Jiaozi
Jiaozi / are a kind of Chinese dumpling, commonly eaten in China and other parts of East Asia. They are one of the foods eaten during the Chinese New Year. Though considered part of Chinese cuisine, jiaozi are popular in parts of Asia. Jiaozi typically consist of a ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough, in China, there are several different folk stories explaining the origin of jiaozi and its name. Traditionally, jiaozi were thought to be invented during the era of the Eastern Han by Zhang Zhongjing who was a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine. Jiaozi were originally referred to as tender ears because they were used to treat frostbitten ears, Zhang Zhongjing was on his way home during wintertime, when he found many common people had frostbitten ears, because they did not have warm clothes and sufficient food. He treated these people by stewing lamb and some warming medicines in a pot, chopped them. He boiled these dumplings and gave them with the broth to his patients, in order to celebrate the New Year as well as recovering from frostbitten ears, people imitated Zhangs recipe to make Jiaoer.
Other theories suggest that jiaozi may have derived from dumplings in Western Asia, in the Western Han dynasty jiaozi were called Jiaozi. During the Three Kingdoms period, the book Guang Ya written by Zhang Yi mentions jiaozi, yan Zitui during the Northern Qi dynasty wrote, Today the jiaozi, shaped like a crescent moon, is a common food in the world. Six Dynasties Turfan tombs contained dumplings, in the Tang Dynasty, jiaozi become more popular, called Bian Shi. Chinese archaeologists have found a bowl of jiaozi in the Tang Dynasty tombs in Turpan, 7th or 8th Century dumplings and wontons were found in Turfan. Jiaozi may be named because they are horn-shaped, many families eat these at midnight on Chinese New Years Eve. Some cooks will even hide a clean coin inside a jiaozi for the lucky to find, jiaozi are eaten year-round, and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They can be served as an appetizer, a side dish, in China, sometimes jiaozi is served as a last course during restaurant meals.
As a breakfast dish, jiaozi are prepared alongside xiaolongbao at inexpensive roadside restaurants, they are served in small steamers containing ten pieces each. Although mainly serving jiaozi to breakfast customers, these small restaurants keep them hot on steamers, Jiaozi are always served with a soy sauce-based dipping sauce that may include vinegar, ginger, rice wine, hot sauce, and sesame oil. Chinese dumplings may be divided into types depending on how they are cooked, Boiled dumplings Steamed dumplings Pan fried dumplings
Taro cake
Taro cake is a Chinese dish made from the vegetable taro. While it is denser in texture than radish cakes, both these savory cakes made in a ways, with rice flour as the main ingredient. When served in dim sum cuisine, it is cut into square-shaped slices and it is found in Hong Kong and overseas Chinatowns restaurants. Other ingredients often include pork and Chinese black mushroom, or even Chinese sausages and it is usually topped with chopped scallions. The pan fried square taro cake is semi-crunchy on the outside and it is the most consistent version with more or less the same formula in East and Southeast Asia, or among overseas Chinese communities. The other version is the more home-style baked version, usually it uses the same ingredients and steamed for long periods of time in a deep pan until it is ultra soft and pasty. The formula varies greatly depending on the recipe or regional tastes. Some restaurants offer taro cakes cut into cubes as part of a main course appetizer to a major Chinese cuisine.
These are sometimes frozen to a solid state, though it is not nearly as common as the other forms. A similar dish is prepared in the cuisine of Vietnam, where it is called bánh khoai môn, Taro cake, is sometimes referred to as yam cake, which is made from taro and not from yam due to the mistranslation in Malaysia and Singapore. Turnip cake Water chestnut cake Nian gao Taro dumpling
Nian gao
Nian gao, sometimes translated as year cake or Chinese New Years cake, is a food prepared from glutinous rice and consumed in Chinese cuisine. While it can be eaten all year round, traditionally it is most popular during Chinese New Year and it is traditionally eaten during the Duanwu Festival. It is considered good luck to eat nian gao during this time, the Chinese word 粘, meaning sticky, is identical in sound to 年, meaning year, and the word 糕, meaning cake is identical in sound to 高, meaning high or tall. As such, eating nian gao has the symbolism of raising oneself taller in each coming year and it is known as a rice cake. Nian gao sounds identical to 年高 implying promotions or prosperity year after year and this association makes nian gao a popular gift item during the New Year period. On the more level, nian gao are popular as gifts during the Chinese New Year. The traditional nian gao is round with an auspicious decoration such as the character for prosperity on its top, the character is often written in the traditional Chinese script.
As a gift item, nian gao are fashioned into different shapes with attractive packaging to suit the festive season, popular designs include a pair of carps symbolizing surplus every year, ingots, or the God of Wealth 財神. These designs are auspicious symbols and send good wishes for the New Year, some innovative producers have added a scratch area for consumers to reveal a lucky number for lottery bets. Nian gao has many varieties including the types found in Shanghai cuisine, Fujian cuisine, the Shanghai Niangao style is usually packaged in a thick soft rod to be sliced up or packaged pre-sliced and either stir-fried or added to soup. Depending on the cooking method this style is a soft to a chewy variant, the Shanghai style keeps the nian gao white, and made with non-glutinous rice. The color is its distinct feature, when served as a dish, the most common is the stir-fry method, hence the name. The first is a dish, common ingredients include scallions, pork, cabbage. The second is a version using standard white sugar.
The last version is taste-less, and is consumed for its chewy textures. Northern nian gao can be steamed or fried, mainly sweet in taste, beijing nian gao including jujube nian gao, mince nian gao and white nian gao. Shanxi has the habit of making nian gao using fried yellow rice, hebei has the habit of using jujube, small red beans and green beans to steam nian gao. In Shandong, it is made of red dates and yellow rice, the northeast nian gao is made of beans on sticky sorghum
Chinese zodiac
The Chinese zodiac is a classification scheme that assigns an animal and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating 12-year cycle. The 12-year cycle is an approximation to the 11. 86-year orbital period of Jupiter, there are major differences, the Chinese 12-part cycle corresponds to years, rather than months. The Chinese zodiac is represented by 12 animals, whereas some of the signs in the Western zodiac are not animals, the animals of the Chinese zodiac are not associated with constellations spanned by the ecliptic plane. The zodiac traditionally begins with the sign of the Rat, the following are the twelve zodiac signs in order and their characteristics. It is a misconception that the animals assigned by year are the only signs. In fact, there are animal signs assigned by month, by day, while a person might appear to be a Dragon because they were born in the year of the Dragon, they might be a Snake internally, an Ox truly, and a Goat secretively. A conflict between a persons zodiac sign and how they live is known as tai sui or kai sui, within the Four Pillars, the year is the pillar representing information about the persons family background and society or relationship with their grandparents.
The persons age can be deduced from the sign of the person, the current sign of the year. For example, a person who is a Tiger is either 12,24,36 or 48 years old in 2010, in 2011, the year of the Rabbit, that person is one year older. The following table shows the 60-year cycle matched up to the Western calendar for the years 1924–2043, the sexagenary cycle begins at lichun about February 4 according to some astrological sources. Within the Four Pillars, the month is the pillar representing information about the parents or childhood. Many Chinese astrologers consider the month pillar to be the most important one in determining the circumstances of ones adult life, the 12 animals are linked to traditional Chinese agricultural calendar, which runs alongside the better known lunar calendar. Instead of months, this calendar is divided into 24 two week segments known as Solar Terms, each animal is linked to two of these solar terms for a period similar to the Western month. Again unlike the cycle of the years, which begins with the Rat.
Around summer days are longer than days, because it occurs differences of perihelion and aphelion. As each sign is linked to a month of the solar year, each of the elements is linked to a season, and the element that shares a season with a sign is known as that signs fixed element. In other words, that element is believed to some of its characteristics to the sign concerned. The fixed element of each sign applies to the year and hour signs and it is important to note that the fixed element is separate from the cycle of elements which interact with the signs in the 60-year cycle
Parade
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind. In Britain the term parade is usually reserved for military parades or other occasions where participants march in formation. In the Canadian Forces the term has less formal connotations. Protest demonstrations can take the form of a parade, the parade float got its name because the first floats were decorated barges that were towed along canals with ropes held by parade marchers on the shore. Floats were occasionally propelled from within by concealed oarsmen, but the practice was abandoned because of the incidence of drowning when the lightweight. Strikingly, among the first uses of grounded floats — towed by horses — was a ceremony in memory of recently drowned parade oarsmen, parade floats are traditionally pulled by motor vehicles or are powered themselves. A grand marshal is a title given to an individual by the organizing committee of a periodic parade event.
Similar to guests of honor at fan conventions, a marshal is selected on any basis relevant to the theme or nature of the parade. Multiple grand marshals may often be designated for an iteration of the parade, some parades, such as pride parades, may select a Community Grand Marshal or other designations alongside a Grand Marshal to lead the front or other parts of the parade. Since the advent of technology, it became possible for aircraft. A flypast is a parade of anything from one to dozens of aircraft. They are particularly common in the United Kingdom, where they are associated with Royal occasions. Similarly, for ships, there may be a sail-past of, the longest parade in the world is the Hanover Schützenfest that takes place in Hanover every year during the Schützenfest. The parade is 12 kilometres long with more than 12,000 participants from all over the world, among more than 100 bands and around 70 floats
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian entertainment company. It is the largest theatrical producer in the world, based in Montreal, Quebec and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix. Initially named Les Échassiers, they toured Quebec in 1980 as a performing troupe and their initial financial hardship was relieved in 1983 by a government grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, as part of the 450th anniversary celebrations of Jacques Cartiers voyage to Canada. Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil was a success in 1984 and its theatrical, character-driven approach and the absence of performing animals helped define Cirque du Soleil as the contemporary circus that it remains today. Each show is a synthesis of styles from around the world, with its own central theme. Shows employ continuous live music, with rather than stagehands changing the props. Cirque du Soleil expanded rapidly through the 1990s and 2000s, going from one show to 19 shows in over 271 cities on every continent except Antarctica, the shows employ approximately 4,000 people from over 40 countries and generate an estimated annual revenue exceeding US$810 million.
The multiple permanent Las Vegas shows alone play to more than 9,000 people a night, 5% of the citys visitors, in 2000, Laliberté bought out Gauthier, and with 95% ownership, has continued to expand the brand. In 2008, Laliberté split 20% of his share equally between two investment groups Istithmar World and Nakheel of Dubai, in order to finance the companys goals. In partnership with two groups, Cirque du Soleil had planned to build a residency show in the United Arab Emirates in 2012 directed by Guy Caron. Several more shows are in development around the world, along with a deal, womens clothing line. Cirque du Soleil produces a number of private and corporate events each year. In 2000, Cirque du Soleil was awarded the National Arts Centre Award, in 2002, Cirque du Soleil was inducted into Canadas Walk of Fame. In 2015, TPG Capital, Fosun Industrial Holdings and Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec purchased 90% of Cirque du Soleil, the sale received regulatory approval from the Government of Canada on 30 June 2015.
At age 18, interested in pursuing some kind of performing career, Guy Laliberté quit college and he toured Europe as a folk musician and busker. By the time he returned home to Canada in 1979, he had learned the art of fire breathing, although he became employed at a hydroelectric power plant in James Bay, his job ended after only three days due to a labour strike. He decided not to look for job, instead supporting himself on his unemployment insurance. He helped organize a fair in Baie-Saint-Paul with the help of a pair of friends named Daniel Gauthier
Dragon dance
Dragon dance is a form of traditional dance and performance in Chinese culture. Like the lion dance it is most often seen in festive celebrations, the dance is performed by a team of dancers who manipulate a long flexible figure of a dragon using poles positioned at regular intervals along the length of the dragon. The dance team simulates the movements of this river spirit in a sinuous. The dragon dance is performed during Chinese New Year. Chinese dragons are a symbol of China, and they are believed to bring luck to people, therefore the longer the dragon in the dance. The dragons are believed to possess qualities that great power, fertility, wisdom. The appearance of a dragon is both fearsome and bold but it has a benevolent disposition, and it was an emblem to represent imperial authority, the movements in a performance traditionally symbolize historical roles of dragons demonstrating power and dignity. During the Han Dynasty, different forms of the dance were described in ancient texts. The number of dragons, their length and colour, as well as the performers may vary according to the time of year, the dragon acts of the Han Dynasty were mentioned in the Tang and Song Dynasty.
Such dragon lanterns may be carried and paraded by performers in the street during the Lantern festival at nighttime, a form of dragon dance from Tongliang County, which originated as snake totem worship, began during the Ming Dynasty and became popular in the Qing Dynasty. The number of different dragon dances has been put at over 700, the dragon is a long serpentine body formed of a number of sections on poles, with a dragon head and a tail. The dragon is assembled by joining the series of hoops on each section and attaching the ornamental head, the size and length of a dragon depends on the human power available, financial power, materials and size of the field. A small organization cannot afford to run a very long dragon because it requires considerable power, great expenses. The normal length and size of the body recommended for the dragon is 34 metres and is divided into 9 major sections, the distance of each minor section is 35 cm apart, the body has 81 rings. Many may be up to 15 sections long, and some dragons are as long as 46 sections.
Sun Loong in Bendigo, Australia was, at the time it was made in 1970, much longer dragons have been created for one-off events. The world record for the longest dragon is 5,605 metres, historically the dragon dance may be performed in a variety of ways with different types and colors of dragon. Green is sometimes selected as a color of the dragon
Lunar New Year Fair
Lunar New Year Fair is a type of fair held annually a few days before Lunar New Year in Chinese New Year markets in China. The Lunar New Year Fair history can be traced back to the Wanli Emperor age of the Ming Dynasty, by this time, Flower Peasants sold flowers in a market in areas south of the Pearl River. These ancient flower markets were held every day at no fixed location, in the 1860s, the flower market began to be held only during Lunar New Years Eve. A particularly big fair was held in 1919, shortly after the Peoples Republic of China was founded in 1949, many Cantonese people immigrated to Hong Kong from Guangzhou and other Pearl River Delta areas, taking the market tradition with them. In Hong Kong, fairs are held in locations, notably Victoria Park. These fairs gather hundreds of stalls for various goods, half of the area sells auspicious flowering plants like narcissus, chrysanthemum and fruit plants like mandarin. The other half sells dry goods for Chinese New Year, the fairs draw many visitors as part of the custom of hang nin siu or hang fa shi.
The crowd peaks at a few hours before and after midnight of New Years Day, stall tenders try to sell off all their stocks in these few hours before the fair closes, because surplus flowers are normally destroyed. In the 2000s youths from various organisations, secondary schools. For example, in 2007, students from various schools set up stalls to sell many products which are related to the pig, for example Pig Tissue Holder, Fatty Pork Chop Scarf. Traditionally, the Governor of Hong Kong visited the fair annually, usually in Victoria Park, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong continues this tradition. During the rule of the PRC, the Lunar New Year Fair was interrupted only once, guangzhous fair is held 3 days before Lunar New Years Eve. It sells New Year Trees and other goods, in Guangzhou, there is at least one fair in each district, which became a custom since the 1960s. Auction of stalls by HK government
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Pinterest, Uber, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings.
The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849.
The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
Chinese dragon
Chinese dragons are legendary creatures in Chinese mythology and Chinese folklore. The dragons have many forms such as turtles and imaginary. Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, typhoons, the dragon is a symbol of power and good luck for people who are worthy of it. With this, the Emperor of China usually used the dragon as a symbol of his imperial power and strength. In Chinese daily language and outstanding people are compared to a dragon, while people with no achievements are compared with other, disesteemed creatures. A number of Chinese proverbs and idioms feature references to a dragon, the dragon was associated with the Emperor of China and used a symbol to represent imperial power. The founder of Han dynasty Liu Bang claimed that he was conceived after his mother dreamt of a dragon, during the Tang dynasty, Emperors wore robes with dragon motif as an imperial symbol, and high officials might be presented with dragon robes.
In the Yuan dynasty, the two-horned five-clawed dragon was designated for use by the Son of Heaven or Emperor only, similarly during the Ming and Qin dynasty, the five-clawed dragon was strictly reserved for use by the Emperor only. The dragon in the Qing dynasty appeared on the first Chinese national flag, the dragon is sometimes used in the West as a national emblem of China. However, this usage within either the Peoples Republic of China or the Republic of China on Taiwan as the symbol of nation is not common, instead, it is generally used as the symbol of culture. In Hong Kong, the dragon was on the Coat of arms of Hong Kong during colonial time, now it is part of the design of Brand Hong Kong, a symbol used to promote Hong Kong as an international brand name. The dragon is the symbol of Chinese emperor in many dynasties, during the Qing dynasty, the Azure Dragon was featured on the first Chinese national flag, until Qing collapsed. It featured shortly again on the Twelve Symbols national emblem, which was used during the Republic of China, the ancient Chinese self-identified as the descendants of the dragon because the Chinese dragon is an imagined reptile that represents evolution from the ancestors and qi energy.
Some of the earliest Dragon artifacts are the pig dragon carvings from the Hongshan culture, the coiled dragon or snake form played an important role in early Chinese culture. The character for dragon in the earliest Chinese writing has a coiled form. Ancient Chinese referred to unearthed dinosaur bones as dragon bones and documented them as such, for example, Chang Qu in 300 BC documents the discovery of dragon bones in Sichuan. The modern Chinese word for dinosaur is konglong, and villagers in central China have long unearthed fossilized dragon bones for use in traditional medicines, the binomial name for a variety of dinosaurs discovered in China, Mei long, in Chinese means sleeping dragon. From its origins as totems or the depiction of natural creatures
Bakkwa
Bakkwa, known as rougan, is a Chinese salty-sweet dried meat product similar to jerky. It originated from the Fujian province in China where it is considered a Hokkien delicacy, bakkwa is made with a meat preservation and preparation technique originating from China. The general method for production have remained unchanged throughout the centuries. It is traditionally made of pork, which is prepared with spices, sugar and soy sauce, products with a softer texture, lighter colour and less sugar are preferred. The bakkwa products with the water content, thus having softer texture. Nevertheless, shafu can have similar life as other types of bakkwa. The meat is most commonly served plain and in square-shaped slices in the form of thin sheets. Bakkwa is immensely popular in Singapore and Malaysia where it is eaten during Chinese New Year. When Chinese immigrants brought this delicacy over to Singapore and Malaysia, a notable example lies in the preparation of bakkwa, where the meat once still being air-dried is instead grilled over charcoal.
This imparts a smokier flavour to the meat, the Singaporean and Malaysian versions of bakkwa are sweeter than its mainland China counterpart with many different variations adapted to suit the local palate such as chilli bakkwa. Rousong Dried shredded squid Jerky Dendeng List of dried foods List of pork dishes
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines Co. is a major U. S. airline, the worlds largest low-cost carrier, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The airline was established in 1967 by Herb Kelleher and adopted its current name in 1971, the airline has more than 53,000 employees as of October 2016 and operates more than 3,900 departures a day during peak travel season. As of 2014, it carried the most domestic passengers of any U. S. airline, as of December 2016, Southwest Airlines had scheduled services to 101 destinations in the United States and eight additional countries. Service to both Grand Cayman and Cincinnati begins June 4,2017, Southwest Airlines has used only Boeing 737s, except for the period from 1979 to 1987 when it leased some Boeing 727-200s from Braniff International Airways. As of January 2016, Southwest is the largest operator of the Boeing 737 worldwide, with over 700 in service, in 1966 Southwest Airlines was founded by Rollin King and Herbert Kelleher, in 1967 it was incorporated as Air Southwest Company.
It was not until 1971 that the airline began scheduled flights, the same year the organization adopted the name Southwest Airlines. The expansion of flights started in 1975, to cities throughout Texas, Service to the East and the Southeast started in the 1990s. The company has employed humor in its advertising, the airlines current slogan is Low fares. Instead of a lawsuit, the CEOs for both companies staged an arm wrestling match, a promotional video was created showing the CEOs training for the bout and distributed among the employees and as a video press release along with the video of the match itself. Herb Kelleher lost the match for Southwest, with Stevens Aviation winning the rights to the phrase, kurt Herwald, CEO of Stevens Aviation, immediately granted the use of Just Plane Smart to Southwest Airlines. The net result was both companies having use of the trademark, $15,000 going to charity and good publicity for both companies, Southwest Airlines is the official commercial airline of the Honor Flight Network.
Honor Flights are dedicated to bringing aging and ailing veterans to visit the monuments in Washington. The Southwest Airlines headquarters is located on the grounds of Dallas Love Field in the Love Field neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, on September 17,2012, Southwest broke ground on a new Training and Operational Support building. The TOPS Building is across the street from its current headquarters building, the property includes a two-story,100, 000-square-foot operations building that can withstand an EF3 tornado. It includes a four-story,392, 000-square-foot office and training facility with two levels devoted to each function, the new facilities house 24-hour coordination and maintenance operations, customer support and services, and training. The project was completed in late 2013, with occupancy beginning in 2014, as of December 31,2016, Southwest Airlines has more than 53,000 employees. Gary C. Kelly is Chairman and CEO of Southwest Airlines, Kelly replaced former CEO Jim Parker on July 15,2004 and assumed the title of President on July 15,2008, replacing former President Colleen Barrett.
In July 2008, Herb Kelleher resigned his position as Chairman, Colleen Barrett left her post on the Board of Directors and as Corporate Secretary in May 2008 and as President in July 2008
