contains important information you will need as you get ready to eastern Asian. And I also invited Sherry with me today as she is come from Taiwan, now she is an international student in Washburn University. I believe Sherry will give us the most attractive pictures of Taiwan today. 

  Sherry: Thanks Siqi, yes, I am a Taiwanese, and I have to say, Taiwan is one of the most beautiful islands in Asian.

  Siqi: I bet it is. I heard Taiwan is known for its distinctive nature scenery, like towering mountains which is spotted with numerous mountains peaks that rise over 3,000 meters, and beautiful coastal scenes that are parts of Taiwan's great natural assets. Is that true?

  Sherry: Absolutely, starting from the northern island is the Guanyinshan National Scenic Area which features a wide variety of coastal geography. Go to the south, and you will come to the Southwest Coast that blessed with sunshine and a tropical touch. In the west is the Maolin National Scenic Area, the place you can check out the world of butterflies. Legendary tales depict the subtle beauty of the Mountain Ali, where you can enjoy relaxing scene of the sun rising over a sea of clouds. 

  Siqi: Wow, it seems Taiwan is full of nature landscapes. I wish I can escape from all of these final exams and lay on the Southwest Coast now and enjoy the wind from Atlantic Ocean. That must be wonderful.

  Sherry: I've enjoyed that, and trust me, you will love that!

  Siqi: Yes, I'll do that. I also heard one of the other reasons that makes Taiwan distinctive and different with other tourist attractions is "road food," especially "night market." Can you tell a little about that to us?

  Sherry: You know what? That is the thing I miss most since I came to U.S.. “night market” is the most popular place for people to have fun at night. The compositions of night market are different kinds of stores, food vendors, and some traditional entertainment. People can bargain with the store-owners to buy clothes, shoes, decorations, and almost everything they want at cheaper prices. Also, there are several famous snacks and beverages such as bubble milk tea, stinky tofu, oyster omelet and some other brand new choices for tasting. By playing the games like balloon shooting, net fish, and other small-scale games could get a chance to win a few prizes.

  Siqi: I see, night market seems not only provides food and kinds of commodities, but also embodies the real life of Chinese middle class citizens. 

  Sherry:You are right!

  Siqi: Thanks Sherry, for sharing such a beautiful place with us. If you want to know more information about Taiwan, please search the website eng.taiwan.net.tw/ or you can find this link on my blog. Follow Mystery Land on blogger, for all interesting Eastern culture and travel information. Thank you for listening!

Peking Opera--on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

       
pictures and introduction come from
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&newwindow=1&gbv=2&biw=1280&bih=653&tbm=isch&tbnid=0eYFDLL_GqR9sM:&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_opera&docid=WmqAozWRMXLfKM&imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/Beijing-Opera2.jpg/220px-Beijing-Opera2.jpg&w=220&h=330&ei=3juhT4qGEMPCgAeM09WlCQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=179&vpy=118&dur=202&hovh=264&hovw=176&tx=123&ty=130&sig=106593880955603298250&page=1&tbnh=141&tbnw=94&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:68

Beijing Opera has hundreds years' history in China, and gradually developed to one of the most representative artistic achievement in China which mixes painting arts, physical arts, singing, rhythm, costume, entertainment, and commercial. Beijing Opera has a big variety of contents, dozens different colorful masks, and abundant of characteristic. Moreover, Beijing Opera also has great geographical diversity, because Beijing Opera is originated from a lot of different areas in ancient China, with time goes by, the differences within several districts became more and more obvious, eventually developed to new branches.
Now days, less and less people still enjoy Beijing Opera, especially young people. They prefer pop music rather traditional and classical operas. I don't  watch Beijing Opera neither, because I really can't understand it. The lyrics are ancient Chinese words and they follow the rhythm in old time.






 Peking opera or Beijing opera (simplified Chinese: 京剧; traditional Chinese: 京劇; pinyin: Jīngjù) is a form of traditional Chinese theatre which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in the late 18th century and became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th century. The form was extremely popular in the Qing Dynasty court and has come to be regarded as one of the cultural treasures of China. Major performance troupes are based in Beijing and Tianjin in the north, and Shanghai in the south. The art form is also preserved in Taiwan, where it is known as Guoju (國劇; pinyin: Guójù). It has also spread to other countries such as the United States and Japan.


Peking Opera Show Liyuan Theater Beijing - Cheapest Discount
http://www.thebeijingguide.com/shows/peking_opera.html

Beijing---Capital City In China (Picasa SlideShow)

Beijing, capital of the People's Republic of China, is the nation's political, economic, cultural, educational and international trade and communication center. Located in northern China, close to the port city of Tianjin and partially surrounded by Hebei Province, it also serves as the most important transportation hub and port of entry.

Beijing, one of the six ancient cities in China, has been the heart and soul of politics and society throughout its long history and consequently there is an unparalleled wealth of discovery to delight and intrigue travelers as they explore the city's ancient past and exciting modern development. Now it has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, with about 140 million Chinese tourists and 4.4 million international visitors in a year.

picture comes from http://www.free-desktop-backgrounds.net/Architecture-wallpapers/Wall-wallpapers/The-great-wall-Mutianyu-Beijing-China.html

The Temple of Heaven


The Temple of Heaven is a worthwhile visiting place in Beijing. It is much bigger than the Forbidden City and smaller than the Summer Palace with an area of about 2,700,000 square meters. The Temple was built in 1420 A.D. during the Ming Dynasty to offer sacrifice to Heaven. As Chinese emperors called themselves 'The Son of Heaven' ,they dared not to build their own dwelling,'Forbidden City' bigger than a dwelling for Heaven.


The Temple of Heaven is enclosed with a long wall. The northern part within the wall is semicircular symbolizing the heavens and the southern part is square symbolizing the earth. The northern part is higher than the southern part. This design shows that the heaven is high and the earth is low and the design reflected an ancient Chinese thought of 'The heaven is round and the earth is square'.

    
Free pictures come from http://www.bigfoto.com/asia/beijing/

Ming Tombs

50 kilometers northwest from Beijing City lies the Ming Tombs - the general name given to the mausoleums of 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). The mausoleums have been perfectly preserved, as has the necropolis of each of the many emperors. Because of its long history, palatial and integrated architecture, the site has a high cultural and historic value. The layout and arrangement of all thirteen mausoleums are very similar but vary in size as well as in the complexity of their structures.
It was originally built only as Changling, the tomb of Emperor Zhu Di and his empresses. This is the most magnificent of the tombs. The succeeding twelve emperors had their tombs built around Changling.


Only the Changling and Dingling tombs are open to the public. Changling, the chief of the Ming Tombs, is the largest in scale and is completely preserved. The total internal area of the main building is 1956 square meters. There are 32 huge posts, and the largest measures about 14 meters in height.It inhumes Emperor Zhudi, the fourth son of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. Travel China Guide recommends the Ling'en Palace in its second yard as really deserving a visit. This is unique as it is the only huge palace made of camphor wood. It covers about 1956 square meters. The ceiling is colorfully painted and supported by sixteen solid camphor posts. The floor was decorated with gold bricks Travel Agencies 


Introduction comes from


http://www.travelchinaguide.com/