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Created: 2010-2-23

Author:Tan Weiyun

GORGEOUS lanterns and a glorious gala will light up the night on Sunday when the whole city of Hangzhou celebrates the Lantern Festival. Tan Weiyun tells you what's in store and where to go.

The whole city of Hangzhou will be ablaze with lights this coming Sunday night, the Lantern Festival marking the end of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations.

The night will be illuminated by lantern fairs, folk performances and food festivals in almost every district for the citywide gala.

In Gongshu District, the ancient Grand Canal of China, completed in the Sui Dynasty (AD 581?618), will be decorated with thousands of red lanterns along the two banks for around 5 kilometers from Daguan Bridge to Qingfang Bridge.

A huge red lantern rises in the center of the Grand Canal Culture Plaza, while an open-air concert featuring traditional Chinese music will be held on the South China Theater stage on the southern side.

Along the ancient Qiaoxizhi Street, visitors can enjoy exhibitions of the city's intangible cultural heritage, an antiques bazaar, food fair and DIY lantern workshops.

In addition, the lighting project of the Xiangji Temple, which has a history of more than 1,000 years, will be officially unveiled to the public on the festival night.

In the Xihu District, strings of red lanterns will be hung high along Tianmushan and Huancheng roads, while lantern shows will get underway in the Zhuantang Community and on the eastern section of the Meiyuan Road S. Lion and dragon dancers will be performed.

Almost each community and neighborhood in the Xihu District will have a night gala featuring residents' talent shows and exhibitions of remarkable homemade lanterns.

Wenxin Community residents will display their lanterns in Xicheng Square, while many residents in the Xixi Neighborhood will hang lamps at their doors.

On Sunday night and next Monday, Jiangcun Community will stage a Yueju Opera performance at the Beimen Square.

Cuiyuan Community is preparing lantern shows, folk performances, a fireworks party, karaoke contest and many other events.

In Shangcheng District, many night shows will be moved indoors because the Wushan Square is under renovation.

The lantern exhibition of Hubing Community will be held in the Hangzhou Workers' Culture Center, which will have five theme areas, including riddle guessing, folk performance and lantern appreciation.

The Jinjiang Culture Center will showcase lanterns shaped like dragons and tigers. Hundreds of trees will be spangled with flashing lights that look like baby's breath flowers.

The Royal Street of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) will be decorated with more than 1,000 court lanterns and flower lanterns in many shapes, sizes and patterns.

Lantern fairs will be held in Xiacheng District's 71 communities, Wulin Nuren Jie (Women's Street), Chinese Silk Street and other tourism spots.

The highlight is the West Lake Culture Square, decorated with a huge mural and illuminated with energy-saving lights.

In Jianggan District, the flea market held every Saturday in Qingchun Square will extend its hours to 8pm.

Bingjiang District will stage a water lantern show in Bingjiang Park, a riddle-guessing contest, snack market and outdoor film screening.

The public can also enjoy lantern fairs in Puyan road, Shixin Park, Huarun Square, Gutang Road, Changjiang Road M. and manyother places.

Created: 2010-2-10

Author:Royston Chan and Wing Tan

THE world has moved on from roller-skating disco, that oh-so-1980s fad immortalized in the film "Xanadu," but in China, dancing on wheels is gaining speed thanks to the nation's masses of migrant workers.

While wealthy executives in trend-setting Shanghai would never be seen indulging in something so passe, roller disco is the entertainment of choice for the tens of thousands of migrants working in one of China's most expensive cities.

Most of these modern fans are in their 20s, too young to remember the craze that swept the United States some 30 years ago, and their ardor proves that disco is not dead.

At Xinxiang roller-skating rink, the city's first and biggest roller disco, hundreds of migrant workers turn up every night to meet friends, listen to music and skate in a rink slightly bigger than a basketball court.

"When we first started 15 years ago, the people who came here to skate were local youngsters," says Yang Yong, one of the floor managers of the rink. "As the country started its economic reform, a lot of workers from other provinces came to the city, and now some of these migrants are also coming here for recreation and exercise."

Roller disco started out as a dance craze in the United States in the 1970s and reached the height of popularity in the 1980s in many Western countries.

Back then, the routine - which involves dancers rolling along on traditional four-wheeled skates while bopping to music - was featured in Hollywood movies such as 1979's "Roller Boogie" with Linda Blair and Olivia Newton-John's "Xanadu."

Roller disco started to become popular in China in the 1990s, but largely lost its appeal at the turn of the century, forcing hundreds of rinks across the country to close down.

But in Shanghai, the migrant workers have helped keep the Xinxiang rink, and dozens of others, in business.

Relocated to Lanxi Road last year from Anyuan Road in Putuo District, the 500-square-meter rink continues to attract a steady flow of migrant workers, who would spend the whole night there rolling to relax and recharge after a tiring day.

Opening hours run from 1-5pm and 7pm-1am. The afternoon hours are mainly for locals and students while the night hours are almost dominated by migrant workers.

"More than 80 percent of our patrons at night are low-paid workers, that is about 400 people," says Shanghai-native Wang Hongsheng, the rink's manager. "They can roll to midnight."

One of roller disco's main attractions is affordability: with most workers earning between 1,000 yuan and 2,000 yuan (US$146-292) a month, having fun isn't easy in Shanghai.

Entrance to the skating rinks costs a maximum of 18 yuan and renting four-wheeled skates costs 5 yuan with no time limit, while a normal charge in other roller-skating rinks in Shanghai is about 40 yuan per hour.

As a matter of fact, migrants don't have to rent skates and roll. "They can come in, buy some beer, hang around, dance to the music, have some small chat, and make some new friends here," Wang says.

Crowds of migrant workers were speeding in circles skillfully on roller skates, with the ear-deafening pop music pouring from the loudspeakers. On the dance floor some were really shaking it in high spirit.

Most of the migrant workers in their 20s come from the country's poor areas and didn't get much education. But they're eager to integrate into the metropolitan life like their urban peers.

"I like meeting new friends here. We're young and we can go dancing, clubbing and anything just like other (urban) young people do," says 21-year-old Xiao Fang from Anhui Province.

The girl, wearing heavy makeup and dressed to the nines, has been in Shanghai for three years and works in a nearby bathhouse.

"This place and the people here make me feel quite comfortable," she says as she sways to the music.

Another regular is 22-year-old Tang Jianhui from Chongqing, who works as a car accessories salesman.

"I come here often because I work near this place. My friends kept asking me to come, and there is a good crowd here, and prices here are relatively cheap for a city like Shanghai," he says.

Stress-relief is another draw factor.

"It is fun to play here. After a day of hard work and fatigue, it's good to come here just to relax," says Mao Huixia from northwestern China's Gansu Province, who works in a restaurant.

Manager Wang says Xinxiang would preserve the original format of the roller disco while adding other activities such as games and competitions to keep the roller skaters coming.

"We don't plan to change the original format of this skating rink. With the aim of improving the recreation and exercise experience here, we need to constantly improve our service and upgrade the fitness aspect of the business," he says.

Wang admits that security is a problem in the rink as young ruffians and jobless people also like to hang out.

"We set up a security team of 15 guards, monitoring the rink during the open hours," he says, adding it might be the biggest security team among all the roller-skating rinks in the city.

The rink is also on line to 110 (the city's police station center to handle emergencies).

"If any accidents, quarrels or even group scuffles happen, our security guards will be the first to reach the scene. And if it can't be solved, we will report to 110 for police help," says Wang.

During the afternoon hours when most of rollers are students from nearby schools, smoking is strictly prohibited. Juveniles are not admitted at night but smoking is allowed.

"We do this is to preserve the order in the rink," says Wang. "After all, the place is a mixture of all kinds of people."

Created: 2010-2-11

Author:Tan Weiyun

THE ancient traditions of cooking winter delicacies at home are fading as the convenience of buying ready-made food items becomes popular. But all is not lost in some Hangzhou homes, Tan Weiyun reports.

As the Chinese Lunar New Year approaches, everyone is stocking up on traditional foods to serve for family reunions and celebrations.

Busy people these days, especially young folks, mostly shop for ready-made foods, but some old-fashioned Hangzhou residents still keep the ancient tradition of making winter delicacies at home.

Toiling over homemade food and putting in love and energy make the dishes sweeter, so they say.

They start well in advance of the new year that falls on Sunday this year.

Cabbage curing and pickling

A rainy week has finally come to an end and residents in Yuquan Neighborhood, an old community, are busy pickling cabbages in their courtyards.

It's quite an eye-opener to see their method - stomping vegetables barefoot in a giant vat. Bare feet (clean) are best. Sandals are for sissies.

"We've been married for 39 years and I have stomped the cabbages for 39 years," says 64-year-old Ma Achun as he tramples layer on layer of cabbages sprinkled with salt. His wife Deng Tiaojuan keeps adding cabbage leaves.

Each winter before the Spring Festival, the couple makes two vats of pickled cabbages, 75 kilograms in all.

"It requires lots of physical strength, so I do the most important and difficult part," says Ma. "Women are usually weaker - the vegetables they make will probably go sour."

These days most of the cabbage stompers are well over 50 years old.

"Young people only care about when to eat - they can't and won't help make pickles," Ma says.

Ma shares his secrets for sweet-smelling pickled cabbage:

Choose older cabbages; fresh ones don't have as much taste.

Remove the leaves. Let them dry in the sun for two days until the leaves wilt.

The stomping:

First put salt in the bottom of a vat and place a layer of cabbage leaves on top.

Stomp barefoot (make sure your feet are clean), but if you insist on shoes, flat-heeled sandals are okay.

Stomp until cabbage juice comes out.

Then sprinkle another layer of salt and place another layer of cabbage laves on top.

Continue stomping, sprinkling and layering until the vat is full.

Around 100kg of cabbage require around 2kg of salt.

Sausage making

Pork sausage is a must for Spring Festival.

The pork should be carefully selected, not too fat, not too lean. If it's too fat, the fat will melt and the sausage will be reduced to a string after days of exposure in the sun; if it's too lean, the meat will taste dry.

It is quite a sight to see long strings of sausages hanging in the windowsills of each household.

Yu Shifu is busy at his sausage stall in the crowded Zhanongkou Food Market.

People queue up from 6am until closing.

Yu is something of a celebrity for his sausage-making skill. Each year after Lidong (the day marking the beginning of winter on the lunar calendar), he opens the small booth to process traditional sausages.

He only operates the business for two months, but over six years he has a loyal clientele.

"I have an annual appointment with my customers," says Yu proudly. "They bring pork here every winter and ask me to make sausages to their taste."

The key to making delicious sausages is finding the right proportion of lean meat and fat. The ideal proportion of lean meat to fat is 9:1.

After mincing the pork, he adds his "secret recipe" of sugar, salt, MSG, spicy pepper, rice and liquor.

"But I won't tell the exact amount and ratio," he says.

Customers can have their sausages tailor-made, according to taste.

"If you like sweet sausage, I add more sugar," says Yu. "If you like spicy, I add more hot pepper."

Sweet fermented rice

Most people buy bowls of fermented rice - that's much easier than doing it yourself - but Zhang Ruihua in the Dongshannong Neighborhood always does it herself.

The brewer's yeast is very cheap, around 1 yuan (14 US cents) per packet. The glutinous rice grown in northeast China is the best because the rice grains are bigger, says Zhang.

The rice is soaked in cold water for around seven hours, then steamed.

"Cooking in a bamboo steamer is best - that makes the rice smell good," she says.

She puts yeast into the cooked rice and mixes until it's smooth. Then she makes a small hollow in the center of the rice and lets it ferment for seven days.

"Homemade fermented rice looks and tastes nice, and there is no worry about any food additives," Zhang says proudly.

Author:Tan Weiyun

THERE'S a saying among ultra-rich men in northern China: you need a young beautiful wife, a Lamborghini, a villa with expansive grounds, a purebred horse and a Tibetan mastiff (zang'ao), the bigger and more ferocious the better.

The latest four-footed status symbol has an enormous and powerful body, a big mane or ruff like a lion's, a thick coat, iron jaws, and a fierce and protective temperament. Males can weigh more than 100 kilograms. It's the world's biggest dog.

They can be quite scary -- rich men like to say the dogs only obey them.

Tibetan mastiffs can cost up to 4 million yuan (US$585,785) -- that's what a woman in Shaanxi Province paid for one dog last fall. It was welcomed at the Xi'an airport and escorted in a motorcade of 30 black Mercedes and SUVs. She told all her friends, especially informing them how much she paid, and everybody turned out.

The Tibetan mastiff, one of Central Asia's mastiffs, is an ancient and primitive breed -- the fossil record goes back 8-10 million years. In China it's sometimes called "No. 1 dog" and "miraculous beast." Marco Polo wrote of seeing one and legend has it that Genghis Khan and Buddha himself had mastiff companions.

They were used for guarding monasteries, palaces and homes (they still guard Tibetan homes) as well as livestock. They are famously fearless and said to fight to the death, even battling wolves and tigers. Some say they are descended from lions in the Himalayas that mated with black bears. They are intelligent and stubborn. The stuff of legend.

In Fengxian District, Wang Yang breeds pure mastiffs that he calls his babies and names after famous Shanghai snacks, including Youtiao (deep-fried bread stick), Tangbao (steamed bun), Tangyuan (dumpling made from glutinous rice flour) and Wonton among others. He has five dogs, about a year old -- three already have been sold.

Wang sells them for 20,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan as puppies, a relatively small amount, but he won't sell to just any rich guy who wants to show off.

"I don't make money from this," he says. "I do it because I love being with dogs."

Just a few weeks ago a multimillionaire from Zhejiang Province offered 800,000 yuan to buy Youtiao, but Wang refused, he could tell the man wouldn't raise it properly.

"It's the owners, not their money that I care about," he says. "Mastiffs are just like my children and I have the responsibility for their life."

Almost all his clients are rich businessmen "because raising such a huge dog is expensive," he says.

Space to roam

One of his buyers from Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, even bought a mountain property to raise the mastiff so it would have lots of space. He invited Wang to his house, showing that he knew about mastiff raising, had a warm heart and the right environment.

Wang, a 30-year-old Shanghai native, set up Jielian Tibetan Mastiff Kennel last winter, in remote Hangtou Village in Fengxian District.

The former logistics company profession used all his savings, about 500,000 yuan in all, aimed at "fostering China's best Tibetan mastiff." His kennel is set in a big orchard, and as one approaches the dogs start barking -- a deep rumbling, rather frightening sound.

"Take it easy. My boys and girls are a little wary of strangers," Wang says as he opens the heavy iron-made gate.

Five huge Tibetan mastiffs locked in five enclosures, each 8 square meters, bark even more fiercely and jump against the doors.

"Hush. Hush." Wang soothes them. "What's up, naughty baby?" He kneels down and pats one of the dogs lovingly through the metal gate.

If it were not raining, these huge monster-like dogs would be running freely and playing in the peach garden.

Wang has one bitch, Bafei, a perfect lion-maned mastiff bought in northern China in 2008. All dogs in the kennel, already huge at 12 months old, are built like young lions.

"My biggest concern is whether the master can raise the dog properly," says Wang. "To some extent, the mastiff is a status symbol because it is very expensive to raise. More important, it is a trust-worthy friend who deserves true love and sincerity from the master."

Wang has raised many big dogs since he was a child, including chows and German shepherds.

He calls the Tibetan mastiff "the ultimate goal of a dog lover."

After years of studying everything about mastiffs, Wang says good-bye to the 10-year-old logistics company he founded with a partner 10 years ago and started raising mastiffs.

"I devote my heart and soul to the kennel for the rest of my life," he says.

The minimum monthly cost to raise a mastiff is 3,000 yuan, says Wang. "That's the bottom line. If it's less than that, you're raising a pig."

Each dog consumes two big washbasins of food every day. Wang feeds an imported French dog food, adds duck that he buys at the supermarket and steamed rice. Sometimes they get beef and chicken as snacks.

He feeds duck because, according to traditional Chinese medicine, it contains yin (cold) energy that fights internal heat. Since the dogs are native to high elevations, their systems can become overheated or inflamed in low-lying warm areas, he says.

All the food is carefully cooked, so the dogs don't get parasites.

Because of the humidity they are prone to skin infections beneath their thick coats, so he grooms them very carefully.

Wang chose the 2-hectare orchard, which he rents for 20,000 yuan a month, because there are no nearby neighbors and there's plenty of room for the dogs to run.

"They are extremely territorial and won't stray too far from home," he says, noting that Tibetans frequently tied dogs up near their homes as guard dogs.

Wang says he raises mastiffs not for the money but because he is passionate about the dogs.

Many mastiff kennels in China force the bitch to breed every year, which is physically demanding and harmful to health.

The puppies are not as strong when the mother breeds frequently.

Mastiffs have one estrous cycle a year and Wang says he would rather miss the cycle and let the bitch recover.

"This is necessary to ensure excellent offspring and show love and care," he says.

Though the mastiffs love him, Wang was bitten once by a dog that was anesthetized for a hip-joint test -- it involuntarily snapped when he pulled the tongue from the mouth so it wouldn't choke.

The bite was deep and reached the bone. Wang has a scar.

It is hard for Wang to say goodbye to his mastiffs. He has parted with three so far.

"I believe they can read my mind and we've got a connection between us," he says.

Each time when the dog is reluctant to leave, Wang kneels down, pats the dog and whispers, "You'll have a new master, baby, and he can give you a better life. Just go.

"It understands me and stops barking," Wang recalls.

After four or five months, he always visits buyers to see how the dogs are doing. "The dog begins to forget me and barks at me," he says, a little sadly. "But to see that the dog is living well makes me happy."

Created: 2010-1-23, Updated: 2010-1-22 22:09:02

Author:Tan Weiyun

Pudong New Area, a powerful magnet for foreign investment, has taken a major step in the new year by signing agreements for 36 foreign-funded projects worth almost US$2 billion.

The contracts signed early this week will help Pudong reach its goal of becoming an international center for financial services, including logistics, management, administration, conferences, exhibitions, international trade and a high-tech industrial base for micro-electronics, software and biomedicine.

The contract-signing ceremony was themed "New Pudong, New Opportunities and New Development" and sponsored by the local government and the investment promotion department.

The signing was attended by Pudong's Party Secretary Xu Lin, the new area's Director Jiang Liang and Sha Hailin, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.

Also present were consular officers from 30 countries, representatives of more than 20 associations of commerce, and representatives of 120 multinational companies in Pudong.

The agreed projects are in areas of new energy, bio-pharmaceuticals, financial investment, finance leasing and advanced manufacturing. The companies from 13 countries and regions include the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

AstraZeneca, LG Electronics and Nippon Paint are among them.

Companies will set up regional headquarters, research centers or investment arms.

Last year Pudong New Area attracted almost US$5.5 billion of contractual foreign capital and US$3.9 billion has been put in place.

In the past several years, more than 11,000 foreign-funded companies have settled in Pudong. They represent a total registered capital of 29.8 billion yuan (US$4.38).

"Attracting foreign capital is the driving force of Pudong New Area's development," says Director Jiang. "It complements the city's strategy of building itself into a global financial hub and shipping center."

More than 840 foreign enterprises in Pudong increased their investment by US$3.8 billion last year. A total of 17 enterprises set up regional headquarters or base in the Asia-Pacific region, raising the number to 132 for the entire new area -- about half the city's total.

Offices will be established in Lujiazui by companies such as the Mellon Financial Group, the investment firm DE Shaw & Co and Aviva Investors, a unit of Britain's biggest insurance group Aviva Plc.

Foreign investment contributes nearly 70 percent to the area's economic growth.

Since the opening-up policy was launched in 1978, Pudong New Area's total output value has soared from 6 billion yuan in 1990 to US$400 billion last year, representing an annual increase of more than 10 percent.

The new area's contractual capital accounts for 40 percent of the city's total and its volume of foreign trade import and export represents almost 50 percent.

"Foreign investment is a powerful engine of Pudong New Area's economic growth," says Jiang.

Foreign investment creates one-third of Pudong's GDP, half of its fiscal revenue and export volume as well as two-thirds of the industrial and high-tech output value.

"In the new year Pudong will try to invite more investment to more fields, improve the government's efficiency of document processing, and launch more preferential policies to attract investment," Jiang says.