IN BRIEF (Page 19)

Life Culture

Master Xu's feats of clay

Xu Xiutang sits at the head of a long table taking the center of an arbor. Behind him is a large leather handbag with a protruding strap. The only thing that looks out of place is the mouth sticking out of the other end. Of course you won't feel strange if you know it is actually a teapot in the shape of a handbag - made of pottery no less.

Collecting scraps of history, one certificate at a time

In the past 150 years China has made huge progress, but you can't tell from the evolution of marriage certificates. Actually, the written testaments of holy matrimony have got less imaginative over the century and a half.

Pour to rich

Ah, the charm of a small city! There are many cities this size in China, but many are nondescript and do not possess distinctive features. Yixing, in East China's Jiangsu Province, suffers from the opposite headache: It has so many resources it can use to promote tourism and it is sometimes at a loss what to highlight.

Life Expat

Global village

And the winners are ...

Eleanor swaps her sweet homes of Alabama and Beijing

Eleanor Liu originally hails from her sweet home of Alabama in the United States and made her first China connection almost 60 years ago. That was when she met her husband Liu Guo on campus at a college in Nashville, Tennessee.

Opportunities knock in tale of six cities

Chongqing Municipality: Located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the city has the largest area and population in China, with 31 million people. Strengths include manufacturing, retail and the auto market. It has abundant water reserves, mineral resources and forest.

Home's where heart is

Grab morning latte from Starbucks, conduct satellite hook-up from boardroom of skyscraper office, pick up imported cheese and wine from convenience store on way home to loft apartment. It is a snapshot of executive life that could as easily be from New York or Shanghai.

Life Travel

Heaven on earth

It is late in the evening and despite the cool fall weather, people are still out strolling along West Lake, the piece de resistance of Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province. There are couples on a date, a family out walking, and then there are tourists like us.