Fennel is a herb that is commonly seen in China, especially the Northern China. It’s called 茴香, or Hui2 Xiang1 in Chinese. It was introduced to China at the end of the first millennium from Persian. If you happen to visit Beijing some day, one thing you should try is Hui Xiang and meat stuffed dumplings, buns or pies. Generally, people will take the leaves of the fennel, chop to small pieces, and mingle with grounded meat (pork, beef or lamb). Most time, they will throw away the root of the fennel. Following is a package from a planter, it is evident that only the leaves are edible to them. Indeed, most people will not even see the roots in the market.

For some people in Southern Europe such as Italy, fennel is also a very common herb or vegetable in kitchen. However, to many of them, only the roots are consumed. The leaves are unfortunately thrown away during the process of preparation. If you search for the Italian recipe using fennel, it’s hard to find one with fennel leaves, which is exactly opposite to Chinese recipes.

Since the Chinatown and Little Italy are always neighbors in many metropoliton areas, the farmers may cut the fennels first, then sell the leaves and roots to Chinese and Italian grocery stores separately. Indeed, in China and Italy, the farmers have done a great job to selectively grow the part they want. So if you see fennel with luxuriant leaves, it must come from China.

Obesity used to be considered a rare disease in China, but not anymore. At May 19, the Chinese Nutrition and Health Promotion Committee released a report about the obesity among Chinese children. According to the report, there are over 12 million overweight or obese kids in China now. It is said that for every 13 overweight kids, one is in China. Comparing to the developed countries, the ratio is still low. It is the trend that get people concerned. From 1982 to 2002, the kids that suffering overweight increased three times in just twenty years.

The reasons of the growth are blamed on the increased consumption of fast food and decreased time spending on sports. For the former, the high suger, high fat and high sodium foods are encroaching into children’s lunch box. For example, although Cocacola and Pepsicola are restrained from selling their drinks to students in most school districts in US, they are free to market to schools in China. To many parents and kids, a big mac or fried chicken are considered treats for birthday or other events.

While consuming more calories, the kids are burning less. For today’s kids, there are plenty of non-active activities for kid to kill their time, such as computers, games, TVs, and of course, cell phones. So the committee is promoting a Happy 10 Minutes event to push the kids to outdoor and be physically active.

Today, it’s pretty easy to obtain a driver’s license than decades ago. Just follow the following steps if you already have a drivers license.

1. Review national and local traffic laws. Although you can see the lawless on  streets of many Chinese cities, the traffic law tests tend to be harder than many other countries.

2. Make an official translation of your existing driver’s license and your passport. Since many local DMV only trust their designated translators, so don’t bother to translate yourself.

3. Take a physical exam at a local hospital. Just bring a form from the local DMV (you can’t download it) and tell the nurses that you are coming for the driver’s license. They should direct you to the rest.

4. Bring all the necessary documents (passport, driver’s license, its official translation, physical exam form, and a 1 inch photo) to the DMV, and register for the test. Then you are ready to take the traffic exams. In most DMVs, the tests are computerized, so you can take multiple exams.

5. If you passed the exam, then congratulations, your license will be ready in an hour or so.

“Wolf is coming!” had been cried by Chinese Table Tennis teams for years. Starting from 1959, when Chinese athlete Rong Guotuan won the first world champion, Chinese national table tennis have dominated theworld Ping pong games. However, at late 80s and early 90s, the Chinese players have encountered some serious challenges from Koreans (both south and north) and Euopeans. Meanwhile, the International Table Tennis Association issues a series of new rules or rule changes. The leaders of the Chinese teams started to cry wolf and urge the players to comply the new rules and sharpen their own skills. Almost every year, people will hear about some new wolves specified by the table tennis team.

The result is surprisingly well. In 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Chinese team took home all four table tennis championships. In the 2009 Yokohama World Table Tennis Championship (4/28~5/5), Chinese team won all gold and silver medals, and 7 out of 10 bronze medals. This result is achieved when the Chinese team didn’t send out the first tier players. There are even rumors saying that some Chinese player purposely lose a few points to avoid too much embarrasment of the opponents.

Now, the leaders of Chinese teams changed their strategy. They called it raising wolves. Instead of crying wolf, they start to send out coaches to other nations and invite oversea players to train and compete in Chinese clubs. They want to make the competition more fierece and the game more attractive. Their ultimate goal is to build a table tennis version of NBA. Since the plan was just unveiled this year and is still at its early stage, only time will tell whether they can succeed.

Fig.1. Chinese champions (red) vs non-Chinese champions in Olympic Games.

Fig.2. Chinese champions  (red) v.s. non-Chinese champions in World Table Tennis Championships.

Yao Ming, the basketball star playing for Huston Rockets, is arguably the most famous Chinese in USA. Can you recognize them?

A)

B)

C)

D)

A) Jet Lee 李连杰

B) Jackey Chan 成龙

C) Liu Xiang 刘翔

D) Zhang Ziyi. 章子怡 Well, they have never got together yet. Someone needs to put them together sometime.

When you go to China, one important thing is to take with you enough money. Of course, that’s enough Chinese Yuan, or Renminbi. However, be careful when you are not exchanging the money from banks. Recently, an underground factory making couterfeit Chinese currency was caught in Taiwan and almost 100 million fake Chinese Yuan was sophisticated. It is believed that the factory had been working for years and millions more have been shipped to mainland China.

To some plot believers in mainland, this is even considered another civil war action since the paper used for the counterfeiting is so authentic that they have to be sourced from some authority. To others, what’s important is to avoid being cheated by the false money.

First, don’t exchange your foreign currency to Chinese Yuan with unauthorized agencies or persons. The new counterfeit money can even pass the test of many counterfeit detectors.

Second, insist to not take the bills starting with HD90, ED78 or JQ13.

Third, if possible, pay your major spending beforehand. Then even you are cheated, your lost will not be significant.

Fourth, if possible, use credit card or ATM card. Well, there are issues with the plastics, but you get a layer of the issuing bank to protect you.

Good luck.

Zongzi (粽子), is a special Chinese food usually consumed at Duanwu Festival (May 28, 2009). If you don’t know Duanwu, you must have seen the dragon boat. Dragon boat racing is another activity to celebrate the holiday. However, only a few people can get hold of the paddle. For the others, eat Zongzi is a more viable option.

Zongzi is basically a rice ball wrapped by long leaves. The rice can be either sticky rice or brown rice. The leaves are either from bamboo (southern China) or reed (northern China). Sometime dates, beans, meat, nuts, and fruits are added for better taste. If you are familiar with Indian food, you may found that Zongzi looks pretty like Samosa. However, the similarity stops at shape. Samosa is fried but Zongzi is steamed. The stuffing is also completely different.

Although Zongzi is associated with the Duanwu festival, it doesn’t mean that you can’t eat them in other days. It is served as snack in many restaurants or street side food stands. You can also find them in the grocery stores all year around. However, if do have interest to make one, or just wonder how they are made, here is a footage of a Zongzi wrapping competition held in a supermarket in China.