Ancient Zhengzhou in the central plains is still a thriving crossroads

An old Chinese adage says that whoever conquers the central plain will take all the land under the sun.

Life Culture

Brush with fame

Wu Guanzhong, 89, is a living legend on the Chinese art scene. When the veteran artist speaks, people listen; when his paintings are auctioned, people rush to buy.

Buffett junior has gift of music and $1.2 billion

Peter Andrew Buffett is a successful composer and producer. One of his major works is scoring and choreographing the Fire Dance in Kevin Costner's 1990 film Dances with Wolves. But when he visited Beijing this month, the media was mainly interested in his famous father, Warren E. Buffett, recently named the world's richest man.

Colorful notes from an exhibition

It is much more pleasant for one to share music with others than to enjoy it alone, said philosopher Mencius (385-304 BC). Mexican business tycoon Juan Anotonio Perez Simon may not have heard the Chinese saying but "what he offers to fans of European art at the Beijing World Art Museum is in the spirit of the Mencius doctrine," says the museum's curator Wang Limei.

My momma's love is congee

An excerpt of My Mother's Congee by Shantou University journalism student Sabrina Wu, from the Eating.Shantou website:

Life Expat

Bookworms dig in for a literary feast

Champagne corks popped and bookish types raised their glasses last night at the launch of The Beijing Bookworm International Literary Festival, after which they settled down to hear first-hand accounts of the lives of writers Qiu Xiaolong and Adam Williams.

Foodies savor job of critic

Florida native Diane Mooney has devised what is believed to be China's first tertiary-level food writing class, at Shantou University's Cheung Kong School of Journalism and Communication, in Guangdong province.

Your say

Learning from Lei Feng

Life Travel

Park life

Gu ren xi ci huang he lou, Yan hua san yue xia yang zhou. (An old friend left Huanghe Tower, To visit Yangzhou in the lovely spring.)