Don't skip breakfasts

Quite a few colleagues in our office have become used to skipping their breakfasts. A warning post has been sent to every one with the title "Six types of harm resulting from not eating breakfasts and why we need to sleep earlier and get up earlier". The six types of harm are: increased risk of hypocalcaemia, gallstones, cerebrovascular disease, tummy bugs, weight gain and brain deficiency. It is recommended that one sleeps between 11pm and 7 am, because this is the ideal time. Some things in your body need sleep in order to function.

A colleague from Germany said:

Eat breakfast like a

eat lunch like a

and eat dinner like a

Two more items have been added to China Highlights hotel rating system

We ask our customers to rate a lot of items on China Highlights customers' evaluation form. Items include each attraction, hotel, guide, driver, car, meals and more. We used to ask our customers to rate a hotel from three aspects: location, services and comfort. But Jackie opened the discussion again on how to rate a hotel. He believes that we should rate a hotel according to the following criteria:

• Location
• Hotel Services
• Room Comfort
• Cleanliness
• Hotel Condition
• Breakfast and Restaurant

After discussion among our colleagues, we decided to add 2 more items to our customers evaluation form.

• Location
• Services
• Room Comfort
• Cleanliness
• Breakfast / Meals

I am sorry that our customers will have to evaluate two more items for each hotel, but I hope this will help us to make better hotel recommendations to our customers.

Funny Translation

Hi,

That is the outstanding translation I've ever heard.

David Zhou

Visit to the Guilin Tea Plantation

Back on the 2nd of this month I visited the Guilin tea plantation with my wife and 2 other couples (Julian, the husband of one couple, works at CH and Elise, the wife of the other couple, used to). I didn’t know Guilin had a tea plantation until being invited on this outing.



We all got to wear these traditional Chinese farmer hats, which shield one from the rain and the sun. It was quite showery that day, but we soon had to surrender the hats when we left the plantation viewing area. Once inside, the lady in the next photo, one of the plantation’s own guide team, showed us the various processes by which tea can be made: drying, turning, the layering of flowers to make scented tea and roasting. Then we went to experience a session of tea tasting.


It was similar to what I had experienced in Beijing 4 years ago when I first came to China. One is supposed to drink the tea in 3 sips whilst savoring the flavor. If you drink the small cup in one draft you are said to be a water buffalo. The tea was amazing and just the right temperature. I particularly liked the Oolong tea which went down nicely with a warm honey flavor. The plantation guide assured me they didn’t put any honey or anything in the tea. It was just made from those green tea leaves that you see on the bushes above. Amazing how all those different flavors come out of the same type of leaves, just depending on how they are dried and processed.

My wife May and I are holding a nicely boxed block of compressed tea. Compressed tea lasts for years apparently, but we bought a tube of oolong tea and a tube of jasmine tea. Having been drinking them for the last three weeks I find the flavor is best when the water is almost boiling, when it has just cooled down enough to drink. I can get 3 or 4 teapots of tea from a good pinch or two of jasmine scented leaves or oolong pellets.

HOT AIR BALLOON in Yangshuo

Yesterday (Nov. 22), we went to Yangshuo to take a hot air balloon ride.

In the morning, we tried to visit Stone village. However, as we went the wrong way, we did not find it in the end. (We stopped on the way to take a photo of the elegant Li River.)

David’s car's tyre was punctured on the way. You can see the difference between the front and back tyres.

At 4pm, it was our turn. The staff first explained the nature of the ride, to make sure each of us knew the process and were sure we were able to take it. The four of us (the maximum is 6, 2 staff were flying with us) could not wait any longer to get into the basket.

If it is sunny, you have a better view.

Our record for height above ground level in the hot air balloon was 433 meters. We could not say any words when looking upon such an amazing view. Everyone knows how beautiful Yangshuo is, but I can say the best view is from the sky. So friends, if you have the time and your budget permits (it’s not cheap), just do it.

The whole balloon journey lasted for 30-40 minutes. Where one goes is dependent upon the strength and the direction of the wind. Finally, we landed smoothly in a field and said goodbye to the balloon.

Video:

Last Sun (Nov. 16)., with friends, we went to Haiyang country, 2 hours driving away Guilin City, which is famed for maidenhair tree turns to gold in Autumn, so we have planned to take some nice pictures.
The countryside view on the view is very nice, you could find the sugar cane everywhere.

However, on arrival, not sure whether it was suffered by the heavy snow at beginning of this year, we only saw the bare trunk, few leaf, a little bit disaapionted.

So just walked around with lunch, Luckily, a lovely girl is with us, so we play with her.

On the way back, passing by the grape garden, got inside and took some back home.

Karen

Chinese Wedding

Nov. 11, I attended to a friend’s wedding. I have saw that Steven called it Single's Day, however, this youth chose to end their single life that day, but would support and love each other for ever, let us pray for them.
Now, in the cities, more and more new couples choose to place the ceremony at a meeting room at hotels. They will send the invitation letter 1 week in advance (150-300 people). On that day, new couple will put on Wedding dress, stand at the gate to welcome guest during 530pm-7pm, surely, guest will congratulate them personally with Chinese Hongbao (Red Packet with money). With the start of wedding music(7pm), this couple will go into the hall together, then have a talk show on the stage for 10-15 minutes(parents, senior even boss). Around 730pm, the new couple (bride will change with a Chinese Qingbao) go to each table to thanks all of the guest. 4 parents will follow up. Some times, their friends will set a holdback on purpose, eg, the new couple tries to eat a apple hung and waving together (opposite seats) and so on. At this situation, new couple has no choice, just follow and pass.
This is not typic Chinese custom now, becomes mixture of western and Chinese.
Have not got my friend’s authorization, here only can share the wedding ornament, because it was taken by mobile, please forgive me it was not clear.

China Highlights New Staff Visited Yangshuo and Longji Terrace Field

New staff was visiting a local people's family

China Highlights new staff explored Yangshuo by bike

Four of new staff was showing their own cooked delicacies.

They took a photo in charming terrace field

Last weekend, China Highlights new staff went out and made an investigation to Yangshuo and Longji Terrace Field.

In the beautiful landscapes Yangshuo, they appreciated the country sights by bicycle and experienced the local people’s lives. They visited the exercise-ground of Tai Chi, where there were more than 5 professional Tai Chi Master to teach China Tai Chi for foreign friends. Then they learnt to cook Chinese Cuisine from a superior cook. The second day, they visited the spectacular Longji Terrace Field, which was named as “the champion of terrace world”. They was welcomed by local people and concerned departments warmly, and they even tasted the local delicacy. They also visited the hotels and restaurants that we arranged to our customers. We hope we can get another higher quality of reception to our customers through this visit.

A customer from New Zealand wanted to buy a water buffalo for local farmers in Guilin

Water buffalo has been domesticated as a very important work force for farmers for thousands of years in China. Chinese farmers use them for ploughing rice paddies and pulling carts. On the road to Li River Cruise, and by the banks of the Li River, there are many water buffalos working in the rice paddies or having a leisure time on the river side. China Highlights customers were always amazed and started screaming when seeing herds of buffalos walking in the middle of the road and stopped the traffic. When they realized that they were harmless, they would get off the car and took photos of buffalos.

After knowing how important role a water buffalo plays for farmers in Southern China, one of our clients from New Zealand decided to donate 3000yuan(US$448) to help a local family to buy a water buffalo.

Our job is to find a proper family and a proper water buffalo. One of our colleagues' father who is a farmer did the investigation for us. Here is the story about the cost of water buffalos. It costs 5000-7000yuan (US$750 -US$1,050) for a two years old female “adult” buffalo, and it costs more for a male buffalo. With 3000yuan(US$448), we can buy a baby buffalo of 6 months old. It takes 2 years to feed a baby buffalo and to train it before it will be strong enough to work. Our company is having a hard time to decide which family to help with and what buffalo to buy. But thanks to this lovely customer from New Zealand, we will get back to you with the news of the family once we got the baby buffalo.

Plough the field

Chinahighlights' singles on the Singles Day

About 1/3 of Chinahighlights' staff were celebrating the Day!

Do your singles often celebrate it like this? Or other ways to bash it?

Happy Singles Day!

Today, November the 11th, is the day for singles to celebrate and socialize in mainland China.

Why today?

November the 11th is written as "11.11" in China. The four "ones" vividly represents four singles are getting together. It is the day that has most 1s during the whole year. Just like the Singles Awareness Day that celebrated in the western countries, single people like me gather to celebrate or to commiserate in their single status after work. This celebration originally comes from early 1990s, among college students in Nanjing and becomes popular over the internet after the year of 2000.

How to celebrate it?

People celebrate it in some humorous way. One example is that we eat four Youtiao (deep-fried dough sticks, represents the four "ones") and one egg (represents the dot between them).

Buy me a pillow boyfriend to end my single life

How will you celebrate your Singles Day?

Written by Steven Zhao

Candy Wei is Touring Tibet in Winter

Unfearing all the possible difficulties, our dear colleague Candy Wei has arrived Tibet and has met Mr. Huanghu successfully, China Highlights local representatives this morning!!! She said the whether has been good, and it was not as cold as expected, she sweated actually. “What a pity that it is not snowing, hmmm, I will be definitely healthy and safe here in Tibet, and I will be stronger than usual…..” She said. Let’s hope that she will bring us good news and some nice Yak meat back.

Hero’s Journey: WW 2 Veteran Frank Gleason revisits the past

Hero’s Journey: WW 2 Veteran Frank Gleason revisits the past


On October 11th, 2008, 88-year-old American man Frank Gleason, Jr. arrived at Guiyang by air for the first time since 1944 accompanied by Richard Montgomery and Richard Martin.

In the Sino-Japanese War before 63 years, 24-year old US Army Captain Frank Gleason was dispatched to China to help the Chinese fight against Japanese forces. He returned to China and hoped to revisit the former battlefields. To make the old hero’s wish come true, China Highlights（www.chinahighlights.com） researched and made well preparation for the visit and was honored to provide our land services on a complimentary basis. Frank and his companions are warm welcome by David Zhou from China Highlights and local guide Aggie at Guiyang airport, Aggie presented flowers to Frank.

On October 13th, Frank and his party departed from Guiyang for Dushan County where in the south of Guizhou province. Frank firstly visited the War Monument and laid flowers. Then he walked to visit the Anti-War Culture Garden and Qiannan Incident Museum. There were two carvings on the wall of Culture Garden, one was the scene where refugees fled from horrors of war, and Frank remembered: ‘In Xianggui railway Retreat, he met the refugees with tattered clothes, carrying all their belongings on the shoulders and back. Many mothers held their kids and cried ‘Please take my baby’; the terrible pictures came again clearly’. The Qiannan Museum displayed photos and relics of Dushan during Sino-Japanese War, including cots and ammunition fragments. Frank looked carefully, and told us what he remembered from time to time.

In 1944, Japanese forces commenced an action to advance from South East Asia to make a connection to mainland China. By the end of 1944, Japanese forces occupied Guilin and Liuzhou, and were attacking towards the Guizhou area. Frank followed the retreating troops and came to Dushan County, where there were more then 10 arsenals near the Dushan military airport. Their mission was to bomb these arsenals and bridges to stop Japanese attack. At beginning, they use dynamite to bombed two arsenals, but it was difficult, so they burned the rest arsenals. The strong smokes were towards to the sky. and then Frank ordered his man to bomb the Shenhe Bridge outside of Du Shan county for cut the way to Guiyang, when all mission completed they retreated to Guiyang. Japanese forces occupied Dushan County finally but they could not move on any more as the bridge was destroyed. Frank and his troops stopped Japanese Invasion at the last minute. The war turned against Japan and they eventually surrendered in August, 1945.

Frank also talked about the scenes of war with the local elders. Frank talked about the great changes and the differences happened in the Du Shan county he knew more than sixty years ago. On October 14th, Frank and his party visited the old Qian gui Railway, the fields made him remember that it was the place where he bombed the arsenals years before. Frank took photos in the place where he struggled against the Japanese forces year ago.

During the next two days, Frank visited the Jidao Miao Village of Kaili, Qianhu Miao Village of Xijiang and Shiqiao Miao Village. The ceremony upon entering the Jidao Miao Village, the technology of making papers in Shiqiao Miao Village and the folk customs left deep impression on Frank. They also visited a country hope school on the way. When saw those lovely children, Frank and his party expressed a desire to do something for development of school.

On October 16th, Frank ended his time in Guizhou’s and flew to Guilin. He was eager to meet a 92-year-old Guilinese, Zhihong Lin, who was an interpreter for Flying Tigers during WW11. On the17th, Frank went to Lin’s home where the two old men talked about the unforgettable times, and Lin showed many letters from Flying Tigers to Frank. Victor Shu, Director from China Highlights hosted a farewell lunch for Frank and his party.

On October 18th, Frank departed from Guilin by air. He stayed a short time in Shanghai, and then returned to USA to end another documentary tour in China.

China Highlights wishes Frank all the best and the everlasting friendship between American and China.

Great Mother - Elaine Yang

I was told that there is nothing more valuable and sensible than to bear and bring up a baby. By whom? A great mother!
Today, the great mother Elaine Yang, who bore a boy months ago, visited her China Highlights office, embracing her lovely baby boy. Exclamations from female colleagues that you could not imagine. See the picture, might bring you back to your mother years.
The boy is sleeping in mother's arms with a smile blossoming on her face.
Lovely baby, wish those who are envious of that would speed up and be the next great mothers.

A “Change We Need and Yes We Can” speech by Barack Obama

It is amazing that our country fellows could watch the debates, speeches of the US president election in real time……. speeches or debates seem happened a lot also in University class rooms and on the market place in my country too, but there are not many opportunities for us to watch in real life.

Office Balcony Is Open Again!

The balcony is opened again after closing for a half year due to security reason; they doubted that the thief might be able to access our office by the balcony. We promised our service department to close the door to it every day after work. My colleagues are very happy with this reopening. Julian, said, "Perfect, I hope the people will use it to get some oxygen and clean their mind"; Mercier said, "好啊, 真是太太好了!"; David said, "This can be a good place for us to meet visitors to China Highlights, because this is the place got the best lake view and the best place to see the Twin Towers of Guilin". This is because of a lot of China Highlights customers wanted to meet our travel advisors while they are in Guilin. Whether a big umbrella is permitted by the "Municipal Visage Department" or not is under investigation. If it will be permitted, table and chairs will be putted over there.

Opportunities for outbound tours in the time of financial crises

The overspill of the world's financial crises is affecting many people's travel plans. Some people are changing their overseas travel plans to domestic travel, some are changing their long vacations to short trips, and some have canceled their travel plans…….

But, due to the appreciation of the Chinese Yuan against many other currencies in western countries, there is a great opportunity for Chinese people to travel abroad. Take Iceland, the world's most expensive country for example, its koruna has devalued from 15 yuan to 8 yuan. Other currencies have devaluated too in the past months. For Chinese travelers, the cost of going to Australia is 30% less expensive than the cost half a year ago. It cost 3300 yuan less for an 8-day tour to Australia which cost 14999 yuan a few months ago. A 14-day European Tour cost 23299 yuan in September, but it cost 18999 yuan this month.

I think our company should take this opportunity to promote more outbound travel than what we did befor... before the Chinese economy is affected by the crises.

Victor

Are “Change We Need”,“County First”or "Discovery Your Way" not grammatically correct?

The slogans ("Change We Need" or "County First") used by Barack Obama and John McCain who are running for the presidency of the United States seem incorrect grammatically. This reminded me of a discussion within our company about whether the company slogan was correct or not in grammar. Our company slogan is "Discovery Your Way!" which seems incorrect grammatically either. But thanks to Gavin who concluded: "Slogans do not need to have the same grammar as sentences". So, “Change We Need”,“County First”or "Discovery Your Way" are gramamatically correct as slogans.

Victor

Below is the what one of our colleagues wrote:
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Subject: China Highlights, Discovery Your Way! IS a grammatically correct SLOGAN (not a sentence)

Dear colleagues

I hear that our company slogan has had some criticism for being grammatically incorrect. You can tell people who criticize what should be common knowledge and obvious by now. Slogans do not need to have the same grammar as sentences. They are based on noun groups and minor clauses and are designed to be simple, to the point, catchy and memorable. Of course, they do need to follow certain rules of grammar and be spelt correctly*! *Where mis-spelling is deliberate this may also be used in slogans.

You might be interested to know there's a lot on the web about grammar or lack of it in slogans (Google grammar and slogans). This is an essay on the subject ( click here for the article). It includes other famous ungrammatical slogans like "Carlsberg Probably the best beer in the world". Basically, there's no problem with "China Highlights, Discovery Your Way!"

The meaning of the slogan 1. "China Highlights, Discovery Your Way!" means China Highlights (the company of this name) specialize in facilitating 'discovery', that is finding out new and exciting things about China, whilst fostering expertise with flexibility that enables trips and tours to be tailor-made to fit the needs and interests of their customers, hence 'Your Way!' (the exclamation mark emphasizes the attractiveness of such a customer-geared combination).

2. Slogans are not and never have been subject to the strictest of grammatical rules, i.e. the creation of sentences, which is the highest grammatical form in a language. In fact slogans rarely are sentences. So, to say a slogan must be a sentence is to take something away from the essence
of a slogan. However, slogans are typically formed from noun groups and minor clauses, which must be formed with correct word order and compatibility, inflection and punctuation, according to grammatical rules and the intended meaning. For example, you hear in the market place: "Delicious oranges - pound, a pound", but you will never hear: "An pound: pound orange deliciously". "China Highlights, Discovery Your Way!" IS a grammatically correct SLOGAN, but "You way! discovering, the: china Highlights'" is obviously not. click here for a more thorough analysis.

I hope this will bring an end to the unfounded criticism.