Articles written by Sapore di Cina - Page 9 of 9

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Kashgar old town – A glance at the Silk Road (Photo Essay)

Updated on February 9, 2022 by Sapore di Cina 5 Comments

Kashgar, which was one of the most important oasis along the Silk Road, is situated at the extreme West of Xinjiang Province, between the Taklamakan Desert and the border with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Even if today has about 400,000 people and its newest neighborhoods are similar to many other Chinese cities, Kashgar features one the best-preserved traditional Islamic city of Central Asia.

With this photo essay I hope to introduce you to the atmosphere of a town that, in my opinion, has the same charm of another “Chinese” city soaked of history and mystery, Lhasa. [Read more…]

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How to survive to the crazy Vietnamese traffic (plenty of photos and videos)

Updated on February 9, 2022 by Sapore di Cina 8 Comments

While we get on the night bus that will bring us to Hué I look at Jelen and tell her:

“I’m happy we are leaving Hanoi. I was craving a bit of peace.”

It wasn’t because of the insistence of the street vendors or the screams of the pseudo-backpackers that cross the world to get drunk in an hostel 24/7.

It was the traffic that exhausted me.

I had heard some horror stories about the traffic in Vietnam but I wasn’t prepared for it. I mean, I’ve spent the last two years and an half between Beijing and Shanghai.

What the hell could possibly affect me? [Read more…]

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Six months of Chinese flashcards’ review: The lessons I learned

Updated on August 20, 2020 by Sapore di Cina 5 Comments

chinese flashcards Anki’s screenshot: The number of flashcards I reviewed every day in the past six months.

Click here to discover what Chinese courses
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It’d been six months that I’m studying Chinese in a regular fashion. The idea was not to master the language as fast as I could. This is not a race.

It was more about using unconventional methods to improve my Mandarin in a significant way even if I can only study about an hour per day.

In these six months there were choices that I got right from the beginning and things that I could have done better. Much better.

“Errare humanum est, perseverare autem diabolicum.”

The main goal of this post is to highlight all the things I did right and, most important, all my mistakes so that I (and maybe you too) can avoid them in the future.

The choices I would do again

I took the time to learn how to use Anki, a Space Repetition Software (SRS) that helps me to review the new words that I’m studying in a clever way. If you don’t know what it is, I suggest you to read Anki: a shortcut for learning Chinese.

I spent about 150 USD for two Chinese courses (Rocket Chinese and Chinesepod). In the next months I may write a review of the courses, but I think this is secondary. What’s important is that [Read more…]

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Dog meat in Vietnam (photos NSFW)

Updated on February 9, 2022 by Sapore di Cina 3 Comments

It’s more than two years that I live in China – the country of dog-eaters by default – but I’d never seen a slaughtered dog.

It may be because I only spent a few weeks in Guangxi and Guangdong Provinces, the Southern provinces where the habit of eating dog meat is most common.

Or maybe because eating dog meat is not as common as people think and you have to make a conscious effort to find it.

The point is that it took me less than two hours of sightseeing in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, to find a dog butchery.

Well, it wasn’t exactly a butchery as there were two girls selling raw and roasted dog meat (thịt chó in the Vietnamese language) on a table in the street.

This is a controversial topic in the West.

We do not eat dogs. We consider dogs as part of our family. I personally grew up with a German Shepard called Apo and I love dogs. Almost as much as I love cats. And I distrust people that dislike animals.

But before you get mad at the Vietnamese for eating dogs – or at me for showing these pictures, – think about that.

In India, you go to prison if you kill a cow. In California people can legally butcher AND eat cows but slaughtering a horse is forbidden. In Italy, we eat both cows AND horses. However, we are horrified by people that eat dogs.

In Northern Vietnam eating dog meat is a widely accepted tradition. This is their culture and we should accept it, even if we disagree.

This photo gallery show slaughtered dogs. If you think it may hurt your feelings, you should leave this page now. [Read more…]

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Mama I wanna be a playboy in Saigon

Updated on February 9, 2022 by Sapore di Cina Leave a Comment

Bui Vien, the most touristic street of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).

The approach

“Do you know how to eat it?” I hear from the table behind.

“No idea,” answers one the two girls that are sitting at the table beside mine.

“I was sure you didn’t,” keeps going the guy. Now that he has established a contact his voice has gained confidence.

“See, you have to put the shrimps and the salad inside. Then roll the bread around it.”

“Ohhhhh,” react the girls.

I switch my attention from the typhoon Haikui [Read more…]

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Ten unconventional habits of Vietnamese (photo stories)

Updated on February 9, 2022 by Sapore di Cina 17 Comments

Before arriving in Vietnam I was expecting a country similar to southwest China with less pollution and more scooters. And I was right!

No, wait, I’m just joking. There are a lot of differences between China and Vietnam.

In this post I would like to underline ten habits of Vietnamese that surprised me (keep in mind this is the first time I visited South East Asia).

But lets the images talk!

Who says you need a car to grow a family?

In Vietnam, few people have a car and public transportation is quite poor. Hence people learned how to optimize the space on their scooter [Read more…]

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Chinese characters: Remember the Hanzi, a controversial method

Updated on February 15, 2022 by Sapore di Cina 14 Comments

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This post is a review of the method invented by James Heisig, the master of Kanji (the alphabet that Japanese people borrowed from China) and Hanzi, that is the Chinese characters.

The introduction of Remember Simplified Hanzi by J. Heisig and T. Richardson starts with the following sentence:

The aim of this course is to help you teach yourself, as quickly and efficiently as possible, the meaning and writing of the 3,000 most commonly used Chinese characters.

[Read more…]

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Go to the doctor in China

Updated on February 11, 2022 by Sapore di Cina 12 Comments

Introducing the creatures that populate my feet

It must be the humidity.

Or maybe the fact that I never bring flip-flops with me when I travel. It’s not my fault, my zoom takes all the space available on my bag!

The point is that I got a fungus that is slowly (well, not that slowly) eating my feet. When after two weeks of itch I told it to Feng, she laughs at me:

“Haha come on, it’s summer. Everybody in China has the same problem, stop complaining!”

What a sweet girl I got. [Read more…]

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The art of war by Sun Tzu

Updated on February 14, 2022 by Sapore di Cina 2 Comments

“The best is not to win one hundred battles in one hundred, but to subdue the enemy without fight.”

“To mistreat the men and then fear their reaction is the maximum of stupidity.”

“When the men are pushed in a position without exit, they will not escape even in front of death. In this situation nothing is impossible.”

These are some of my favorite quotes from The art of war, the first military treatise of ancient China. [Read more…]

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The advantage of memorizing Chinese characters in a context

Updated on February 14, 2022 by Sapore di Cina 10 Comments

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I’ve already discussed in my plan to learn Chinese how I prefer to rely on the “context” while learning a language.

This post tells how, when I started to study Mandarin again some months ago, I was able to fix forever on my mind (well let’s say till next year) four Chinese words by placing them in a well-defined context, instead of trying to learn them by endless repetition or character by character (Remember the Hanzi style). [Read more…]

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Gubeikou: Hiking on the Wild Great Wall

Updated on February 16, 2022 by Sapore di Cina 6 Comments

greatwall-gubeikou The great wall of Pan Long Shan, the Mountain of the Curling Dragon.

The most visited sections of the Chinese great wall (长城, Cháng Chéng) are Badaling and Mutianyu, which are quite close to Beijing and easy to reach by public transportation.

The problem is that there are so many tourists and, more than being on the defense bastions of the Middle Kingdom, you have the impression of being teleported in Times Square for New Year’s Eve. Another disturbing detail is that the original “wall” gets lost among renovations, shops and Disney style toboggans.

Resolute to visit the wild wall I decided to reach Gubeikou, an ancient village one hundred and twenty kilometers North of Beijing from which depart two sections of the Great Wall: 卧虎山 (Wò Hǔ Shān, Mountain of the Crouching Tiger) and [Read more…]

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From Lijiang to Lugu Lake: Chronicle of a Hectic Trip

Updated on February 15, 2022 by Sapore di Cina 7 Comments

Lijiang, Yunnan Lijiang: the South door to Tibet.

This story tells how instead of getting on the public bus that from Lijiang arrives at Lugu Lake – the homeland of Mosuo people, last matriarchal tribe, – we trusted a crazy driver and reached the lake only after ten hours of vicissitudes.

From Dali to Lijiang

We leave Dali to reach Lijiang in a comfortable minivan packed with German tourists, their flip flips and a some Yunnan campesinos. [Read more…]

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Find out how much of a Chinese newspaper you can understand

Updated on March 4, 2019 by Sapore di Cina 8 Comments

chinese level

Click here to discover what Chinese courses
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Two months ago I started to study Chinese (here my plan: How to learn Chinese fast: my (lazy) way) and decided to share my progresses on this blog as an extreme attempt to keep motivated. However, a post only talking about me and my studies would be so boring for you to read!

How much of a Chinese newspaper can you understand?

Thus I decided that every month I will share a useful resource to learn Chinese and only at the end of the post I will detail my progresses. Today I want to talk about Chinese Level, a website that promise to estimate how much of a Chinese newspaper you can read and then suggest you some stories in Chinese language that fit your current level so that you will not get bored reading a bunch of stuff you do not understand (the website is quite new and if I understood well this features is not ready yet). [Read more…]

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The Stone Forest and the legend of Ashima

Updated on February 11, 2022 by Sapore di Cina 3 Comments

stone forest yunnan

Yunnan is one of most touristic Chinese provinces, especially in summer when everywhere else in China is damn hot. This means that an army of Chinese people had our same idea: visit 石林 (shilin), the Stone Forest. The etymology of the character “林” is one of those that remind me why I like Chinese:

木=mu=tree; 木+木=林=lin= forest. Being we so damn smart – or at least this is what we think – instead of staying in a comfortable hotel in Kunming and arrive to the forest tomorrow morning when the sun is already shining over the stones, we get on the first bus to Shilin and arrive there about seven pm. The first people we meet are a farmer with his steer and an hotel manager that tries to pitch his hotel as the best in Yunnan. We run away and order dinner at the restaurant next door: mushrooms, local cheese (for what I know Yunnan people are the only Chinese that do decent cheese), giant tomatoes and boiled chicken. [Read more…]

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Anki flashcards: A shortcut for learning Chinese

Updated on July 30, 2020 by Sapore di Cina 5 Comments

Click here to discover what Chinese courses
that we recommend at the moment!

Disclaimer: Even if this post mainly target Chinese learners, the ideas I share are quite general and I believe they hold true for any language.

Why should you use flashcards to study Chinese?

The use of flashcards involves active recall testing, that is being asked a question and trying to remember the answer. There are two main reasons why active recall is better than passive study:

a) Recalling something increases the chance you will remember it because strengthens your memory.

b) If you don’t remember the answer to a question, you know you need to review that specific material.

What’s a spaced repetition software (SRS)?

Many people use flashcards without a precise scheduling, reviewing them “when they feel it.” I was one of them, and of course I quickly ended up not revising my flashcards at all because it was a lot of work for a quite poor result. Not cool…

So, how to use these holy flashcards?

We all know our brain acts as a filter and only remembers [Read more…]

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The art of seduction: the story of Xi Shi, beauty of China

Updated on February 11, 2022 by Sapore di Cina Leave a Comment

The art of seduction West Lake, Hangzhou.

The West Lake (西湖, Xī Hú) in Hangzhou is said to be the incarnation of 西施 (Xī Shī), one of the four beauties of China. Hence it is also called Xi Zi Lake, where “Xi Zi” means Lady Xi.

This is the story of Xi Shi as told in The Art of Seduction, the best seller of Robert Greene.

“In the fifth century B.C., Fu Chai, the king of Wu, defeated Gou Chien, the king of Yue. Gou Chien was captured and forced to serve in Fu Chai’s stables. He was finally allowed to return home, but every year he had to pay a large tribute of money.

One year Gou Jian sent as part of the tribute two beautiful maidens to Fu Chai, who [Read more…]

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Five Reasons to Hate China (and Five Reasons to Love China)

Updated on February 15, 2022 by Sapore di Cina 11 Comments

hate china How to pee on the street…

The daily savageries

Where do I start from?

The Beijingers that every summer wander with the t-shirt rolled-up on the stomach to get some fresh air; the Qingdao people puking in Pijiu Jie (Beer Street); the hygiene (?!) of the restaurants’ kitchens among the draining of dirty waters, garbage of epic dimension and fishes beheaded on the wet floor; the loud spits, so popular all over the Middle Kingdom; the parents that push the little children to pee on the sidewalks; the free burps at the office or the followers of Schwarzenegger that arrive at the gym without t-shirt and let a ring of sweat on each bench?

The traffic

In Beijing even the taxi drivers get lost. Then they scream: [Read more…]

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Prostitution in China

Updated on February 11, 2022 by Sapore di Cina 9 Comments

Prostitution in China An example of business card you may get walking down Nanjing Road, Shanghai.

In Shanghai there are so many prostitutes that I got curious and I did some researches about prostitution in China. One of best source of information on the topics is Red Lights: The Lives of Sex Workers in Postsocialist China.

According to the local police, in China there are seven categories of prostitutes (see N. Dougherty’s master thesis for details): [Read more…]

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SF Express: How to send a document in China

Updated on March 16, 2022 by Sapore di Cina 2 Comments

SF-express

This story tells about my first experience with SF Express (Shun Feng), which delivers documents and goods within one day everywhere in China and Hong Kong.

Before I used to go to a Chinese post office and utilize the EMS service, but with SF Express you only need to call the 4008 111 111 and tell them where to go in order to get your documents and send them overnight. The operators speak English and the delivery boy will usually find you within one hour.

He will take your order and let you a receipt with a track number. For tracking your documents, just go to S.F. Express website and insert the track number. It is that simple!

OK, here my story.

Every time I change country, I crash against local bureaucracy. So far, the Chinese one is the most difficult I found. I guess my approximate knowledge of the language doesn’t help, but there are so many laws that vary from one province to another and so many offices you have to pass through, that gets to a point where nobody knows what to do is quite common.

Further, if the documents you are looking for need some [Read more…]

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