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.)

Where grass is greener

Located in eastern Xinyuan county in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the Nalati grassland is not on most tourists' itineraries - for now, that is.

Travel tips

Location: Nalati grassland, a national scenic area, sits in the hinterland of Tianshan Mountain on the east end of Yili Valley. Its average altitude is about 1,800 m.

Noodle capital of the world

I was born in Taiyuan, capital city of Shanxi province. It has a 2,500-year history and used to be called "the city of dragons".

Life Health

Where did your mojo go?

HAMBURG: When women reach menopause, their hormones hit the brakes hard. Hormonal changes in middle-aged men are less drastic. Their bodies' production of testosterone, the main male sex hormone, declines gradually.

Fred isn't the only partner for ginger

My first encounter with a finger of ginger (jiang) was around 10 years ago at university when my Pakistani housemate was whipping up a curry. At that time it was a distinctly alien ingredient, and I was baffled that this knobbly brown lump could be in any way related to the powdered stuff that gives ginger nuts and gingerbread men (reportedly "invented" by Queen Elizabeth I) their kick.

Allergies are not to be sneezed at

WIESBADEN, Germany: Hay fever sufferers are getting hit even earlier. In Germany, pollen was already in the air in January, and February was worse.