Vacation Home Rentals

posted by Vacation Home Rentals on Jul 20

For Beijingers, shopping is a serious part of life, somewhat as sports to athletes. For several hundred years, Beijingers have been coming back to the same street not far from the Beijing Emperor Hotel for items ranging from paintings to daily-use items.

As an old Beijing saying goes: buy shoes at Nei Lian Sheng, hats at Ma Ju Yuan, fabrics at Rui Fu Xiang, and tea at Zhang Yi Yuan, which are all famous brands on this street, called Da Zha Lan.

Right near the Forbidden City, it’s very easy to find Da Zha Lan and the shops that have been in business for hundreds of years.

Take a quick stroll from the Beijing Redwall Hotel, past Tian’anmen Square, and you’ll arrive in no time.

Da Zha Lan is Beijing’s oldest commercial street, dating back to the early Ming dynasty in the 1400’s. As unique as its name sounds, Da Zha Lan literally means ‘big fences’.’ About 600 years ago, thefts in the city were rampant, so the emperor ordered fences to be built to prevent the thieves from getting in. Residents in the Da Zha Lan area built fences that were higher and stronger, and thus people began to dub the area ‘big fences’ for easy reference.

Today, as it was in the past, the street is packed with teahouses, theatres, tailor shops, silk stores, restaurants, and handicraft shops. They nestled against each other in ancient buildings that immediately bring you to old times!

The Shops

Nei Lian Sheng

The 160-year old shop Nei Lian Sheng just a few minutes walk from the Beijing International Hotel sells handmade cloth shoes. Their shoes are celebrated for the expert craftsmanship and superb re.

In old times, shoes made in Nei Lian Sheng were great hit with officials who worked in the imperial palace not far from Da Zha Lan. Not only are the shoes are of outstanding quality, but also the name suggests something all officials dreamed of: rising along the ladder of power.

Today, workers use the techniques refined over the years to makes shoes with elements drawn from fashion trends. The late Chinese leader Deng Xiao Ping loved the comfort of Nei Lian Sheng shoes and ordered many pairs here.

Ma Ju Yuan

The hat shop Ma Ju Yuan was built in 1817. A small stall at first, the shop soon earned a name that made it the supplier of the ‘red turf hat’ to be worn by Qing government officials.

That was probably why old Beijingers took a hat made in Ma Ju Yuan as a showy object.

Throughout the years, the shop has made hats for princes, religious figures, and numerous foreign leaders. Even today, Beijingers prefer to buy their hats at Ma Ju Yuan like they have been doing over the past century.

Rui Fu Xiang

Established in 1891, the shop sells all kinds of top-quality fabric: cotton, silk, woolen cloth, and so on.

The shop supplied the cloth that made China’s very first flag, which was raised in its nation-founding ceremony in 1949.

The shop has an excellent team of tailors who make some of the most beautiful cheongsams in Beijing. Numerous international travelers are amazed by their products and can’t help but owning one of their own to show off back home.

Zhang Yi Yuan

In 1900, Zhang Yi Yuan came into business. Ever since then, the shop has been some of the best tea you can find in Beijing. Every year, they get to the heartland of tea-growing regions and buy tea leaves directly from local growers. This allows them to have tea leaves grown in a natual enviroment and picked at its best time to pick.

They apply special techniques to process tea leaves, which is sought after by many tea lovers. Now there special jasmine tea is sold at a low price and is worth trying.

Da Guan Cinema

Da Guan Cinema, Beijing’s first cinema, was established in 1905. It is even listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for its length of continuous operation.

Today, the original decor can be found throughout the cinema, and while watching the film, you can order a cup of tea as people used to do in this great venue. Each day more people come to for a unique experience of watching a movie in Beijing’s oldest cinema.

posted by Vacation Home Rentals on Mar 27

China (PRC) is experiencing a period of speedy economic transition, one built upon the back of a phenomenal “catch-up”, but which has also triggered a chain of social and cultural changes that will be on display for the world to see as we approach the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

There are many reasons why someone would desire to learn Chinese . What might surprise you is that many second and third generation Chinese immigrants also want to join the club of learning Chinese, because in their haste to learn English, they have neglected their own mother tongue …#34; Mandarin Chinese.

So what are the top motivations, for many of us who want to learn Chinese ? We compiled some top motivations here for you:

1) bring their products and services to a wider market.

2) the importance of bridging the cultural and linguistic barriers that have been the bane of doing business with China (PRC);

3) the advantage of having capturing information and data from the source of origin, thus avoid the ‘Chinese Whisper’ effects. Small businesses and websites have also taken advantage of technology improvements to

4) the demand for professional language services are on the increase.

5) bring the research of Chinese academics to the Western world, much in the same way that Russian research has been translated and published in Western journals.

with the loosening of media and technological regulations and restrictions, the Chinese language and culture has been opened up to more interest groups than ever before. People who are fascinated by the

culture and language.

6) trying to recover their language and culture origins, lost when they were busy trying to integrate with their new environment. Also, the second/third generation had retained their language skills, hoping to give their children a start of language and teach them to early, wishing to let their children to learn Chinese.

7) wish to travel in the country and wanting to reduce the impact of the cultural shock are also very likely to want learning Chinese.

posted by Vacation Home Rentals on Dec 11

For anyone who is considering travel for a vacation, the idea of an international getaway can be both thrilling and overwhelming. Leaving the country entails certain forms of identification and paperwork, health considerations, the risks of an unfamiliar location and many types of misunderstandings that can result from differences of culture and language. On the other hand, international travel is a great way to gain first-hand experience about another country and its people. Even novice travelers can find great group travel packages or tour groups that can allow a tourist to experience a foreign country without the danger of getting completely lost. In the field of worldwide tourism, China is gaining popularity as a holiday destination, and there are several reasons to consider putting this engrossing country on your itinerary.

Seeing The Sights In China

By far the most famous tourist destination in China is the Great Wall, a construction that stretches over four thousand miles across China. While the wall is well known worldwide, not every section of the Great Wall of China is readily accessible to tourists. Some parts of the wall run through sparsely populated or rural areas, and many sections of the Great Wall have fallen into disrepair. However, there are efforts to conserve and maintain this historical treasure, some parts of which are over two thousand years old. Originally constructed as a fortification to repel invaders, the Great Wall now attracts visitors from around the globe. In particular, the Badaling section of the Great Wall has been restored and is a great favorite with visitors.

While the Great Wall is a popular man-made holiday destination, the Yangtze River is an incredible natural attraction that also has interesting man-made features. The third longest river in the world, the Yangtze River is also China’s largest and stretches from the plateau of Tibet to the ocean at Shanghai. The river has historically been important in commerce as a means of transporting goods, and the river currently is notable for the Three Gorges Dam, the largest dam in world that produces hydroelectric power. There are many tourism agencies that provide tours and cruises on the Yangtze River, and the Three Gorges Dam is successful as a tourist destination as well as a source of alternative power.

Preparing To Travel In China

Before you plan your vacation in China, you should be aware of the health conditions in the regions you will be visiting. Some areas of China are extremely modern, while others are remote and rural. Your doctor should be able to give you an idea of any inoculations or health tests you will need, and you should also have an idea of whether you will be participating in a lot of vigorous physical activity on your trip. As long as you take reasonable precautions and plan ahead of time, you can make your vacation in China a source of great memories that last a lifetime.