Discover China

Heavy rain has been battering China’s Yunnan, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong Provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Large numbers of people have been impacted with 379 killed and many more evacuated from their flooded homes and direct economic losses of 82.4 billion yuan, as shown in this CCTV9 Special Report. I send my condolences and thoughts to everyone who has been affected.

Chinese archaeologists have unearthed about 120 more figures in their latest round of excavations at the Terracotta Army site that surrounds the tomb of China’s first emperor in Shaanxi province. Some of them were painted in pink, red, white, gray or lilac. Read more at china.org.cn.

Forest China is a major production that has taken China Central Television (CCTV) four years to complete. It covers most of China’s major forests and showcases the latest efforts in protecting the country’s ecology. It is in fact the only visual document of modern China’s flora and fauna.

China’s forests include vast forests in the Northeast of China, Qinling Mountains, the Taklamakan Desert, the primitive forest of southeastern Tibet, Shennongjia Mountains in Hubei Province, the Hengduan Mountains, the tropical rain forest in Hainan and the mangroves of the South China Sea.

You can watch Forest China online on the CCTV9 website.

Qu Yuan was a patriotic poet who lived in 300 BC. He jumped into the Miluo River in northeast Hunan province to prove his loyalty to his home country, and was drowned. The Dragon Boat Festival, which is held to commemorate Qu Yuan on lunar May 5 every year (this year June 16 in the western calendar), is an important traditional holiday in China. But this year, the Dragon Boat Festival held even more significance for all Chinese.

In September 2009, the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization honored the Dragon Boat Festival as a World Intangible Heritage. The Dragon Boat Festival, which includes racing boats, eating zongzi dumplings and observing other folk customs, is the first festival in the history of China to be named a World Intangible Heritage.

Read more in this China Daily article.

A spectacular ceremony has opened the largest ever World Expo in Shanghai. World Expo 2010 has the theme of “Better City, Better Life” and is expected to attract 70 million visitors from China and abroad. The Expo site covers an area of 5.28 square kilometers along both sides of the Huangpu River, a tributary of the Yangtze River. To experience the opening ceremony you can watch the videos here and you can find out more about the Shanghai World Expo 2010 here.