title: South Island

text: A number of lakes in the Fiordland and Otago regions also fill glacial valleys. Lake Te Anau has three western arms which are fiords (and are named so). Lake McKerrow / Whakatipu Waitai to the north of Milford Sound / Piopiotahi is a fiord with a silted-up mouth. Lake Wakatipu fills a large glacial valley, as do lakes Hakapoua, Poteriteri, Monowai and Hauroko in the far south of Fiordland. Lake Manapouri has fiords as its west, north and south arms.


title: South Island

text: The Marlborough Sounds, a series of deep indentations in the coastline at the northern tip of the South Island, are in fact rias, drowned river valleys.


title: South Island

text: Most of New Zealand's glaciers are in the South Island. They are generally found in the Southern Alps near the Main Divide.


title: South Island

text: An inventory of South Island glaciers during the 1980s indicated there were about 3,155 glaciers with an area of at least . About a sixth of these glaciers covered more than 10 hectares. These include the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers on the West Coast, and the Haupapa / Tasman, Hooker, Mueller and Murchison glaciers in the east.


title: South Island

text: There are some 3,820 lakes in New Zealand with a surface area larger than one hectare. Much of the higher country in the South Island was covered by ice during the glacial periods of the last two million years. Advancing glaciers eroded large steep-sided valleys, and often carried piles of moraine (rocks and soil) that acted as natural dams. When the glaciers retreated, they left basins that are now filled by lakes. The level of most glacial lakes in the upper parts of the Waitaki and Clutha / Mata-Au rivers are controlled for electricity generation. Hydroelectric reservoirs are common in South Canterbury and Central Otago, the largest of which is Lake Benmore, on the Waitaki River.


title: South Island

text: The South Island has 8 of New Zealand's 10 biggest lakes. They were formed by glaciers and include Lake Wakatipu, Lake Tekapo and Lake Manapouri. The deepest (462 m) is Lake Hauroko, in western Southland. It is the 16th deepest lake in the world. Millions of years ago, Central Otago had a huge lake – Lake Manuherikia. It was slowly filled in with mud, and fossils of fish and crocodiles have been found there.


title: South Island

text: Banks Peninsula forms the most prominent of these volcanic features. Geologically, the peninsula comprises the eroded remnants of two large shield volcanoes (Lyttelton formed first, then Akaroa). These formed due to intraplate volcanism between about eleven and eight million years ago (Miocene) on a continental crust. The peninsula formed as offshore islands, with the volcanoes reaching to about 1,500 m above sea level. Two dominant craters formed Lyttelton / Whakaraupō and Akaroa Harbours.


title: South Island

text: The Canterbury Plains formed from the erosion of the Southern Alps (an extensive and high mountain range caused by the meeting of the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates) and from the alluvial fans created by large braided rivers. These plains reach their widest point where they meet the hilly sub-region of Banks Peninsula. A layer of loess, a rather unstable fine silt deposited by the foehn winds which bluster across the plains, covers the northern and western flanks of the peninsula. The portion of crater rim lying between Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō and Christchurch city forms the Port Hills.


title: South Island

text: The Otago Harbour was formed from the drowned remnants of a giant shield volcano, centred close to what is now the town of Port Chalmers. The remains of this violent origin can be seen in the basalt of the surrounding hills. The last eruptive phase ended some ten million years ago, leaving the prominent peak of Mount Cargill.


title: South Island

text: Timaru was constructed on rolling hills created from the lava flows of the extinct Mount Horrible, which last erupted many thousands of years ago.


title: South Island

text: Te Wāhipounamu (Māori for "the place of greenstone") is a World Heritage Site in the south west corner of the South Island.


title: South Island

text: Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1990 it covers and incorporates the Aoraki / Mount Cook, the Fiordland, the Mount Aspiring and the Westland Tai Poutini National Parks.


title: South Island

text: It is thought to contain some of the best modern representations of the original flora and fauna present in Gondwanaland, one of the reasons for listing as a World Heritage Site.


title: South Island

text: There are six forest parks in the South Island that are on public land administered by the Department of Conservation.


title: South Island

text: The South Island has ten national parks established under the National Parks Act 1980 and which are administered by the Department of Conservation.


title: South Island

text: During the Last Glacial Period when sea levels were over 100 metres lower than present day levels, the North and South Islands were connected by a vast coastal plain which formed at the South Taranaki Bight. Similarly, the South Island and Stewart Island / Rakiura were connected by coastal plains which covered modern-day Foveaux Strait. During this period, most of the South Island was covered in grassland and glaciers, compared to the woodlands and rainforest which grew in the more temperate North Island. Sea levels began to rise 7,000 years ago, eventually separating the islands and linking the Cook Strait to the Tasman Sea.


title: South Island

text: There are several bird species which are endemic to the South Island. They include the kea, great spotted kiwi, Okarito brown kiwi, South Island kōkako, South Island pied oystercatcher, Malherbe's parakeet, king shag, takahē, black-fronted tern, South Island robin, rock wren, wrybill, and yellowhead.


title: South Island

text: Many South Island bird species are now extinct, mainly due to hunting by humans and predation by cats and rats introduced by humans. Extinct species include the South Island goose, South Island giant moa, Haast's eagle and South Island piopio.


title: South Island

text: Healthcare in the South Island is provided by five District Health Boards (DHBs). Organised around geographical areas of varying population sizes, they are not coterminous with the Local Government Regions.


title: South Island

text: There are six major hospitals in the South Island: Christchurch Hospital, Dunedin Hospital, Grey Base Hospital (Greymouth), Nelson Hospital, Southland Hospital (Invercargill), and Timaru Hospital. Christchurch Hospital, Dunedin Hospital and Wellington Hospital (in the North Island) are the main tertiary hospitals serving the South Island.


title: South Island

text: There are several air ambulance and rescue helicopter services operating throughout the South Island.


title: South Island

text: The South Island has contributed to the Arts in New Zealand and internationally through highly regarded artists such as Nigel Brown, Frances Hodgkins, Colin McCahon, Shona McFarlane, Peter McIntyre Grahame Sydney and Geoff Williams.


title: South Island

text: Parts of the South Island principally Southland and the very southernmost areas of Otago near the border with Southland are famous for its people speaking what is often referred to as the "Southland burr", a semi-rhotic, Scottish-influenced dialect of the English language.


title: South Island

text: The South Island has ten daily newspapers and many weekly community newspapers. Major daily newspapers include the "Ashburton Guardian", the "Greymouth Star", "The Marlborough Express", "The Nelson Mail", the "Oamaru Mail", the "Otago Daily Times", "The Press", the "Southland Times", "The Timaru Herald", and the "West Coast Times". "The Press" and the "Otago Daily Times", serving mainly Christchurch and Dunedin respectively, are the South Island's major newspapers.


title: South Island

text: The South Island has seven regional stations (either non-commercial public service or privately owned) that broadcast only in one region or city: 45 South TV, Channel 39, Canterbury Television, CUE, Mainland Television, Shine TV, and Visitor TV. These stations mainly broadcast free to air on UHF frequencies; however, some are carried on subscription TV. Content ranges from local news, access broadcasts, satellite sourced news, tourist information and Christian programming to music videos.


title: South Island

text: A large number of radio stations serve communities throughout the South Island; these include independent stations, but many are owned by organisations such as Radio New Zealand, New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and MediaWorks New Zealand.


title: South Island

text: Anglicanism is strongest in Canterbury (the city of Christchurch having been founded as an Anglican settlement).


title: South Island

text: Catholicism still has a noticeably strong presence on the West Coast, and in Kaikōura. The territorial authorities with the highest proportion of Catholics are Kaikōura (where they are 18.4% of the total population), Westland (18.3%), and Grey (17.8%).


title: South Island

text: Presbyterianism is strong in the lower South Island – the city of Dunedin was founded as a Presbyterian settlement, and many of the early settlers in the region were Scottish Presbyterians. The territorial authorities with the highest proportion of Presbyterians are Gore (where they are 30.9% of the total population), Clutha District (30.7%), and Southland (29.8%).


title: South Island

text: The first Muslims in New Zealand were Chinese gold diggers working in the Dunstan gold fields of Otago in the 1860s. Dunedin's Al-Huda mosque is the world's southernmost, and the farthest from Mecca.


title: South Island

text: The New Zealand Police is the primary law enforcement agency of New Zealand including the South Island. Three decentralised Police Districts cover the entire South Island with each being commanded by a Superintendent and having a central station from which subsidiary and suburban stations are managed. The Christchurch Police Communications Centre handles all emergency and general calls within the South Island.


title: South Island

text: The Tasman Police District covers 70,000 kilometres of territory, encompassing the northern and most of the western portion of the South Island. The West Coast alone spans the distance between Wellington and Auckland. There are 22 police stations in the Tasman District, with 6 being sole-charge - or one-person - stations. The Tasman Police District has a total of 302 sworn police officers and 57 civilian or nonsworn staff. Organisationally, the district has its headquarters in Nelson and has three distinct Areas each headed by an Inspector as its commander. The areas are Nelson Bays, West Coast and Marlborough.


title: South Island

text: The Canterbury Police District is based in Christchurch the largest city in the South Island and covers an area extending from the Conway River, (just south of Kaikōura), to the Waitaki River, south of Timaru.


title: South Island

text: The Southern Police District with its headquarters in Dunedin spans from Oamaru in the North through to Stewart Island in the far South covers the largest geographical area of any of the 12 police districts in New Zealand. The Southern District has three distinct Areas headed by Inspectors; Otago Rural, Southland and Dunedin.


title: South Island

text: Correctional facilities in the South Island are operated by the Department of Corrections as part of the South Island Prison Region. Christchurch Prison, also known as Paparua, is located in Templeton a satellite town of Christchurch. It accommodates up to 780 minimum, medium, and high-security male prisoners. It was built in 1925, and also includes a youth unit, a self-care unit and the "Paparua Remand Centre" (PRC), built in 1999 to replace the old "Addington Prison". Christchurch Women's Prison, also located in Templeton, is a facility for women of all security classifications. It has the only maximum/medium security accommodation for women prisoners in New Zealand. It can accommodate up to 98 prisoners.


title: South Island

text: Rolleston prison is located in Rolleston, another satellite town of Christchurch. It accommodates around 320 male prisoners of minimum to low-medium security classifications and includes "Kia Marama" a sixty-bed unit that provides an intensive 9-month treatment programme for male child sex offenders. Invercargill Prison, in Invercargill, accommodates up to 172 minimum to low-medium security prisoners. Otago Corrections Facility is located near Milton and houses up to 335 minimum to high-medium security male prisoners.


title: South Island

text: The New Zealand Customs Service whose role is to provide border control and protect the community from potential risks arising from international trade and travel, as well as collecting duties and taxes on imports to the country has offices at Christchurch International Airport, Dunedin, Invercargill, Lyttelton and Nelson.


title: South Island

text: Of the professional sports teams based in the South Island, the major spectator sports of rugby union and cricket are particularly well represented. The Crusaders and Highlanders represent the upper and lower South Island respectively in rugby union's Super Rugby competition; and Canterbury, Otago, Southland Stags, Tasman Makos all participate in provincial rugby's ITM Cup. At cricket, the South Island is represented by the Canterbury Wizards, Central Stags, and Otago Volts in the Plunket Shield, one day domestic series, and the Super Smash.


title: South Island

text: As well as rugby union and cricket, the South Island also boasts representative teams in the domestic basketball, soccer, ice hockey, netball, and rugby league.


title: South Island

text: The North vs South match, sometimes known as the Interisland match is a longstanding rugby union fixture in New Zealand. The first game was played in 1897, the most recent one in 2020.


title: Murder of Lana Clarkson

text: On the morning of February 3, 2003, American actress Lana Clarkson was found dead inside the Pyrenees Castle, the Alhambra, California, mansion of record producer Phil Spector. In the early hours of that morning, Clarkson had met Spector while working at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. After leaving in Spector's limousine, the two were driven to Spector's mansion and went inside while his driver waited in the car.


title: Murder of Lana Clarkson

text: Spector was tried for the murder of Clarkson in 2007. On September 26 of that year, a mistrial was declared due to a hung jury, with ten jurors of twelve favoring conviction. He was tried again for second-degree murder beginning on October 20, 2008. On April 13, 2009, the jury found Spector guilty of murdering Clarkson. On May 29, 2009, he was sentenced to nineteen years to life in state prison. Spector died in a prison hospital in 2021.


title: Murder of Lana Clarkson

text: On February 3, 2003, actress Lana Clarkson was found dead in record producer Phil Spector's mansion, the Pyrenees Castle, located in Alhambra, California. Her body was found slumped in a chair with a single gunshot wound to her mouth with broken teeth scattered over the carpet. Spector told "Esquire" magazine in July 2003 that Clarkson's death was an "accidental suicide" and that she "kissed the gun". The 9-1-1 call from Spector's home, made by his driver, Adriano de Souza, quotes Spector as saying, "I think I've killed someone". De Souza added that he saw Spector come out the back door of the house with a gun in his hand. Forensic examinations could not find Spector's fingerprints on the gun.


title: Murder of Lana Clarkson

text: According to the prosecution, Spector had previously pulled a gun on four women. In each case, he had been drinking and "was romantically interested in the woman, but grew angry after the woman spurned him". The prosecution alleged that on each occasion, he pointed a gun at the woman to prevent her from walking out. The prosecution argued that the testimony of the other women was important in demonstrating a "common plan or scheme". The defense sought to prevent the women from providing such testimony. Though the law generally forbids the introduction of evidence showing a defendant's previous transgressions, the judge ruled the testimony "can be used to show lack of accident or mistake".


title: Murder of Lana Clarkson

text: Spector remained free on $1 million bail while awaiting trial, which began on March 19, 2007. Presiding Judge Larry Paul Fidler allowed the proceedings in Los Angeles Superior Court to be televised. At the start of the trial, the defense forensic expert Henry Lee was accused of hiding crucial evidence that the district attorney's office claimed could prove Spector's guilt. On September 26, 2007, Judge Fidler declared a mistrial because of a hung jury (ten to two for conviction).


title: Murder of Lana Clarkson

text: Before and during the first trial, Spector went through at least three sets of attorneys. Defense attorney Robert Shapiro represented Spector at the arraignment and early pretrial hearings and achieved his release on $1 million bail. Bruce Cutler represented him during the 2007 trial, but withdrew on August 27, 2007, claiming "a difference of opinion between Mr. Spector and me on strategy". Attorney Linda Kenney Baden then became lead lawyer for closing arguments.


title: Murder of Lana Clarkson

text: Spector's defense concentrated at trial on the claim Clarkson's death was a suicide. As a result, counsel did not bring up Spector's severe , but some observers have made the link. Studies have found that traumatic brain injury raises the odds of subsequent violent crime, particularly in association with substance abuse.


title: Murder of Lana Clarkson

text: The retrial of Spector for murder in the second degree began on October 20, 2008, with Judge Fidler again presiding; this time it was not televised. The case went to the jury on March 26, 2009, and nineteen days later, on April 13, the jury returned a guilty verdict. Additionally, Spector was found guilty of using a firearm in the commission of a crime, which added four years to the sentence. Spector was immediately taken into custody and was sentenced, on May 29, 2009, to nineteen years to life in the California state prison system.


title: Murder of Lana Clarkson

text: The California Second District Court of Appeal affirmed Spector's conviction in May 2011 and denied his request for a rehearing of the appeal shortly thereafter. On August 17, 2011, the California Supreme Court declined to review the court of appeal's decision to affirm his conviction.


title: Murder of Lana Clarkson

text: In December 2011, Spector's attorneys petitioned for review by the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that his constitutional due process rights were violated when prosecutors used the trial judge's comments about an expert's testimony, effectively making the judge a witness for the prosecution. Spector's attorney Dennis Riordan argued the constitutional right to confront witnesses did not permit the prosecution to introduce at trial a videotape of statements made by the judge at a pretrial hearing that were never subjected to cross examination. In February 2012, the Supreme Court denied the petition.


title: Murder of Lana Clarkson

text: In June 2012, Spector's attorneys filed a "habeas corpus" appeal in Federal District Court, once again on grounds that the original trial judge "did numerous inappropriate things which caused [Spector] a denial of his due process". In July 2013, Attorney Dennis Riordan filed a petition with a US Magistrate urging prompt action due to Spector's ill health. In June 2015, Federal Magistrate Judge Paul L. Abrams recommended denial of Spector's "habeas corpus" petition and dismissal of the appeal. The dismissal was ordered the following month by District Judge S. James Otero, who also denied Spector's request to certify the case for further appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In August 2015, Spector's lawyers filed another motion for a certificate of appealability to the Ninth Circuit.


title: Murder of Lana Clarkson

text: Spector died from COVID-19 complications on January 16, 2021, while he was serving his sentence at the California Health Care Facility, California State Prison (Stockton, California). He would have been eligible for parole in 2024.


title: World Trade Center site

text: The World Trade Center site, often referred to as "Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounded by Vesey Street to the north, the West Side Highway to the west, Liberty Street to the south, and Church Street to the east. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) owns the site's land (except for 7 World Trade Center). The original World Trade Center complex stood on the site until it was destroyed in the September 11 attacks.


title: World Trade Center site

text: The Port Authority, Silverstein Properties, and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) have overseen the reconstruction of the site as part of the new World Trade Center, following a master plan by Studio Daniel Libeskind. Developer Larry Silverstein holds the lease to retail and office space in four of the site's buildings.


title: World Trade Center site

text: The western portion of the World Trade Center site was originally under the Hudson River, with the shoreline in the vicinity of Greenwich Street. On this shoreline close to the intersection of Greenwich Street and the former Dey Street, Dutch explorer Adriaen Block's ship, the "Tyger", burned to the waterline in November 1613, stranding Block and his crew and forcing them to overwinter on the island. The remains of the ship were buried under landfill when the shoreline was extended starting in 1797, and were discovered during excavation work in 1916. The remains of another ship from the eighteenth century were found in 2010 during excavation work at the site. The ship, believed to be a Hudson River sloop, was found just south of where the Twin Towers used to stand, about below the surface.


title: World Trade Center site

text: The area that was cleared for construction of the original World Trade Center complex was previously occupied by various electronics stores in what was called Radio Row. These streets and stores were demolished in the 1960s to make way for the World Trade Center.


title: World Trade Center site

text: At the time of their completion the "Twin Towers"—the original 1 World Trade Center (the North Tower), at 1,368 ft (417 metres), and 2 World Trade Center (the South Tower)—were the tallest buildings in the world. The other buildings in the complex included the Marriott World Trade Center (3 WTC), 4 WTC, 5 WTC, 6 WTC, and 7 WTC. All of these buildings were built between 1975 and 1985, with a construction cost of $400 million (equivalent to $ in dollars). The complex was located in New York City's Financial District and contained of office space.


title: World Trade Center site

text: The World Trade Center experienced a fire on , 1975, a bombing on , 1993 and a robbery on , 1998. In 1998, the Port Authority decided to privatize the World Trade Center, leasing the buildings to a private company to manage, and awarded the lease to Silverstein Properties in .


title: World Trade Center site

text: On the morning of September 11, 2001, Islamist terrorists affiliated with Al-Qaeda hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, both which were en route from Boston to Los Angeles, and intentionally crashed them into the two main towers of the World Trade Center. The towers collapsed within less than two hours of the collisions. 2,606 people, including 2,192 civilians, 343 firefighters, and 71 law enforcement officers who were in the towers and in the surrounding area died in the attacks, as well as 147 civilians and the 10 hijackers aboard the two airliners. After the collapse of the World Trade Center, hospital workers and law enforcement officers began referring to the World Trade Center site as "Ground Zero".


title: World Trade Center site

text: The collapse of the towers spread dust across New York City and left hundreds of thousands of tons of debris at the site. To organize the cleanup and search for survivors and for human remains, the New York City Fire Department divided the disaster site into four sectors, each headed by its own chief. Cleanup workers trucked most of the building materials and debris from Ground Zero to Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island. Some people, such as those affiliated with World Trade Center Families for Proper Burial, were worried that human remains might also have been inadvertently transported to the landfill.


title: World Trade Center site

text: According to NIST, when WTC 1 (the North Tower) collapsed, falling debris struck 7 World Trade Center and ignited fires on multiple floors. The uncontrolled fires ultimately led to the progressive collapse of the structure.


title: World Trade Center site

text: Shortly after the attacks, the surrounding buildings were fitted with red mesh to prevent further damage. In November 2001, the remaining portions of Building 4 were leveled.


title: World Trade Center site

text: In December 2001, a temporary viewing platform at Fulton Street, between Church Street and Broadway, was opened to the public. That month, the last standing perimeter columns from the North Tower and the last remaining portions of Building 6 were removed. Early estimates suggested that debris removal would take a year, but cleanup ended in May 2002, under budget and without a single serious injury. The Winter Garden Atrium was reopened to the public on September 17, 2002, the first major structure to be completely restored following the attacks.


title: World Trade Center site

text: Starting March 11, 2002, eighty-eight searchlights were installed and arranged to form two beams of light shooting straight up into the sky. This was called the "Tribute in Light", and was originally lit every day at dusk until April 14, 2002. After that, the lights were lit on the second anniversary of the attack and have been lit on each subsequent September 11 since then. In February 2005, the New York City Medical Examiner's office ended its process of identifying human remains at the site.


title: World Trade Center site

text: In August 2008, New York City firefighters donated a cross made of steel from the World Trade Center to the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Company. The beam, mounted atop a platform shaped like the Pentagon, was erected outside the Shanksville firehouse near the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93.


title: World Trade Center site

text: Portions of the South Tower had also damaged the nearby Deutsche Bank Building, which soon became filled with toxic dust. By 2002, Deutsche Bank determined that its building was unsalvageable and it was scheduled for demolition. In January 2011, the demolition of the Deutsche Bank Building was completed.


title: World Trade Center site

text: In July 2010, a team of archaeologists at the site discovered the remains of a -long boat over 200 years old; it was probably made in the 18th century and dumped there along with wooden beams and trash in about 1810 to make up the land. The boat had been weighted to make it sink as part of foundations for a new pier. Samples of its wood have been taken for dendrochronology.


title: World Trade Center site

text: While the PANYNJ is often identified as the owner of the WTC site, the ownership situation was complicated after the September 11 attacks. The Port Authority did own a "significant" internal portion of the site of but has acknowledged "ambiguities over ownership of miscellaneous strips of property at the World Trade Center site" going back to the 1960s. It was unclear who owned of the site which is land where streets had been before the World Trade Center was built. In subsequent deals, the Port Authority gave some land to Larry Silverstein, including the land under 2 and 3 WTC in 2008.


title: World Trade Center site

text: Soon after the September 11 attacks, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Governor George Pataki, and President George W. Bush vowed to rebuild the World Trade Center site. On the day of the attacks, Giuliani proclaimed, "We will rebuild. We're going to come out of this stronger than before, politically stronger, economically stronger. The skyline will be made whole again." During a visit to the site on September 14, 2001, Bush spoke to a crowd of cleanup workers through a megaphone. An individual in the crowd shouted, "We can't hear you," to which Bush replied, "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon."


title: World Trade Center site

text: In a later address before Congress, the president declared, "As a symbol of America's resolve, my administration will work with Congress, and these two leaders, to show the world that we will rebuild New York City." The immediate response from World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein was that "it would be the tragedy of tragedies not to rebuild this part of New York. It would give the terrorists the victory they seek." However, by 2011, only one building, 7 World Trade Center, had been rebuilt. The buildings that have been rebuilt as of June 2018 include 7 World Trade Center, One World Trade Center, 4 World Trade Center, and 3 World Trade Center. The original twin towers took less than three years from start of construction to be finished and five years from the beginning planning stages. However, given the complexity and highly political nature of the rebuilding efforts, they are often cited as an example of a successful public-private collaboration and are taught as a case study in successful negotiations.


title: World Trade Center site

text: Governor Pataki established the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) in November 2001, as an official commission to oversee the rebuilding process. The LMDC coordinates federal assistance in the rebuilding process, and works with the PANYNJ, Larry Silverstein, and Studio Daniel Libeskind, the master plan architect for the site's redesign. The corporation also handles communication with the local community, businesses, the city of New York, and relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks. A 16-member board of directors, half appointed by the governor and half by the mayor of New York, governs the LMDC.


title: World Trade Center site

text: The LMDC had questionable legal status regarding the restoration of the World Trade Center site, because the Port Authority owns most of the property and Larry Silverstein leased the World Trade Center's office space in July 2001. But the LMDC, in an April 2002 articulation of its principles for action, asserted its role in revitalizing lower Manhattan.


title: World Trade Center site

text: In the months following the attacks, architects and urban planning experts held meetings and forums to discuss ideas for rebuilding the site. In January 2002, New York City art dealer Max Protetch solicited 50 concepts and renderings from artists and architects, which were put on exhibit in his Chelsea art gallery.


title: World Trade Center site

text: In April 2002, the LMDC sent out requests for proposals to redesign the World Trade Center site to 24 Manhattan architecture firms, but then soon withdrew them. The following month, the LMDC selected Beyer Blinder Belle as planner for the redesign of the World Trade Center site.


title: World Trade Center site

text: On July 16, 2002, Beyer Blinder Belle unveiled six concepts for redesigning the World Trade Center site. All six designs were voted "poor" by the roughly 5,000 New Yorkers that submitted feedback, so the LDMC announced a new, international, open-design study.


title: World Trade Center site

text: In an August 2002 press release, the LMDC announced a design study for the World Trade Center site. The following month, the LMDC, along with New York New Visions – a coalition of 21 architecture, engineering, planning, landscape architecture and design organizations – announced seven semifinalists. The following seven architecture firms were then invited to compete to be the master plan architect for the World Trade Center:


title: World Trade Center site

text: Peterson Littenberg, a small New York architecture firm, had been enlisted by the LMDC earlier that summer as a consultant, and was invited to participate as the seventh semifinalist.


title: World Trade Center site

text: The seven semifinalists presented their entries to the public on December 18, 2002, at the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center. In the following weeks, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill withdrew its entry from the competition.


title: World Trade Center site

text: Days before the announcement of the two finalists in February 2003, Larry Silverstein wrote to LMDC Chair John Whitehead to express his disapproval of all of the semifinalists' designs. As the Twin Towers' insurance money recipient, Silverstein claimed that he had the sole right to decide what would be built. He announced that he had already picked Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as his master planner for the site.


title: World Trade Center site

text: On February 1, 2003, the LMDC selected two finalists, the THINK Team and Studio Daniel Libeskind, and planned on picking a single winner by the end of the month. Rafael Viñoly of the THINK Team and Studio Daniel Libeskind presented their designs to the LMDC, which selected the THINK design. Earlier the same day, however, Roland Betts, a member of the LMDC, had called a meeting and the corporation had agreed to vote for the THINK design before hearing the final presentations. Governor Pataki, who had originally commissioned the LMDC, intervened and overruled the LMDC's decision. On February 27, 2003, Studio Daniel Libeskind officially won the competition to be the master planner for the World Trade Center redesign.


title: World Trade Center site

text: Libeskind's original proposal, which is titled Memory Foundations, underwent extensive revisions during collaboration with Larry Silverstein, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, whom Silverstein hired. Though Libeskind designed the site, the individual buildings have been designed by different architects. While not all of Liebeskind's ideas were incorporated into the final design, his design and the public support it garnered did solidify the principle that the original footprints of the Twin Towers should be turned into a memorial and not be used for commercial purposes. As a result, Liebeskind's lawyers at the New York firm of Wachtell Lipton embarked on the multi-year negotiation process to frame a master plan for the rebuilding. The first step in this process, completed in 2003, was the "swap" in which Silverstein gave up his rights to the footprints of the Twin Towers so that they could become a memorial, and in exchange received the right to build five new office towers around the memorial. The "swap" and the ensuing negotiations, which lasted for many years, have been referred to as the most complex real estate transaction in human history because of the complexity of the issues involved, the many stakeholders, and the difficulty of reaching consensus.


title: World Trade Center site

text: An episode of CBS's "60 Minutes" in 2010 focused on the lack of progress at Ground Zero, particularly on the lack of completion dates for a majority of the buildings, the main tower, One World Trade Center (previously known as the Freedom Tower)'s having undergone three different designs, and the delays and monetary expense involved. Investor Larry Silverstein said the Port Authority's estimated completion date for the entire site was 2037, and billions of dollars had already been spent on the project, even though Ground Zero "is still a hole in the ground". During an interview for the episode, Larry Silverstein said: "I am the most frustrated person in the world...I'm seventy-eight years of age; I want to see this thing done in my lifetime". However, it was noted that in early 2011, all five office towers of the World Trade Center had begun construction.


title: World Trade Center site

text: The social center of the old World Trade Center included a spectacular restaurant on the 107th Floor, called Windows on the World, and its Greatest Bar in the World; these were tourist attractions in their own right, and a social gathering spot for people who worked in the towers. This restaurant also housed one of the most prestigious wine schools in the United States, called "Windows on the World Wine School", run by wine personality Kevin Zraly. Despite numerous assurances that these local landmarks and global attractions would be rebuilt, the Port Authority scrapped plans to rebuild these WTC attractions, which has outraged some observers.


title: World Trade Center site

text: One World Trade Center (previously coined the "Freedom Tower" by Governor Pataki) is the centerpiece of Libeskind's design. The building rises to , the height of the original World Trade Center's North Tower, and its antenna rises to the symbolic height of 1,776 feet (541 m). This height refers to 1776, the year in which the United States Declaration of Independence was signed. The tower was a collaboration between Studio Daniel Libeskind and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architect David Childs. Childs acted as the design architect and project manager for the tower, and Daniel Libeskind collaborated on the concept and schematic design. The design was finalized in 2004, but was revised extensively after the NYPD raised security concerns, which delayed the start of the construction by two years. In 2006, the Port Authority took over from Silverstein Properties. The project's developer Tishman Construction Corporation was the construction manager at the time. Construction began in April 2006. Digging the foundation and installing tower-foundation steel columns, concrete, and rebar took twice as long as it normally would due to the existence of the subway line under West Broadway nearby. The building reached grade level by 2010, progressed at a pace of one floor a week, topped out in August 2012, and was structurally completed in May 2013. The building opened on November 3, 2014, and the first 170 employees of anchor tenant Conde Nast began their work there.


title: World Trade Center site

text: Danish architect Bjarke Ingels designed Two World Trade Center, also known as 200 Greenwich Street. The building's gardens integrate Tribeca with the Financial District at the World Trade Center. As part of a 2010 lease deal to finance 4 WTC, there were plans to build 2 and 3 World Trade Center to ground level. Construction of everything up to street level was completed in mid-2013. The rest of the building, however, has yet to be built until tenants for Tower 2 can be found.


title: World Trade Center site

text: Richard Rogers Partnership designed Three World Trade Center, or 175 Greenwich Street, which stands across Greenwich Street from the Memorial's two reflecting pools. Groundbreaking occurred in fall 2008, and in May 2009, the Port Authority proposed reducing the tower to four stories. In 2012, with Silverstein still unable to find tenants, construction on the above-ground levels was delayed indefinitely, with plans for only 7 stories. However, work progressed on below-grade foundations and the ground-level podium, which was completed by October 2013. Anchor tenant Group M was finally signed in late 2013, but finance negotiations between Silverstein Properties and the Port Authority dragged, until an agreement was reached in June 2014. Construction resumed in August 2014, and the building opened on June 11, 2018.


title: World Trade Center site

text: Maki and Associates designed Four World Trade Center, also known as 150 Greenwich Street. Construction started in 2008, and the steel skeleton was mostly complete by 2012. The building opened in November 2013, making it the second tower on the site to open behind 7 World Trade Center, as well as the first building on the Port Authority property. The first tenants to move in were two government agencies, and , the building is 62% leased.


title: World Trade Center site

text: Five World Trade Center was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and will stand where the Deutsche Bank Building once stood. On June 22, 2007, the Port Authority announced that JP Morgan Chase will lease the 42-story building for its investment banking headquarters; however, JPMorgan's March 2008 acquisition of Bear Stearns had caused construction to stagnate, as the company changed its plans and relocated its headquarters to 383 Madison Avenue. Construction began on September 9, 2011. Although the foundation was completed, construction on the main structure never commenced.


title: World Trade Center site

text: 7 World Trade Center stands off of Port Authority property. David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed the tower. Construction of the new Trade Center began in 2002 and the building opened on May 23, 2006, achieving LEED gold status and being the first tower in the complex to reopen. The building is tall (plus one underground floor), making it the 28th-tallest in New York.


title: World Trade Center site

text: Construction of the memorial was completed by early 2011. The memorial opened on September 11, 2011, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the attacks. The museum was initially scheduled to open on September 11, 2012, one year after the opening of the memorial. However, construction was halted in December 2011 due to financial disputes between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum Foundation, deciding on who should be responsible for infrastructure costs. Those disputes were resolved and construction resumed on September 10, 2012. Further delays were caused when Hurricane Sandy significantly damaged the site in November 2012. The museum was completed and opened to families of the victims on May 15, 2014 and opened to the general public on May 21, 2014.


title: World Trade Center site

text: In early December 2013, Australian retail corporation Westfield announced that it will invest US$800 million for complete control of the retail space at the rebuilt center. Westfield purchased the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's 50 percent stake in the retail part of the World Trade Center site, increasing its total investment to more than US$1.4 billion.


title: World Trade Center site

text: A temporary PATH station opened in 2003 and construction on the permanent station was supposed to begin in fall 2004; however, the NYPD raised security concerns on the entire site. Among the revisions effecting the Transportation Hub was doubling the number of support columns. In the original plan, the construction of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum was only supposed to have begun after the Transportation Hub had been completed because the roof of the Transportation Hub provided the foundation on which the Memorial rested upon and the walls of the Museum. Due to the two-year delay and pressure by the victims' families to have the Memorial completed by the 10th anniversary, it was decided to concentrate on building the Memorial and holding off construction of the Transportation Hub, which increased costs. Construction finally began on the Transportation Hub in 2010. The hub formally opened on March 3, 2016, several years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.


title: World Trade Center site

text: The World Trade Center site used the ZIP code 10048 before the September 11 attacks, and there were eight letter carriers assigned to the buildings to deliver mail to the buildings' tenants. All of the Postal Service employees survived the attacks. In the months following the September 11, 2001 attacks, over 80,000 pieces of mail continued to arrive each day addressed to the World Trade Center, including some items loosely addressed to such recipients as "The Search Dogs" or "The Rescuers". By 2003, 3,600 items of mail per day were still being sent to 10048. These items were processed at the James A. Farley General Post Office, the main facility for New York City, located across from Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan. Mail there was held for pick-up by messenger, forwarded to the intended recipient, returned to its sender, or destroyed.


title: World Trade Center site

text: Following the attacks, the United States Postal Service provided free mail-forwarding service to the WTC's former occupants for three years, rather than the usual one-year period. By the end of 2006, the number of items sent to 10048 had decreased to around 300 items daily, mostly sent from businesses and organizations that had not yet updated their bulk mailing lists.


title: World Trade Center site

text: The 90 Church Street Station Post Office building is located adjacent to the new World Trade Center and the PATH station, and serves the ZIP code of 10007, which is assigned to the surrounding Tribeca neighborhood. The new World Trade Center does not use the ZIP code 10048; rather, it has been integrated within the existing 10007 ZIP code. The 10048 ZIP code was used again after the September 11, 2001 attacks for a pictorial cancellation commemorating the anniversary of the attacks.


title: Chinese culture

text: Chinese culture () is one of the world's oldest cultures, originating thousands of years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia and is extremely diverse and varying, with customs and traditions varying greatly between provinces, cities, and even towns as well. The terms 'China' and the geographical landmass of 'China' have shifted across the centuries, with the last name being the Great Qing before the name 'China' became commonplace in modernity.


title: Chinese culture

text: Chinese civilization is historically considered a dominant culture of East Asia. With China being one of the earliest ancient civilizations, Chinese culture exerts profound influence on the philosophy, virtue, etiquette, and traditions of Asia. Chinese characters, ceramics, architecture, music, dance, literature, martial arts, cuisine, visual arts, philosophy, business etiquette, religion, politics, and history have had global influence, while its traditions and festivals are celebrated, instilled, and practiced by people around the world.


title: Chinese culture

text: From the Qin dynasty to the late Qing dynasty (221 BC – AD 1840), the Chinese government divided Chinese people into four classes: landlord, peasant, craftsmen, and merchant. Landlords and peasants constituted the two major classes, while merchant and craftsmen were collected into the two minor. Theoretically, except for the position of the Emperor, nothing was hereditary.


title: Chinese culture

text: China's majority ethnic group, the Han Chinese are an East Asian ethnic group and nation. They constitute approximately 92% of the population of China, 95% of Taiwan (Han Taiwanese), 76% of Singapore, 23% of Malaysia, and about 17% of the global population, making them the world's largest ethnic group, numbering over 1.3 billion people.


title: Chinese culture

text: In modern China, there are 56 officially labelled ethnic groups. Throughout Chinese history, many non-Chinese ethnic groups have assimilated with the Han Chinese, retained their distinct ethnic identities, or faded away. At the same time, the Han Chinese majority has maintained distinct linguistic and regional cultural traditions throughout the ages. The term Zhonghua Minzu () has been used to describe the notion of Chinese nationalism in general. Much of the traditional identity within the community has to do with distinguishing the family name.


title: Chinese culture

text: During the 361 years of civil war after the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), there was a partial restoration of feudalism when wealthy and powerful families emerged with large amounts of land and huge numbers of semi-serfs. They dominated important civilian and military positions of the government, making the positions available to members of their own families and clans. The Tang Dynasty extended the imperial examination system as an attempt to eradicate this feudalism. Traditional Chinese culture covers large geographical territories, where each region is usually divided into distinct sub-cultures. Each region is often represented by three ancestral items. For example, Guangdong is represented by chenpi, aged ginger and hay. Others include ancient cities like Lin'an (Hangzhou), which include tea leaf, bamboo shoot trunk, and hickory nut. Such distinctions give rise to the old Chinese proverb: "十里不同風, 百里不同俗/十里不同風": "praxis vary within ten "li", customs vary within a hundred "li"". The 31 provincial-level divisions of the People's Republic of China grouped by its former administrative areas from 1949 to 1980, which are now known as traditional regions.


title: Chinese culture

text: Since the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors period, some form of Chinese monarch has been the main ruler above all. Different periods of history have different names for the various positions within society. Conceptually each imperial or feudal period is similar, with the government and military officials ranking high in the hierarchy, and the rest of the population under regular Chinese law. From the late Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE) onwards, traditional Chinese society was organized into a hierarchic system of socio-economic classes known as the four occupations.


title: Chinese culture

text: However, this system did not cover all social groups while the distinctions between all groups became blurred ever since the commercialization of Chinese culture in the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE). Ancient Chinese education also has a long history; ever since the Sui dynasty (581–618 CE) educated candidates prepared for the imperial examinations which drafted exam graduates into government as scholar-bureaucrats. This led to the creation of a meritocracy, although success was available only to males who could afford test preparation. Imperial examinations required applicants to write essays and demonstrate mastery of the Confucian classics. Those who passed the highest level of the exam became elite scholar-officials known as "jinshi", a highly esteemed socio-economic position. A major mythological structure developed around the topic of the mythology of the imperial exams. Trades and crafts were usually taught by a shifu. The female historian Ban Zhao wrote the "Lessons for Women" in the Han dynasty and outlined the four virtues women must abide to, while scholars such as Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi would expand upon this. Chinese marriage and Taoist sexual practices are some of the rituals and customs found in society.


title: Chinese culture

text: With the rise of European economic and military power beginning in the mid-19th century, non-Chinese systems of social and political organization gained adherents in China. Some of these would-be reformers totally rejected China's cultural legacy, while others sought to combine the strengths of Chinese and European cultures. In essence, the history of 20th-century China is one of experimentation with new systems of social, political, and economic organization that would allow for the reintegration of the nation in the wake of dynastic collapse.


title: Chinese culture

text: Most spirituality are derived from Chinese Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. The subject of which school was the most influential is always debated as many concepts such as Neo-Confucianism, Buddhism and many others have come about. Reincarnation and other rebirth concept is a reminder of the connection between real-life and the after-life. In Chinese business culture, the concept of "guanxi", indicating the primacy of relations over rules, has been well documented. While many deities are part of the tradition, some of the most recognized holy figures include Guan Yin, the Jade Emperor and Buddha.


title: Chinese culture

text: Chinese Buddhism has shaped Chinese culture in a wide variety of areas including art, politics, literature, philosophy, medicine, and material culture. The translation of a large body of Indian Buddhist scriptures into Chinese and the inclusion of these translations together with works composed in China into a printed canon had far-reaching implications for the dissemination of Buddhism throughout China. Chinese Buddhism is also marked by the interaction between Indian religions, Chinese religion, and Taoism.


title: Chinese culture

text: Chinese religion was originally oriented to worshipping the supreme god Shang Di during the Xia and Shang dynasties, with the king and diviners acting as priests and using oracle bones. The Zhou dynasty oriented it to worshipping the broader concept of heaven. A large part of Chinese culture is based on the notion that a spiritual world exists. Countless methods of divination have helped answer questions, even serving as an alternative to medicine. Folklores have helped fill the gap between things that cannot be explained. There is often a blurred line between myth, religion and unexplained phenomenon. Many of the stories have since evolved into traditional Chinese holidays. Other concepts have extended to the outside of mythology into spiritual symbols such as Door god and the Imperial guardian lions. Along with the belief of the holy, there is also the evil. Practices such as Taoist exorcism fighting mogwai and jiangshi with peachwood swords are just some of the concepts passed down from generations. A few Chinese fortune telling rituals are still in use today after thousands of years of refinement.


title: Chinese culture

text: Taoism is a religious or philosophical tradition of Chinese origin which emphasizes living in harmony with the "Tao" (, literally "Way", also romanized as "Dao"). The "Tao" is a fundamental idea in most Chinese philosophical schools; in Taoism, however, it denotes the principle that is the source, pattern and substance of everything that exists. Taoism differs from Confucianism by not emphasizing rigid rituals and social order. Taoist ethics vary depending on the particular school, but in general tend to emphasize "wu wei" (effortless action), "naturalness", simplicity, spontaneity, and the Three Treasures: 慈 "compassion", 儉/俭 "frugality", and 谦 "humility". The roots of Taoism go back at least to the 4th century BCE. Early Taoism drew its cosmological notions from the School of Yinyang (Naturalists), and was deeply influenced by one of the oldest texts of Chinese culture, the "Yijing", which expounds a philosophical system about how to keep human behavior in accordance with the alternating cycles of nature. The "Legalist" Shen Buhai may also have been a major influence, expounding a realpolitik of wu wei. The "Tao Te Ching", a compact book containing teachings attributed to Laozi (), is widely considered the keystone work of the Taoist tradition, together with the later writings of Zhuangzi.


title: Chinese culture

text: Confucianism, also known as Ruism, was the official philosophy throughout most of Imperial China's history, and mastery of Confucian texts was the primary criterion for entry into the imperial bureaucracy. A number of more authoritarian strains of thought have also been influential, such as Legalism.There was often conflict between the philosophies, e.g. the Song dynasty Neo-Confucians believed Legalism departed from the original spirit of Confucianism. Examinations and a culture of merit remain greatly valued in China today. In recent years, a number of New Confucians (not to be confused with Neo-Confucianism) have advocated that democratic ideals and human rights are quite compatible with traditional Confucian "Asian values".


title: Chinese culture

text: Confucianism is described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or simply a way of life. Confucianism developed from what was later called the Hundred Schools of Thought from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (551–479 BCE), who considered himself a retransmitter of the values of the Zhou dynasty golden age of several centuries before. In the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), Confucian approaches edged out the "proto-Taoist" Huang-Lao, as the official ideology while the emperors mixed both with the realist techniques of Legalism.


title: Chinese culture

text: The Hundred Schools of Thought were philosophies and schools that flourished from the 6th century to 221 BC, during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period of ancient China. An era of great cultural and intellectual expansion in China, it was fraught with chaos and bloody battles, but it was also known as the Golden Age of Chinese philosophy because a broad range of thoughts and ideas were developed and discussed freely. This phenomenon has been called the "Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought" (百家爭鳴/百家争鸣; "bǎijiā zhēngmíng"; "pai-chia cheng-ming"; "hundred schools contend"). The thoughts and ideas discussed and refined during this period have profoundly influenced lifestyles and social consciousness up to the present day in China and across East Asia. The intellectual society of this era was characterized by itinerant scholars, who were often employed by various state rulers as advisers on the methods of government, war, and diplomacy. This period ended with the rise of the imperial Qin Dynasty and the subsequent purge of dissent. A traditional source for this period is the "Shiji", or "Records of the Grand Historian" by Sima Qian. The autobiographical section of the "Shiji", the "Taishigong Zixu" (太史公自序), refers to the schools of thought described below.


title: Chinese culture

text: Mohism was an ancient Chinese philosophy of logic, rational thought and science developed by the academic scholars who studied under the ancient Chinese philosopher Mozi (–) and embodied in an eponymous book: the "Mozi". Another group is the School of the Military (兵家; "Bingjia") that studied warfare and strategy; Sunzi and Sun Bin were influential leaders. The School of Naturalists was a Warring States era philosophy that synthesized the concepts of yin-yang and the Five Elements; Zou Yan is considered the founder of this school. His theory attempted to explain the universe in terms of basic forces in nature: the complementary agents of yin (dark, cold, female, negative) and yang (light, hot, male, positive) and the Five Elements or Five Phases (water, fire, wood, metal, and earth).


title: Chinese culture

text: The ancient written standard was Classical Chinese. It was used for thousands of years, but was mostly used by scholars and intellectuals who forms the "top" class of the society called "shi da fu (士大夫)". It was difficult but possible for ordinary people to enter this class by passing written exams. Calligraphy later became commercialized, and works by famous artists became prized possessions. Chinese literature has a long past; the earliest classic work in Chinese, the "I Ching" or "Book of Changes" dates to around 1000 BC. A flourishing of philosophy during the Warring States period produced such noteworthy works as Confucius's "Analects" and Laozi's "Tao Te Ching". (See also: Chinese classics) Dynastic histories were often written, beginning with Sima Qian's seminal "Records of the Grand Historian", written from 109 BC to 91 BC. The Tang dynasty witnessed a poetic flowering, while the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature were written during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Printmaking in the form of movable type was developed during the Song dynasty. Academies of scholars sponsored by the empire were formed to comment on the classics in both printed and handwritten form. Royalty frequently participated in these discussions as well.


title: Chinese culture

text: Chinese philosophers, writers and poets were highly respected and played key roles in preserving and promoting the culture of the empire. Some classical scholars, however, were noted for their daring depictions of the lives of the common people, often to the displeasure of authorities.


title: Chinese culture

text: At the start of the 20th century, most of the population were still illiterate, and the many mutually-unintelligible languages spoken (Mandarin, Wu, Yue (Cantonese), Min Nan (Ban-lam-gu), Jin, Xiang, Hakka, Gan, Hui, Ping etc.) in different regions prevented communication with people from other areas. Nevertheless, the written language kept the communication open and passing the official orders and documentations throughout the entire region of China. Reformers set out to establish a national language, settling on the Beijing-based Mandarin as the spoken form. After the May 4th Movement, Classical Chinese was quickly replaced by written vernacular Chinese, modeled after the vocabulary and grammar of the standard spoken language.


title: Chinese culture

text: Chinese calligraphy is a form of writing (calligraphy), or, the artistic expression of human language in a tangible form. There are some general standardizations of the various styles of calligraphy in this tradition. Chinese calligraphy and ink and wash painting are closely related: they are accomplished using similar tools and techniques, and have a long history of shared artistry. Distinguishing features of Chinese painting and calligraphy include an emphasis on motion charged with dynamic life. According to Stanley-Baker, "Calligraphy is sheer life experienced through energy in motion that is registered as traces on silk or paper, with time and rhythm in shifting space its main ingredients." Calligraphy has also led to the development of many forms of art in China, including seal carving, ornate paperweights, and inkstones.


title: Chinese culture

text: In China, calligraphy is referred to as "Shūfǎ" (書法/书法), literally: "the way/method/law of writing"; "Shodō" () in Japan (literally: "the way/principle of writing"); and "Seoye" (서예; 書藝) in Korea (literally: "the skill/criterion of writing"). Chinese calligraphy is normally regarded as one of the "arts" (Chinese 藝術/艺术 ) in the countries where it is practised. Chinese calligraphy focuses not only on methods of writing but also on cultivating one's character (人品) and taught as a pursuit (－書法; , "the rules of writing Han characters").


title: Chinese culture

text: The Zhou dynasty is often regarded as the touchstone of Chinese cultural development. Concepts covered within the Chinese classic texts cover poetry, astrology, astronomy, calendar, and constellations. Some of the most important early texts include the "I Ching" and the "Shujing" within the Four Books and Five Classics. Many Chinese concepts such as Yin and Yang, Qi, Four Pillars of Destiny in relation to heaven and earth were theorized in the pre-imperial periods. By the end of the Qing dynasty, Chinese culture would embark on a new era with written vernacular Chinese for the common citizens. Hu Shih and Lu Xun would be pioneers in modern literature. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the study of Chinese modern literature has gradually been increased over time. Modern-era literature has formed an aspect in the process of forming modern interpretations of nationhood and creation of a sense of national spirit.


title: Chinese culture

text: Tang poetry refers to poetry written in or around the time of or in the characteristic style of China's Tang dynasty (18 June 618 – 4 June 907, including the 690–705 reign of Wu Zetian) or follows a certain style, often considered as the Golden Age of Chinese poetry. During the Tang dynasty, poetry continued to be an important part of social life at all levels of society. Scholars were required to master poetry for the civil service exams, but the art was theoretically available to everyone. This led to a large record of poetry and poets, a partial record of which survives today. Two of the most famous poets of the period were Li Bai and Du Fu. Tang poetry has had an ongoing influence on world literature and modern and quasi-modern poetry. The "Quantangshi" ("Complete Tang Poems") anthology compiled in the early eighteenth century includes over 48,900 poems written by over 2,200 authors.


title: Chinese culture

text: The "Quantangwen" (全唐文, "Complete Tang Prose"), despite its name, contains more than 1,500 "fu" and is another widely consulted source for Tang poetry. Despite their names, these sources are not comprehensive, and the manuscripts discovered at Dunhuang in the twentieth century included many "shi" and some "fu", as well as variant readings of poems that were also included in the later anthologies. There are also collections of individual poets' work, which generally can be dated earlier than the Qing anthologies, although few earlier than the eleventh century. Only about a hundred Tang poets have such collected editions extant. Another important source is anthologies of poetry compiled during the Tang dynasty, although only thirteen such anthologies survive in full or in part. Many records of poetry, as well as other writings, were lost when the Tang capital of Changan was damaged by war in the eighth and ninth centuries, so that while more than 50,000 Tang poems survive (more than any earlier period in Chinese history), this still likely represents only a small portion of the poetry that was actually produced during the period. Many seventh-century poets are reported by the 721 imperial library catalog as having left behind massive volumes of poetry, of which only a tiny portion survives, and there are notable gaps in the poetic œuvres of even Li Bai and Du Fu, the two most celebrated Tang poets.


title: Chinese culture

text: Ci (辭/辞) are a poetic form, a type of lyric poetry, done in the tradition of Classical Chinese poetry. "Ci" use a set of poetic meters derived from a base set of certain patterns, in fixed-rhythm, fixed-tone, and variable line-length formal types, or model examples: the rhythmic and tonal pattern of the "ci" are based upon certain, definitive musical song tunes. They are also known as "Changduanju" (長短句/长短句, "lines of irregular lengths") and "Shiyu" (詩餘/诗馀, "that which is beside poetry").Typically the number of characters in each line and the arrangement of tones were determined by one of around 800 set patterns, each associated with a particular title, called "cípái" 詞牌/词牌. Originally they were written to be sung to a tune of that title, with set rhythm, rhyme, and tempo. The Song dynasty was also a period of great scientific literature, and saw the creation of works such as Su Song's "Xin Yixiang Fayao" and Shen Kuo's "Dream Pool Essays". There were also enormous works of historiography and large encyclopedias, such as Sima Guang's "Zizhi Tongjian" of 1084 or the "Four Great Books of Song" fully compiled and edited by the 11th century.


title: Chinese culture

text: Notable Confucianists, Taoists and scholars of all classes have made significant contributions to and from documenting history to authoring saintly concepts that seem hundreds of years ahead of time. Although the oldest surviving textual examples of surviving "ci" are from 8th century CE Dunhuang manuscripts, beginning in the poetry of the Liang dynasty, the "ci" followed the tradition of the "Shi Jing" and the "yuefu": they were lyrics which developed from anonymous popular songs into a sophisticated literary genre; although in the case of the "ci" form some of its fixed-rhythm patterns have an origin in Central Asia. The form was further developed in the Tang dynasty. Although the contributions of Li Bo (also known as Li Po, 701 – 762) are fraught with historical doubt, certainly the Tang poet Wen Tingyun (812–870) was a great master of the "ci", writing it in its distinct and mature form. One of the more notable practitioners and developers of this form was Li Yu of the Southern Tang Dynasty during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. However, the "ci" form of Classical Chinese poetry is especially associated with the poetry of the Song Dynasty, during which it was indeed a popular poetic form. A revival of the "ci" poetry form occurred during the end of the Ming dynasty and the beginning of the Qing dynasty which was characterized by an exploration of the emotions connected with romantic love together with its valorization, often in a context of a brief poetic story narrative within a "ci" poem or a linked group of "ci" poems in an application of the "chuanqi" form of short story tales to poetry.


title: Chinese culture

text: The "Qu" form of poetry is a type of Classical Chinese poetry form, consisting of words written in one of a number of certain, set tone patterns, based upon the tunes of various songs. Thus Qu poems are lyrics with lines of varying longer and shorter lengths, set according to the certain and specific, fixed patterns of rhyme and tone of conventional musical pieces upon which they are based and after which these matched variations in lyrics (or individual Qu poems) generally take their name. The fixed-tone type of verse such as the Qu and the "ci" together with the "shi" and "fu" forms of poetry comprise the three main forms of Classical Chinese poetry. In Chinese literature, the Qu () form of poetry from the Yuan dynasty may be called "Yuanqu" (元曲 P: "Yuánqǔ", W: "Yüan-chü"). Qu may be derived from Chinese opera, such as the "Zaju" (雜劇/杂剧), in which case these Qu may be referred to as "sanqu" (散曲). The "San" in "Sanqu" refers to the detached status of the "Qu" lyrics of this verse form: in other words, rather than being embedded as part of an opera performance the lyrics stand separately on their own. Since the "Qu" became popular during the late Southern Song dynasty, and reached a special height of popularity in the poetry of the Yuan dynasty, therefore it is often called "Yuanqu" (元曲), specifying the type of "Qu" found in Chinese opera typical of the Yuan dynasty era. Both "Sanqu" and "Ci" are lyrics written to fit a different melodies, but "Sanqu" differs from "Ci" in that it is more colloquial, and is allowed to contain "Chenzi" (襯字/衬字 "filler words" which are additional words to make a more complete meaning). "Sanqu" can be further divided into "Xiaoling" (小令) and "Santao" (散套), with the latter containing more than one melody.


title: Chinese culture

text: The Four Great Classical or Classic Novels of Chinese literature are the four novels commonly regarded by Chinese literary criticism to be the greatest and most influential of pre-modern Chinese fiction. Dating from the Ming and Qing dynasties, they are well known to most Chinese either directly or through their many adaptations to Chinese opera and other forms of popular culture. They are among the world's longest and oldest novels and are considered to be the pinnacle of China's literary achievement in classic novels, influencing the creation of many stories, plays, movies, games, and other forms of entertainment across other parts of East Asia.


title: Chinese culture

text: Chinese fiction, rooted in narrative classics such as "Shishuo Xinyu", "Sou Shen Ji", "Wenyuan Yinghua", "Da Tang Xiyu Ji", "Youyang Zazu", "Taiping Guangji", and official histories, developed into the novel as early as the Song dynasty. The novel as an extended prose narrative which realistically creates a believable world of its own evolved in China and in Europe from the 14th to 18th centuries, though a little earlier in China. Chinese audiences were more interested in history and were more historically minded. They appreciated relative optimism, moral humanism, and relative emphasis on collective behavior and the welfare of the society.


title: Chinese culture

text: The rise of a money economy and urbanization beginning in the Song era led to a professionalization of entertainment which was further encouraged by the spread of printing, the rise of literacy, and education. In both China and Western Europe, the novel gradually became more autobiographical and serious in exploration of social, moral, and philosophical problems. Chinese fiction of the late Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty was varied, self-conscious, and experimental. In China, however, there was no counterpart to the 19th-century European explosion of novels. The novels of the Ming and early Qing dynasties represented a pinnacle of classic Chinese fiction. The scholar and literary critic Andrew H. Plaks argues that "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Journey to the West", and "The Golden Lotus" collectively constituted a technical breakthrough reflecting new cultural values and intellectual concerns. Their educated editors, authors, and commentators used the narrative conventions developed from earlier story-tellers, such as the episodic structure, interspersed songs and folk sayings, or speaking directly to the reader, but they fashioned self-consciously ironic narratives whose seeming familiarity camouflaged a Neo-Confucian moral critique of late Ming decadence. Plaks explores the textual history of the novels (all published after their author's deaths, usually anonymously) and how the ironic and satiric devices of these novels paved the way for the great novels of the 18th century. Plaks further shows these Ming novels share formal characteristics.


title: Chinese culture

text: China's fashion history covers hundreds of years with some of the most colorful and diverse arrangements. Different social classes in different eras boast different fashion trends, the color yellow was usually reserved for the emperor during China's Imperial era.


title: Chinese culture

text: From the beginning of its history, Han clothing (especially in elite circles) was inseparable from silk, supposedly discovered by the Yellow Emperor's consort, Leizu. The dynasty to follow the Shang, the Western Zhou Dynasty, established a strict hierarchical society that used clothing as a status meridian, and inevitably, the height of one's rank influenced the ornateness of a costume. Such markers included the length of a skirt, the wideness of a sleeve and the degree of ornamentation. In addition to these class-oriented developments, Han Chinese clothing became looser, with the introduction of wide sleeves and jade decorations hung from the sash which served to keep the "yi" closed. The "yi" was essentially wrapped over, in a style known as "jiaoling youren", or wrapping the right side over before the left, because of the initially greater challenge to the right-handed wearer (people of Zhongyuan discouraged left-handedness like many other historical cultures, considering it unnatural, barbarian, uncivilized, and unfortunate). The Shang dynasty ( – 1046 BC), developed the rudiments of Chinese clothing; it consisted of a "yi", a narrow-cuffed, knee-length tunic tied with a sash, and a narrow, ankle-length skirt, called "chang", worn with a "bixi", a length of fabric that reached the knees. Vivid primary colors and green were used, due to the degree of technology at the time.


title: Chinese culture

text: During the Qing dynasty, China's last imperial dynasty, a dramatic shift of clothing occurred, examples of which include the cheongsam (or qipao in Mandarin). The clothing of the era before the Qing dynasty is referred to as Hanfu or traditional Han Chinese clothing. Many symbols such as phoenix have been used for decorative as well as economic purposes. Among them were the "Banners" ("qí"), mostly Manchu, who as a group were called "Banner People" (旗人 pinyin: "qí rén"). Manchu women typically wore a one-piece dress that retrospectively came to be known as the "qípáo" (旗袍, Manchu: "sijigiyan" or "banner gown"). The generic term for both the male and the female forms of Manchu dress, essentially similar garments, was "chángpáo" (長袍/长袍). The "qipao" fitted loosely and hung straight down the body, or flared slightly in an A-line. Under the dynastic laws after 1636, all Han Chinese in the banner system were forced to adopt the Manchu male hairstyle of wearing a queue as did all Manchu men and dress in Manchu "qipao." However, the order for ordinary non-Banner Han civilians to wear Manchu clothing was lifted and only Han who served as officials were required to wear Manchu clothing, with the rest of the civilian Han population dressing however they wanted. Qipao covered most of the woman's body, revealing only the head, hands, and the tips of the toes. The baggy nature of the clothing also served to conceal the figure of the wearer regardless of age. With time, though, the "qipao" were tailored to become more form fitting and revealing. The modern version, which is now recognized popularly in China as the "standard" "qipao", was first developed in Shanghai in the 1920s, partly under the influence of Beijing styles. People eagerly sought a more modernized style of dress and transformed the old "qipao" to suit their tastes. Slender and form fitting with a high cut, it had great differences from the traditional "qipao". It was high-class courtesans and celebrities in the city that would make these redesigned tight fitting "qipao" popular at that time. In Shanghai it was first known as "zansae" or "long dress" (長衫—Mandarin Chinese: chángshān; Shanghainese: "zansae"; Cantonese: "chèuhngsāam"), and it is this name that survives in English as the "cheongsam". Most Han civilian men eventually voluntarily adopted Manchu clothing while Han women continued wearing Han clothing. Until 1911, the changpao was required clothing for Chinese men of a certain class, but Han Chinese women continued to wear loose jacket and trousers, with an overskirt for formal occasions. The "qipao" was a new fashion item for Han Chinese women when they started wearing it around 1925.The original "qipao" was wide and loose. As hosiery in turn declined in later decades, cheongsams nowadays have come to be most commonly worn with bare legs.


title: Chinese culture

text: Chinese art is visual art that, whether ancient or modern, originated in or is practiced in China or by Chinese artists. The Chinese art in the Republic of China (Taiwan) and that of overseas Chinese can also be considered part of Chinese art where it is based in or draws on Chinese heritage and Chinese culture. Early "Stone Age art" dates back to 10,000 BC, mostly consisting of simple pottery and sculptures. After this early period Chinese art, like Chinese history, is typically classified by the succession of ruling dynasties of Chinese emperors, most of which lasted several hundred years.


title: Chinese culture

text: Chinese art has arguably the oldest continuous tradition in the world, and is marked by an unusual degree of continuity within, and consciousness of, that tradition, lacking an equivalent to the Western collapse and gradual recovery of classical styles. The media that have usually been classified in the West since the Renaissance as the decorative arts are extremely important in Chinese art, and much of the finest work was produced in large workshops or factories by essentially unknown artists, especially in Chinese ceramics.


title: Chinese culture

text: Different forms of art have swayed under the influence of great philosophers, teachers, religious figures and even political figures. Chinese art encompasses all facets of fine art, folk art and performance art. Porcelain pottery was one of the first forms of art in the Palaeolithic period. Early Chinese music and poetry was influenced by the "Book of Songs", and the Chinese poet and statesman Qu Yuan.


title: Chinese culture

text: Chinese painting became a highly appreciated art in court circles encompassing a wide variety of Shan shui with specialized styles such as Ming dynasty painting. Early Chinese music was based on percussion instruments, which later gave away to stringed and reed instruments. By the Han dynasty papercutting became a new art form after the invention of paper. Chinese opera would also be introduced and branched regionally in addition to other performance formats such as variety arts.


title: Chinese culture

text: The Chinese paper lantern (紙燈籠, 纸灯笼) is a lantern made of thin, brightly colored paper. Paper lanterns come in various shapes and sizes, as well as various methods of construction. In their simplest form, they are simply a paper bag with a candle placed inside, although more complicated lanterns consist of a collapsible bamboo or metal frame of hoops covered with tough paper. Sometimes, other lanterns can be made out of colored silk (usually red) or vinyl. Silk lanterns are also collapsible with a metal expander and are decorated with Chinese characters and/or designs. The vinyl lanterns are more durable; they can resist rain, sunlight, and wind. Paper lanterns do not last very long, they soon break, and silk lanterns last longer. The gold paper on them will soon fade away to a pale white, and the red silk will become a mix between pink and red. Often associated with festivals, paper lanterns are common in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and similarly in Chinatowns with large communities of Overseas Chinese, where they are often hung outside of businesses to attract attention. In Japan the traditional styles include "bonbori" and "chōchin" and there is a special style of lettering called "chōchin moji" used to write on them. Airborne paper lanterns are called sky lanterns, and are often released into the night sky for aesthetic effect at lantern festivals.


title: Chinese culture

text: The Chinese sky lantern (天燈, 天灯), also known as "Kongming lantern", is a small hot air balloon made of paper, with an opening at the bottom where a small fire is suspended. In Asia and elsewhere around the world, sky lanterns have been traditionally made for centuries, to be launched for play or as part of long-established festivities. The name "sky lantern" is a translation of the Chinese name but they have also been referred to as "sky candles" or "fire balloons". The general design is a thin paper shell, which may be from about 30 cm to a couple of metres across, with an opening at the bottom. The opening is usually about 10 to 30 cm wide (even for the largest shells), and is surrounded by a stiff collar that serves to suspend the flame source and to keep it away from the walls. When lit, the flame heats the air inside the lantern, thus lowering its density and causing the lantern to rise into the air. The sky lantern is only airborne for as long as the flame stays alight, after which the lantern sinks back to the ground.


title: Chinese culture

text: The oldest existing Chinese fans are a pair of woven bamboo, wood or paper side-mounted fans from the 2nd century BCE. The Chinese character for "fan" (扇) is etymologically derived from a picture of feathers under a roof. A particular status and gender would be associated with a specific type of fan. During the Song dynasty, famous artists were often commissioned to paint fans. The Chinese dancing fan was developed in the 7th century. The Chinese form of the hand fan was a row of feathers mounted in the end of a handle. In the later centuries, Chinese poems and four-word idioms were used to decorate the fans by using Chinese calligraphy pens. In ancient China, fans came in various shapes and forms (such as in a leaf, oval or a half-moon shape), and were made in different materials such as silk, bamboo, feathers, etc.


title: Chinese culture

text: Carved lacquer or "Qīdiāo" () is a distinctive Chinese form of decorated lacquerware. While lacquer has been used in China for at least 3,000 years, the technique of carving into very thick coatings of it appears to have been developed in the 12th century CE. It is extremely time-consuming to produce, and has always been a luxury product, essentially restricted to China, though imitated in Japanese lacquer in somewhat different styles. The producing process is called Diāoqī (/彫漆, carving lacquer).Though most surviving examples are from the Ming and Qing dynasties, the main types of subject matter for the carvings were all begun under the Song dynasty, and the development of both these and the technique of carving were essentially over by the early Ming. These types were the abstract "guri" or Sword-Pommel pattern, figures in a landscape, and birds and plants. To these some designs with religious symbols, animals, auspicious characters "(right)" and imperial dragons can be added. The objects made in the technique are a wide range of small types, but are mostly practical vessels or containers such as boxes, plates and trays. Some screens and pieces of Chinese furniture were made. Carved lacquer is only rarely combined with painting in lacquer and other lacquer techniques.


title: Chinese culture

text: Later Chinese writers dated the introduction of carved lacquer to the Tang dynasty (618–906), and many modern writers have pointed to some late Tang pieces of armour found on the Silk Road by Aurel Stein and now in the British Museum. These are red and black lacquer on camel hide, but the lacquer is very thin, "less than one millimeter in thickness", and the effect very different, with simple abstract shapes on a plain field and almost no impression of relief. The style of carving into thick lacquer used later is first seen in the Southern Song (1127–1279), following the development of techniques for making very thick lacquer. There is some evidence from literary sources that it had existed in the late Tang. At first the style of decoration used is known as "guri" (/曲仑) from the Japanese word for the ring-pommel of a sword, where the same motifs were used in metal, and is often called the "Sword-Pommel pattern" in English. This style uses a family of repeated two-branched scrolling shapes cut with a rounded profile at the surface, but below that a "V" section through layers of lacquer in different colours (black, red and yellow, and later green), giving a "marbled" effect from the contrasted colours; this technique is called "tìxī" (/剃犀) in Chinese. This style continued to be used up to the Ming dynasty, especially on small boxes and jars with covers, though after the Song only red was often used, and the motifs were often carved with wider flat spaces at the bottom level to be exposed.


title: Chinese culture

text: A folding screen () is a type of free-standing furniture. It consists of several frames or panels, which are often connected by hinges or by other means. It can be made in a variety of designs and with different kinds of materials. Folding screens have many practical and decorative uses. It originated from ancient China, eventually spreading to the rest of East Asia, Europe, and other parts of the world. Screens date back to China during the Eastern Zhou period (771–256 BCE). These were initially one-panel screens in contrast to folding screens. Folding screens were invented during the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE). Depictions of those folding screens have been found in Han-era tombs, such as one in Zhucheng, Shandong Province.


title: Chinese culture

text: Folding screens were originally made from wooden panels and painted on lacquered surfaces, eventually folding screens made from paper or silk became popular too. Even though folding screens were known to have been used since antiquity, it became rapidly popular during the Tang dynasty (618–907). During the Tang dynasty, folding screens were considered ideal ornaments for many painters to display their paintings and calligraphy on. Many artists painted on paper or silk and applied it onto the folding screen. There were two distinct artistic folding screens mentioned in historical literature of the era. One of it was known as the ' () and the other was known as the ' (). It was not uncommon for people to commission folding screens from artists, such as from Tang-era painter Cao Ba or Song-era painter Guo Xi. The landscape paintings on folding screens reached its height during the Song dynasty (960–1279). The lacquer techniques for the Coromandel screens, which is known as "" ( "incised colors"), emerged during the late Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and was applied to folding screens to create dark screens incised, painted, and inlaid with art of mother-of-pearl, ivory, or other materials.


title: Chinese culture

text: Chinese jade (玉) refers to the jade mined or carved in China from the Neolithic onward. It is the primary hardstone of Chinese sculpture. Although deep and bright green jadeite is better known in Europe, for most of China's history, jade has come in a variety of colors and white "mutton-fat" nephrite was the most highly praised and prized. Native sources in Henan and along the Yangtze were exploited since prehistoric times and have largely been exhausted; most Chinese jade today is extracted from the northwestern province of Xinjiang. Jade was prized for its hardness, durability, musical qualities, and beauty. In particular, its subtle, translucent colors and protective qualities caused it to become associated with Chinese conceptions of the soul and immortality. The most prominent early use was the crafting of the Six Ritual Jades, found since the 3rd-millennium BC Liangzhu culture: the "bi", the "cong", the "huang", the "hu", the "gui", and the "zhang". Although these items are so ancient that their original meaning is uncertain, by the time of the composition of the "Rites of Zhou", they were thought to represent the sky, the earth, and the four directions. By the Han dynasty, the royal family and prominent lords were buried entirely ensheathed in jade burial suits sewn in gold thread, on the idea that it would preserve the body and the souls attached to it. Jade was also thought to combat fatigue in the living. The Han also greatly improved prior artistic treatment of jade. These uses gave way after the Three Kingdoms period to Buddhist practices and new developments in Taoism such as alchemy. Nonetheless, jade remained part of traditional Chinese medicine and an important artistic medium. Although its use never became widespread in Japan, jade became important to the art of Korea and Southeast Asia.


title: Chinese culture

text: Loongs, also known as Chinese Dragon, are legendary creatures in Chinese mythology, Chinese folklore, and East Asian culture. Chinese dragons have many animal-like forms such as turtles and fish, but are most commonly depicted as snake-like with four legs. They traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, typhoons, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it. During the days of Imperial China, the Emperor of China usually used the dragon as a symbol of his imperial power and strength. They are also the symbol and representative for the Son of Heaven, the Mandate of Heaven, the Celestial Empire and the Chinese Tributary System during the history of China.


title: Chinese culture

text: Fenghuang (鳳凰) are mythological birds found in Chinese and East Asian mythology that reign over all other birds. The males were originally called feng and the females huang but such a distinction of gender is often no longer made and they are blurred into a single feminine entity so that the bird can be paired with the Chinese dragon, which is traditionally deemed male. The fenghuang is also called the "August Rooster" () since it sometimes takes the place of the Rooster in the Chinese zodiac. In the Western world, it is commonly called the Chinese phoenix or simply Phoenix, although mythological similarities with the Western phoenix are superficial.


title: Chinese culture

text: The Qilin (; ), or Kirin in Japanese, is a mythical hooved chimerical creature in Chinese culture, said to appear with the imminent arrival or passing of a sage or illustrious ruler. Qilin is a specific type of the "lin" mythological family of one-horned beasts. The earliest references to the "qilin" are in the 5th century BC "Zuo Zhuan". The "qilin" made appearances in a variety of subsequent Chinese works of history and fiction, such as Feng Shen Bang. Emperor Wu of Han apparently captured a live "qilin" in 122 BC, although Sima Qian was skeptical of this.


title: Chinese culture

text: Xuanwu (Chinese:玄武) is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. Despite its English name, it is usually depicted as a turtle entwined together with a snake. It is known as Genbu in Japanese and Hyeonmu in Korean. It represents the north and the winter season. In Japan, it is one of the four guardian spirits that protect Kyoto and it is said that it protects the city on the north. Represented by the Kenkun Shrine, which is located on top of Mt Funaoka in Kyoto. The creature's name is identical to that of the important Taoist god Xuanwu, who is sometimes (as in "Journey to the West") portrayed in the company of a turtle and snake.


title: Chinese culture

text: Music and dance were closely associated in the very early periods of China. The music of China dates back to the dawn of Chinese civilization with documents and artifacts providing evidence of a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou dynasty (1122 BCE – 256 BCE). The earliest music of the Zhou dynasty recorded in ancient Chinese texts includes the ritual music called "yayue" and each piece may be associated with a dance. Some of the oldest written music dates back to Confucius's time. The first major well-documented flowering of Chinese music was exemplified through the popularization of the "qin" (plucked instrument with seven strings) during the Tang Dynasty, although the instrument is known to have played a major role before the Han Dynasty.


title: Chinese culture

text: There are many musical instruments that are integral to Chinese culture, such as the Xun (Ocarina-type instrument that is also integral in Native American cultures), Guzheng (zither with movable bridges), guqin (bridgeless zither), sheng and xiao (vertical flute), the erhu (alto fiddle or bowed lute), pipa (pear-shaped plucked lute), and many others.


title: Chinese culture

text: Dance in China is a highly varied art form, consisting of many modern and traditional dance genres. The dances cover a wide range, from folk dances to performances in opera and ballet, and may be used in public celebrations, rituals and ceremonies. There are also 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in China, and each ethnic minority group in China also has its own folk dances. The best known Chinese dances today are the Dragon dance and the Lion Dance.


title: Chinese culture

text: Chinese architecture is a style of architecture that has taken shape through the ages and influenced the architecture of East Asia for many centuries. The structural principles of Chinese architecture have remained largely unchanged, the main changes being only the decorative details. Since the Tang dynasty, Chinese architecture has had a major influence on the architectural styles of East Asia such as Japan and Korea. Chinese architecture, examples for which can be found from more than 2,000 years ago, is almost as old as Chinese civilization and has long been an important hallmark of Chinese culture. There are certain features common to Chinese architecture, regardless of specific regions, different provinces or use. The most important is symmetry, which connotes a sense of grandeur as it applies to everything from palaces to farmhouses. One notable exception is in the design of gardens, which tends to be as asymmetrical as possible. Like Chinese scroll paintings, the principle underlying the garden's composition is to create enduring flow, to let the patron wander and enjoy the garden without prescription, as in nature herself. Feng shui has played a very important part in structural development. The Chinese garden is a landscape garden style which has evolved over three thousand years. It includes both the vast gardens of the Chinese emperors and members of the imperial family, built for pleasure and to impress, and the more intimate gardens created by scholars, poets, former government officials, soldiers and merchants, made for reflection and escape from the outside world. They create an idealized miniature landscape, which is meant to express the harmony that should exist between man and nature. A typical Chinese garden is enclosed by walls and includes one or more ponds, rock works, trees and flowers, and an assortment of halls and pavilions within the garden, connected by winding paths and zig-zag galleries. By moving from structure to structure, visitors can view a series of carefully composed scenes, unrolling like a scroll of landscape paintings.


title: Chinese culture

text: The Chinese palace is an imperial complex where the royal court and the civil government resided. Its structures are considerable and elaborate. The Chinese character "gong" (宮; meaning "palace") represents two connected rooms (呂) under a roof (宀). Originally the character applied to any residence or mansion, but it was used in reference to solely the imperial residence since the Qin dynasty (3rd century BC). A Chinese palace is composed of many buildings. It has large areas surrounded by walls and moats. It contains large halls (殿) for ceremonies and official business, as well as smaller buildings, temples, towers, residences, galleries, courtyards, gardens, and outbuildings. Apart from the main imperial palace, Chinese dynasties also had several other imperial palaces in the capital city where the empress, crown prince, or other members of the imperial family dwelled. There also existed palaces outside of the capital city called "away palaces" (離宮/离宫) where the emperors resided when traveling. Empress dowager Cixi (慈禧太后) built the Summer Palace or Yiheyuan (頤和園/颐和园 – "The Garden of Nurtured Harmony") near the Old Summer Palace, but on a much smaller scale than the Old Summer Palace.