fortunes and doctors used herbs and acupuncture needles to restore qi (vital energy) to their patients. Horse-drawn carriages clattered down the streets, with finely-dressed ladies peering out from behind their curtains.

 Quinsai delighted all the senses. Pear and plum trees flowered and bore fruit. The city's 100 arched bridges were painted in bright colors. Statues of dragons and phoenixes guarded the rooftops of the buildings and stone lions snarled at the gates. Red lanterns hung over doorways. In ten large markets, goods from all over the land enticed buyers. Pheasants and rabbits hung in stalls. Dried fish, noodles, and rice spilled out from large baskets. The smell of spices, perfumes, and incense hung in the air. Pet crickets sang from their wicker cages. People gathered in the city's gardens to hear story-tellers shape tales of ancient heroes, and watch acrobats tumble. They laughed and cried at the fortunes of characters in operas.

Elephant

English words are made up of letters that represent sounds. You can "sound them out." Many Chinese words are represented by characters called pictographs (drawings that look like the things they are supposed to represent, like a tree). Others are ideographs. These are pictographs that, combined together, suggest an abstract idea (for example, the symbols for "ear" and "door" are combined to produce the symbol for "news"; the symbol for "escape" is a combination of the symbols for "mouse" and "hole").

 It's easy to learn the English alphabet of 26 letters. How long would it take you to memorize the 6,000 characters that are in common use in Chinese? A really well-educated Chinese person might know as many as 25,000 characters!

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Say It In Chinese

 Tai chi and feng shui are Chinese words we already use (along with chop suey and egg fu yung!). China is so big and has such a huge population that, though everyone understands a common written language, at least eight different spoken languages are used throughout the country. The following words are from Mandarin, the most commonly-used Chinese language:

Hello: Nĭ Hăo (knee how)

Goodbye: Dzaì jìan (zye jen)

Please: Qĭng (ching)

Thank you: Xiè xiè (shee-yeh shee-yeh)

Yes: Shì (shy)

No: Bù (buh)

Others visited the city's gardens to paint—or to meditate on the water-lilies, ponds, and rocks in preparation for painting. In Chinese art, it was very important to capture the true essence (the qi) of the landscape or animals the artist painted. The best artists spent time contemplating nature. They meditated on the essence of the mountain or the cat until they felt complete understanding of that mountain or that cat. When the qi of the artist and the qi of the animal, plant, or mountain became one, then the painting could begin.

Traditional landscape painting was called shanshui (meaning "mountains and water"). By placing both mountains and water in their paintings, artists showed harmony and balance. Mountains represented the strength and force of yang. Water represented the serenity of yin. Landscapes were detailed and realistic, made with simple brushstrokes, and painted on long, hanging scrolls. If people were placed in the landscapes, they were very tiny figures. This reflected the belief that humans are only a small part of nature.

People of all kinds thronged the streets. Wealthy women dressed in silks, their hair pinned up with ivory combs, were followed by servants carrying their purchases. Beggars cried

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