Peonies of Luoyang
Flowers are huge in Chinese culture. The city of Luoyang 洛阳 is famous for peonies (mǔdān, 牡丹). I went there in April a few years ago, when the flowers are in bloom and when many events and expos are held in the city’s numerous botanical …
Cradle of writing (or the fate of king’s toothache)
Yīnxū 殷墟 in Anyang city is one of the world’s most important archeological sites. We are talking about very, very old times here: Tutankhamun-old and Trojan War-old; the times of Ancient Babylon, the times of Rigveda, the times of replacing bronze tools with iron ones. …