Two Olympics, One Dream!

On February 1st, an Olympic Dream deep learning day was held at Finham Park School. The two Hanban teachers, Miss Du Xiaojie and Mrs Liu Yang led two workshops for about 120 students from Year 8 and 9. Each workshop was repeated three times to accommodate three different groups.

Miss Du Xiaojie led a workshop about the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The students were challenged by a quiz on the Beijing Olympics but also learned a lot from it. She also showed students the photos she took during the games, as well as sharing stories of her visit to the Olympic Park and the events she watched. The highlight was when David Moorcroft visted her workshop.

David Moorcroft is a former middle-distance and long-distance runner from Coventry, and former world record holder for 5,000 metres. His athletic career spanned the late-1970s and 1980s, and he has taken part in three Olympics. Both Miss Du and the students were amazed and inspired to know he had been commentating on track and field in Beijing four years ago. He told the students the 2008 Beijing Olympics were absolutely fantastic and he encouraged the students to get involved in the 2012 London Olympics as much as they can.

Mrs Liu Yang demonstrated a series of Tai Chi Fan movements in the sixth form common room drawing together the essence of Chinese traditional martial arts, Tai Chi and Peking Opera dance. This routine was created to support the Beijing Olympics. Lots of students said the first thing they know about China is Kung Fu, so they were so excited to learn Tai Chi Fan. When they successfully opened the fans, there were cheers of joy and surprise. The students also said that they would love to learn more of this. 

Finham visiting Robin Hood Primary School in Birmingham

On January 30^th, the two Hanban teachers and six of their Year 9 students, who are taking Mandarin GCSE course, from The Schools Network (SSAT) Confucius Classroom Finham Park School, were warmly invited to join the Chinese New Year and Lantern Festival celebration in Robin Hood Primary School in Birmingham. There they met teachers and students from The Kingsley School and Myton School, both from the Midlands area.

The celebration was held in the hall in Robin Hood Primary School. The first performance was from Myton School. Mrs Helen Lewis, the Mandarin teacher, and her students did a tongue twister on numbers, which caused much laughter. Then a group of girls sang two lovely songs, “two tigers” and “little monkeys”, accompanied by their teacher Mrs Jo Harper. Their singing and dancing brought so much fun to the audience, which was made up of about seventy primary students and their teachers, that some of them even sang along with them. 

The two Hanban teachers from Finham Park School brought their performance as well. Firstly, Miss Du Xiaojie, together with her students performed “Greetings to you (Gongxi Gongxi Ni)”, a traditional CNY song. Secondly, Mrs Liu Yang amazed the audience by performing the Tai’chi Fan. It was fabulous to see all the audience gasping whenever the fan was opened. Lastly, a group of over thirty primary students of Mrs Simone Haughey from Robin Hood Primary School sang a beautiful song in Mandarin.

After the show, Mrs Simone Haughey showed some fantastic photos and videos taken during their two school trips to their sister school, the Second Experimental Primary School in Beijing. The students said they have even more motivation to learn Mandarin and interest to visit China after seeing these. The celebration was ended by all the participants singing Happy New Year together.

Chinese cookery lesson

On Dec 6^th, Miss Du, Mrs Morley-Smith and Miss Liu had three lessons with Y11 students in food technology, teaching students how to make authentic Chinese dumplings.

Firstly, Miss Du made an introduction of Chinese cuisine. She was glad to find the students know a lot about it and showed great interest. Then she demonstrated how to make and cook dumplings. The students had prepared their own ingredients of the stuffing, either meat or vegetarian. The three teachers were truly impressed by their fantastic work and the students loved the dumplings so much!

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year began on 3 February 2011, which marked the start of the current Year of the Rabbit. The date of the next Chinese New Year will be 23 January 2012 when it will be the Year of the Dragon. Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival.
The Chinese calendar is different from that used in the United Kingdom. It is made up of a cycle of twelve years, each of them being named after an animal. This is very like the signs of the zodiac. Some people believe that people born in a particular year such as the year of the Dog will have some of the characteristics of that animal.
Chinese New Year is the main Chinese festival of the year and it is not a religious event. Over a fifth of the people in the world celebrate Chinese New Year. Customs vary in different parts of the world, but everywhere the main idea is the same. It is a time to remember the family and wish everyone peace and prosperity in the coming year.

  As the Chinese use the Lunar calendar for their festivals, the date of Chinese New Year changes from year to year. The date corresponds to the new moon (black moon) in either late January or February.Traditionally celebrations last for fifteen days, ending on the date of the full moon. In China the public holiday lasts for seven days and this is the biggest celebration of the year.

祝大家圣诞快乐，新年快乐！

（phonetic: zhu da jia sheng dan kuai le, xin nian kuai le!）

Wish everyone a merry Christmas and happy new year!

Tea Banquet

A table full of tea-related products, such as edible deep-fried chrysanthemums. [Photo: China Daily]

According to Chinese tea culture, different kinds of tea have different characteristics that complement different flavors.

 

For example, Puer Tea with Natural Fried Chrysanthemum, one of the signature dishes at The Refreshments and Cuisine of Wuyutai Court, which offers more than 100 dishes relating to tea.

The dish is simply carefully fried chrysanthemum flowers, which while it may sound easy is actually not that simple - it is a difficult technique to keep the flower perfectly in shape.

"The cook needs to pour hot oil on the flowers very quickly and the flowers also need to be dipped into some egg white," said Tang Haiyan, deputy manager of Wuyutai Court.

Because the hot oil is only poured onto the chrysanthemum flower and the stamen and pistil does not touch any oil, they remain tender and fresh and the fragrance of the chrysanthemum is retained along with the flower's refreshing coolness.

The same principle applies to Fresh Shrimps with Biluo Tea, although the teapot for Biluo Tea is probably even more special than the dish itself. It is an automatic dark-red enamel pot, which can pour tea automatically as soon as a cup is put on the base of the teapot.

However, the tea at Wuyutai Court is not only for drinking, it's also for eating. To make the appetizer French Goose Liver with Kuding Tea, the cook puts a piece of broadleaf holly leaf, which is known as Kuding Tea in China, on a piece of French goose liver with green tea pudding.

The appetizer combines the bitterness of Kuding Tea with the scent of green tea, as well as the creamy texture of goose liver.

After the main course, the restaurant offers the day's dessert - a Chinese brush. No joke.

The four treasures of the Chinese calligraphy - brush, ink, paper and inkstone - are offered in a pallet, but the essence is the brush. The "brush" is made of wheat flour mixed with cubilose, shark's fin, snow clam and pawpaw.

The wheat flour is arranged artistically into a real brush pot and a Chinese traditional cooking technique named paisu is used to give the material more layers and a crispy texture. The ink in the inkstone is actually blueberry sauce which gives the brush sweet and sour taste. You can choose chili sauce if you prefer.

Although tea is not in all the dishes, the restaurant, which advocates a healthy and natural way of life, only uses green tea seed oil in its kitchen.

Most of the dishes cannot be found outside the court, simply because their techniques were kept secret by Wu Xiqing - who founded Wuyutai more than a century ago.

In fact, Wu's compiled recipes were only discovered from a wall in the Wuyutai Beixinqiao head office, which used to be Wu's house, in late 2006.

Wuyutai Court, which used to be Wu's residence, are located in Dongzhimen. The compound is a three-floor building with three courtyards, which can accommodate 220 guests at one time.

The first floor serves as the reception area and the first floor is the main hall of the restaurant.

There is a platform named Mingxi Park on the first floor where folk artists perform between 7 pm and 9 pm every Monday to Saturday. The average cost in this area is on the high side, about 150 yuan a head.

Ten private dinning rooms are located on the second floor, featuring architectural elements from Anhui province, Wu's hometown. Each room is decorated with gray bricks, Chinese-style antiquated furniture and carved doors. The lotus pool and birdcage on the second floor add vitality.

The third floor is the compound's back yard, where high-level cadres and celebrities used to dine in the past. Now, the third floor remains exclusive as there are only five private dining rooms, which are open to members only, who can enjoy tea banquet menus tailor-made for them. The average cost is around 500 yuan per person.

Wuyutai is one of Beijing's most respected time-honored businesses. It opened its first theme restaurant in Dongzhimen on Aug 8, 2008 to coincide with the opening with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Their second restaurant was launched on Sept 9, 2009 in the Jinbao Place on Jinbao Street. Although the second restaurant is in a shopping mall, it still follows the three-yard format and is divided into the same three areas with the Dongzhimen compound.

Chinese cold dishes

Bean Noodles in Chili Sauce川北凉粉 (chuān běi liángfěn)

 Jellyfish and Chinese Cabbage白菜心拌蜇头 (báicài  xīn bàn zhē tóu)

Boiled Chicken with Sauce白切鸡 (bái qiē jī)

Black and White Fungus拌双耳  (bàn shuāng ěr) 

Shredded Dried Tofu with Sauce拌豆腐丝 (bàn dòufu sī)

 Kimchi朝鲜泡菜 (Cháoxiǎn pàocài)

Chinese Yam with Hawthorn红果山药 (hóngguǒ shānyào)

Preserved Eggs in Ginger Sauce姜汁皮蛋 (jiāng zhī pídàn)







Steamed Lotus Root Stuffed with Sweet Sticky Rice桂花糯米藕 (guìhuā nuòmǐ ǒu)