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Culture: People usually associate archaeological discoveries with ancient tombs and unearthed cultural relics. Seldom do they link them with food. Noodles were discovered by archaeologists at the Lajia historical site in Minhe county, Qinghai province, in 2002. Through research, archaeologists concluded that the ingredients in the noodles were a mixture of millet (shu in Chinese), and they can be traced back 4,000 years, making them the earliest known noodles.

Travel: Beijing has 170 museums, second in the world only to London. Various museums in the Chinese capital provide a window not only to the country's history, culture and civilization, but also to some little known but highly interesting facts.

Buzzwords: "An hourglass figure" refers to that of a woman whose hips and bust contrast starkly with a very narrow waist, creating a silhouette that resembles an old-fashioned hourglass.