Culture of China

China exists over many centuries and the culture of China is one of the oldest and most complex cultures in the world. To explore and understand the culture of China, people can have a look on its architecture, Feng Shui, cuisine, language, etc. Architecture The history of Chinese architecture has been built over many centuries. Its distinctive and special structural features have significantly influenced on the architectural styles of the East Asia countries such as Korea, Japan and Vietnam. In Chinese architecture, bilateral symmetry and the articulations of buildings are mainly concerned. These features did not only apply for the palaces, but also apply for the humble farmhouses. Apart from the main buildings, the open courtyard and/or the sky well can be easily found within the building complexes. Open courtyard and the sky well is an empty space surrounded by buildings that connected one building to another one building either directly. Chinese Siheyuan in Beijing is a very good example showing the symmetry, use of open courtyard and sky well. Another important feature of Chinese architecture is that Chinese architecture emphasizes on width, in contrast, Western architecture emphasizes on height. The wide halls of Forbidden City and castles in Western countries are very good examples in respect of Chinese and Western architectures. In relation to the structural materials, bricks, stones and wooden timber (frame and roof) are frequently used. Chinese architecture was well developed since ancient times, timber frames are mainly constructed by dowel, it is seldom to use glue or nails. Feng Shui

Feng Shui is an ancient art related to the environment and the power of nature. Its a systematic study based on the elements of astronomy, astrology, geology, physics, mathematics, psychology and intuition. It is mainly concerned with understanding the relationships between nature and ourselves. Through Feng Shui, it determines blockages within the home or business that might cause some type of problem, and then at the different type of method that can be used to moderate the problem. The purpose of Feng Shui is to create the harmony within our environment. Feng Shui in the old days is a system that addresses the layout of cities, villages, dwelling and buildings. Feng Shui is still considered important in some segments of modern Chinese culture, especially Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia and some other South-East Asia countries. Feng Shui masters have always influenced the great buildings in Hong Kong. Bank of China building, HSBC Hong Kong building, and Casinos in Macau, all these building have input the ideas of Feng Shui when design the blueprint and interior design. Furthermore, it has become an aspect of interior decorating in the western world. In the 1960s, Feng Shui was introduced in the West for business used to increase sales, boost morale and bringing fortune. One of the US billionaires, Donald Trump would be one of the big names of Feng Shui follower. He took recommendations of Feng Shui master to positioning his building. Cuisine Foods - The Chinese are rightfully proud of their rich culture of food and drink in the world. Everybody who has visited a Chinese restaurant knows that there is a very varied menu to choose from. As we have seen from the geography of the country, China was home a wide range of flora and fauna, fruit and vegetable, animals and grains. Chinese foods reflect this diversity a few broad categories: rice; beans; vegetable; meats; fruits; spices. Utensils - A Chinese kitchen has three essential items: a rice cooker, a work caiguo (simply a frying pan) and the cleaver caidao (simply a knife) Chopsticks - Chinese people have eaten with chopsticks, style of chopsticks used in longer sticks that are square in cross section where they are held, and round in cross section

Regional varieties - The Chinese say there are four main varieties of cuisine: Northern (Beijing area), Southern (Canton), Eastern (Shanghai) and Central southwestern (Sichuan)

Northern food is renowned for its thick rich sauces and meats. Another classic duck (Beijing duck) Southern Chinese food is far more familiar as Cantonese food because the largest percentage of Chinese to settle abroad came from the canton area. There is a distinct preference for fresh vegetable, seafood and lighter tasting sauces. Eastern food is the least exciting relative to the other places. The dishes slightly more vegetarian, such as bamboo, mushrooms and tofu. Central southwestern food is the land of spicy food, red chill is often used for each dish.

Dim sum is a Cantonese terms for small snacks. These bites size portions are prepared using traditional cooking methods such as frying, steaming, stewing and baking. It is designed so that each person may taste a variety of different dishes. Tea Chinese people often drink tea together with snacks such as nuts, plums, dried fruit, small sweets, melon seeds, and waxberry. Chinese tea is often classified into a green tea, oolong tea, black tea, scented tea, and compressed tea. Language The language used in Chinese is called Hanyu, which is a general designation of Mandarin and other dialects. In general, dialects are divided into seven dialect groups: Mandarin, Wu, Cantonese, Min, Xiang, Hakka and Gan. However, most of them are lack of mutual intelligibility, i.e. if different people speak different dialects, they could not understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort. Chinese people make a strong distinction between written language and spoken language, not like English, which may not have such difference. But even though they speak different dialects among each other, they could communicate effectively through written language since written language is common across the country.

In daily use, Mandarin refers to standard Chinese. It is officially known as Putonghua (in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau), Guoyu (in Taiwan) and Huayu (in Malaysia and Singapore). Originally, Mandarin is a dialect spoken in northern and southwestern China. Nowadays, Mandarin is based on the particular Mandarin dialect spoken in Beijing. Other than mainland China, Mandarin functions as the official spoken language of Taiwan and Singapore. It is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Due to rapid economic development, many foreign traders would like to learn Hanyu, so that they can communicate with Chinese traders conveniently. Also, there are many foreign people have interest in Chinese culture, so they learn Hanyu. Nowadays, there are some government officials in western countries can speak fluent Mandarin, such as Mr Kevin Rudd, the current Minister for Foreign Affairs in Australia. China has a rich culture and long history. Beside literature, tradition, arts, above are some other interesting points getting to know more about Chinese culture.