Dessert

It takes a little imagination to realize that these cuddly toys are supposed to be snakes. But it’s the symbol that counts. The Year of the Wooden Snake is just a few weeks away in China. Naturally, a flood of snake merchandise will be produced to mark the occasion, as here in Handan, Hebei.

You really have to envy a bird’s perspective on the world. This picture from December shows an observation tower in the Huanghai Forest Park – a large, ecological, artificially created area in the city of Dongtai in Jiangsu Province in eastern China. In the 1960s, a forest area of 2,500 hectares was created on a […]

It’s in the starting blocks: The year of the snake – the wooden snake to be precise – begins on January 29. Plenty of lucky charms and other merchandise are already available. The Chinese Central Bank, for example, has issued a series of commemorative coins and banknotes.

China declared a “toilet revolution” in 2015. The campaign aimed to increase the number of public toilets nationwide and improve their quality. This mirrored op-art toilet on the sixth floor of Deji Plaza in the city of Nanjing proves that they may have slightly over-achieved here and there. The design, reminiscent of the movie Austin […]

These pupils from an elementary school in Handan in Hebei province wish “Hello 2025” from a bird’s eye view. Even though the Chinese Year of the Snake does not begin until the end of January with Chinese New Year, the calendar transition to the year 2025 was also celebrated in China, for example with a […]

It is well known that electromagnetic waves can be emitted or received with the help of “sky threads” (commonly known as “antennas” in English). The Chinese word is made up of the characters 天 tiān “sky, day” and 线 xiàn “wire, line, thread, beam.” Incidentally, the English word is related to the Latin tendere or […]

While we have a name for each finger, the Chinese neglect one of them – at least as far as naming is concerned. The ring finger is often referred to as the “finger without a name” (无 wú “without,” 名 míng “name,” 指 zhǐ “finger; pointing”). Fortunately, not everywhere – in some places, it is […]

Maybe it’s because the dragon is omnipresent in Chinese culture? In any case, water in China does not flow from a tap, but from a “dragon’s head” (literally 龙头 lóngtóu, sometimes also 水龙头 shuǐlóngtóu, “water dragon’s head”). The next time you wash your hands, you might see the “tap“ in a new light.Want more? Visit […]

Whether it’s under Grandma’s Christmas tree or at a Christmas party in a hipster club – vinyl appears to be immortal. In Chinese, vinyl records are simply called “singing records” (唱 chàng “to sing” plus 片 piàn “disk, record”). And that sums up the essence of their function nicely.

What do the Dutch and Chinese have in common? Both call penguins “goose.” The Dutch use the term “fat goose” (vetgans is a synonym for penguin in Dutch). The Chinese see the cute, flightless seabirds as “geese standing on their tiptoes,” at least that’s what the Chinese term 企鹅 qǐ’é for “penguin” suggests (企 qǐ […]