We're back from China, but it was such a great trip I can't stop thinking about it! One of the things that I really liked there were Chinese seals, also known as chops. Chops are blocks that have a name or symbol carved into them and can be used to stamp documents. Chops have been used in China for thousands of years as official signatures. Originally, chops were used just by the Emperor to sign official documents, but over time other officials started using it, and now anyone can have their own chop!

We spent our last day in China visiting the Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai. I haven't been there in many years, in fact not since before the original temple was destroyed in the 1900's (it was rebuilt in 1928), yet just stepping into the main courtyard was like stepping back in time for me.

Have you heard the legend of how tea drinking was discovered? Supposedly a few leaves from a tea plant fell into a Chinese emperor's pot of boiling water, and he decided to give it a taste. Who knows if that is actually true, but it shows that there is a long history of drinking tea in China and when we visited I couldn’t wait to learn more about it. Oh, and in Chinese the word for tea is “cha.”

What I really wanted to do when we were in China was attend a tea ceremony. You can drink tea just about anywhere, but I wanted to learn about each tea and really appreciate it. Luckily, in Shanghai we found a great one that was well worth it!

Ni Hao class (do you remember what that means?). Kiweenie Lao Shi here again with part two of my lesson about the Chinese language. We learned how to say a few helpful phrases in our last class and I hope you've been practicing them. We've been using them a lot here in China! As you've been touring Beijing with us you've probably noticed that the spoken language is not the only part of Chinese that is very different from English.

Eating in China is soooooo much fun! You just walk around the street and there are people with little carts set up, or in tiny storefront shops, selling delicious dumplings, soups, buns, and my new favorite—spring onion pancakes! The only way these are anything like a pancake is they're flat. Other than that they are more like a yummy, savory, fried dough (I definitely wouldn't recommend them for breakfast). In China, they only cost us about ten cents each, and I got one fresh from the cooker. It was so hot it burned my hands, but it was worth it!

I really wanted to learn how to make these so I got Moo-Cow's expert cooking help. It turns out that they are simple to make with just a few basic ingredients! Here's our recipe. I hope you find them as delicious as we do!

Some signs don't need bad translations to be funny!

Editors Note: You wouldn't know it, even when you're standing right in front of it, but this is the sign for one of the best restaurants we've ever been to. We had the greatest meal of our trip there.

Lesson 1

Ni hao class! It's me Kiweenie Lao Shi (teacher Kiweenie). Since we've been in China I've been really interested in the Chinese language. I've even begun picking up a few words and phrases. Because you’re traveling through China with us I thought it would be important for you to learn a few words of Chinese too. Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on you because the Chinese language is very difficult!

As soon as we got to China, Moo-Cow began noticing that some of the signs that have been translated into English have been done so in a really funny way, and some are just outright strange. Many seem like poor translations, while others seem very poetic. Moo-Cow has his camera on him at all times and will be snapping some pictures of the best signs he sees on the streets of Beijing and Shanghai. He thinks you’ll find them as funny as he does!

He's going to start with one of his favorites so far. These are some rules posted at the Great Wall in Mutianyu.

< I I >

( . . )

The Great Wall