Discover China

The new high speed rail service between Wuhan and Shenzhen has commenced, with the entire trip taking only 4 hours and 13 minutes. The new line connects Wuhan to Guangzhou and Guangzhou to Shenzhen, and departs from the Shenzhen North Railway Station where there is a direct connection with the Shenzhen Metro. It makes it easy to visit Wuhan from Shenzhen, as well as other major places of interest such as Changsha.

Tonight, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month and the last day of the Spring Festival, is China’s traditional Lantern Festival. And the festive atmosphere is building right now, with lanterns and firecrackers lighting up the night skies in an incredible spectacle. The CNTV story Lanterns light up the night across China introduces the different ways in which the Lantern Festival is celebrated in different parts of the country.

Songshan is considered to be the central sacred mountain of China. At the foot of this 1500 metre high mountain, close to the city of Dengfeng in Henan province and spread over a 40 square-kilometre circle, stand eight clusters of buildings and sites. These buildings are reflections of different ways of perceiving the centre of heaven and earth and the power of the mountain as a centre for religious devotion. Find out more about this amazing World Heritage listed location by watching the online videos of the CNTV Journeys in Time six-part Series: Mount Songshan.

I enjoyed a visit to the Songshan Shaolin Temple and its ancient pagoda forest as part of my travels through Anhui, Henan and Zhejiang provinces in 2009 (see story and pictures).

The oldest and most important festival in China is the Spring Festival, which marks the start of a new year on the lunar calendar. This year the Lunar New Year day was 23 January, and introduced the Year of the Dragon. Find out more in the CNTV Special Feature 2012 Spring Festival which includes online videos of the spectacular Spring Festival Gala.

Happy New Year from discoverchina.info!

108 pandas bred in captivity are being released into natural habitat in southwest China´s Sichuan Province. It is a major step toward returning the endangered animals into the wild. The pandas, ages two to four, are being released into the “Panda Valley”, 134 hectares of enclosed forest and part of the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Release Research Center. Find out more in the CNTV Special Feature Captive-bred Pandas Return to the Wild.