Fertile Sichuan has long been one of China's major tea- producing regions. Chengdu had been noted for its teahouses by the Tang dynasty—as early as the ninth century. For centuries, teahouses were places for entertainment as well as tea, with performances of storytelling, music, and Sichuan opera in particular. That is a fading art these days, but Yuelai Teahouse beside Jinjiang Theater still hosts opera every Saturday afternoon.

You will find most of Chengdu's old-school teahouses in parks and temple compounds (大院). Heming Teahouse in Renmin Park buzzes with morning retirees, lunchtime office workers, and afternoon visitors. All of them sit under red lanterns by a lotus pond. When the loud confused noise gets too much, move on to Shaocheng Teahouse in the same park. Regulars are older and quieter. They bring songbirds on outings, hanging their cages in the branches of willow trees, and play mahjong in a pavilion covered with moss. In more recent years, however, increasingly elaborate(精致的) teahouses have opened to appeal to the younger generation. They tend to have a taste for superior teas in a more contemporary style. The most famous one of them is Mi Xun Teahouse in Taikoo Li, which is right in the city's most fashionable retail(零售) district.

As in all teahouses, the tea comes in individual packets with a thermos of water. Maofeng green tea from Mount Emei, south of Chengdu, is the traditional favorite. Shake the loose leaves into your palm-sized cup. The cup usually comes with a saucer and a lid that both functions to strain surface-floating leaves and to keep the tea warm. Don’t let the water level in your cup get too low, since any bitterness from the tea leaves is concentrated at the bottom. You can top up your tea all afternoon and needn't buy anything else.

The fifteenth day of the first month in the lunar calendar (日历), also known as the Lantern Festival, is the last day for the Spring Festival celebration. It's time to enjoy the important festival food: rice glue balls. It is called tangyuan in the south, and yuanxiao in the north of China. It's one of the favorite dishes at Chinese festivals, as the round shape represents reunion.

Li Mingcheng, more than 60 years old, has been making rice glue balls for over 40 years. His snack bar brand was founded over 100 years ago. He is the sixth generation leader of the family. Every kid looked forward to the Spring Festival, because long ago, rice glue balls were luxury (奢侈的) food. People only made them during the Spring Festival. Besides the rare (罕见的) dishes like meat, the rice glue balls were an important part of Li's childhood memories.

"The wrapper (包装材料) is made of rice from northeast China. It is the best," says Li. After being put into water for 24 hours, the rice is wet-milled (湿磨) to make dough (面团) and it is decorated with sweet juice. For the filling, black sesame (芝麻) is a classic choice. It's a mixture of sesame, sugar and lard. Some people prefer it with walnuts, peanuts and brown sugar.

After eating rice glue balls, families make full use of the remaining holiday to see lantern shows. In the colorful lights, people wish for a whole year as happy as today. Those sweet times would be connected with rice glue balls and happiness at the festival.

Chinese ancient poetry was the heart and soul of Chinese ancient literature. Poems and songs have been the means of entertainment of men from the earliest times. Chinese ancient poetry was primarily written to be chanted or sung.

The poetic persona (表面形象) is a feature of classical Chinese poetry. The persona appears when the poem is written from the viewpoint of some other person. Some poems are comments on the contemporary society and life. Chinese ancient poems, although apparently simple in the first reading, have deeper and greater meanings when read intensively.

The earliest Chinese ancient poetry begins with The Book of Songs which is a collection of 305 poems. It was the first comprehensive compilation(辑)of Chinese ancient poems. Each poem in The Book of Songs was set to music and could be sung. Folk songs made up the most part of the book! Confucius, the great ancient philosopher, was fond of this book. It was also the accepted textbook of the Confucian school.

Chinese poetic history is extremely long and colorful. The Tang dynasty, the golden age of Chinese ancient poetry, produced many famous poems. Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty, was compiled by Heng Tang Tui Shi(蘅塘退士) of the Qing dynasty. This was used for very many years to teach primary students.

Almost everything is the subject of Chinese ancient poetry including marriage, agriculture, courtship(求爱), sorrow and joys, romance, heroic deeds and so on. Generally, each poem is usually composed of lines of four, five or seven syllables. Translations of Chinese ancient poems are available in books and also online. Now these beautiful poems have attracted readers all over the world.