There are many classical cultures in China. All of them have a very long history. Here we introduce four of them.

	Chinese Handwriting Chinese handwriting is a special art to Asian cultures. Brush handwriting is much loved around the world. Wang Xizhi is very famous for his handwriting. He made a great difference to the development of Chinese handwriting.
	Chinese Folk Music Chinese folk music has a long history. It is connected with Chinese ancient stories. One of the classics, Shijing, includes some folk songs in 15 different areas from the West Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period. Traditional Chinese musical instruments include guqin, guzheng, pipa, erhu, xiao and so on.
	Chinese Painting Chinese painting is one of the oldest traditional painting forms in the world. Most of the Chinese paintings in ancient China were done on paper or silk. Traditional Chinese painting includes mountains and water, figures (人物), flowers and birds. The paintings show different features during the different historical periods.
	Weiqi Weiqi, called “yi” in ancient China, is a smart board game between two players with a history of over 3, 000 years. The game can be treated as the beginning of all ancient chess games. It was introduced to Korea about 2, 000 years ago and was popular among the higher classes.

The traditional Chinese solar calendar divides a year into 24 solar terms. The Spring Equinox Chinese (春分), as the fourth term of the year starts on March 21 and ends on April 5 this year.

The Spring Equinox signals the equal length of the day and night time. On the day of the Spring Equinox, sun is directly above the equator. After the equinox, the sun moves northwards, resulting in gradually longer day time in the Northern Hemisphere and longer night in the Southern Hemisphere.

Here are 6 things you may not know about the Spring Equinox.

The ancient Chinese people divided the fifteen days of the Spring Equinox into three “hou’s,” or five-dayparts. As the old saying goes, swallows fly back to the North in the first hou; thunder cracks the sky in the second hou; lightning occurs frequently in the third hou, which vividly reveals the climate feature during the Spring Equinox.

Standing an egg upright is a popular game across the country during the Spring Equinox. It is an old custom that dates back to 4, 000 years ago. People practice this tradition to celebrate the coming of spring. It is believed that if someone can make the egg stand, he will have good luck in the future.

Spring Equinox is a good time to fly kites. In ancient times, people did not have good medical resources. So to pray for health, they wrote their medical issues on paper kite. When the kite was in the air, people would cut off the string to let the paper kite float away, symbolizing the flying away of diseases.

Later flying kites developed into a popular game of spring. On the Spring Equinox, people write a blessing on the kite, hoping that the gods in the sky would see it.

Eating spring vegetables during the Spring Equinox is a commonly practiced custom in many regions of China. ‘Spring vegetables’ refers to seasonal vegetables that differ from place to place. The ancient teachings in the Chinese classic, Huangdi Neijing, suggests that people eat seasonal foods to help preserve health and bring good luck.

During the Spring Equinox, an old tradition practiced by Beijing locals is offering sacrifices to the Sun god. This tradition is called “Zhonghe Festival”. The “Sun Cake”, a round cake made from wheat and sugar, serves as the main offering.

This practice is popular in the southern area of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. As the Spring Equinox comes, farm work starts and both the farmers and the cattle start to become busy. Farmers will reward cattle with sticky rice balls to express their gratefulness. Meanwhile, people will also make sacrifice to birds, to thank them for bringing signals for farm work and to ask them not to eat grains later in the year.

Every year there is a Spring Festival in China. Usually it is in January or February. It is the most important festival in China. So before it comes, everyone has to prepare things. They buy pork, beef, chicken, fruits and many other things. And they often make a special kind of food—“dumplings”. It means “come together”. On the day before the festival，parents buy new clothes for their children. Children also buy presents for their parents. On the Spring Festival Eve (除夕)all the family members come back to their hometown. This is a happy moment. Some sing and dance, some play cards and others get the dinner ready. When they enjoy the meal, they give each other the best wishes for the coming year. They all have a good time.