The shadow play is a typical traditional entertainment that has survived and thrived over the centuries. It is taken as an earliest ancestor of modern cinema.

Legend has it that more than 2,000 years ago，Emperor Wudi of the Western Han Dynasty was very depressed over the death of his favorite concubine（妃子）.To help him get over his sadness, a minister made a puppet out of cotton and silk in the likeness of the concubine and projected its shadow on a curtain for the emperor to see. The show brought the emperor some comfort. He somehow believed the shadow was his lover’ spirit. This is thought to be the beginning of the shadow play.

One mouth tells stories of thousands of years；a pair of hands operates millions of soldiers. This is how the shadow puppeteer works. Nicknamed “the business of the five”，a shadow puppet group is made up of five people. One operates the puppets, one plays a Suona and a Yueqin, one plays the Banhu, one is in charge of percussion（打击乐器）instruments, and one sings.

During performances, “actors” are held close to a white curtain with their colored shadows cast on it by a strong light from behind. The operator plays five puppets at the same time，each of which has three threads. Ten fingers handle fifteen threads. Moved by guiding sticks，the puppets play roles with musical accompaniment. The popularity of shadow play in some way lies in the equipment being light and easy to carry, the small number of people needed for a performance, and the flexible requirements for performance places. The plays can be quite dramatic and, when it comes to fairy tales or kungfu stories, the "actors" may be made to ride on clouds or perform unusual feats, to the great enjoyment of the audience, especially children.

The design of the figures follows traditional moral evaluation. The audience can tell a figure’s character by seeing his mask. Like the masks in Beijing Opera, a red mask represents honesty, a black mask, loyalty, and a white one, betrayal.

Nowadays, the shadow play has been industrialized and developed a series of tourist products for the promotion of Chinese culture and tourism.

For students or teachers who are planning an educational trip to China, or parents who want to arrange educational and meaningful things to do in China for children, here we offer travel tips on what to do and learn for educational tour in China.

▶How to make dumplings. Dumpling is the most common food in China, and it has so many fans in the world for its deliciousness, and has become a must-order food in a Chinese restaurant for foreigners. Dumpling in China is easily home-made food, and most families would make it by themselves. While having an educational trip to China, you could learn how to make dumplings.

▶How to make Chinese traditional handicrafts (手工艺品), like Chinese knots (结), and paper-cutting. Small fine Chinese traditional handicrafts are very beautiful and have blessings (祝福) for life, thus people would like to make them and put them in houses. Chinese knot is made by strings through special weaving, and it has blessings of safety, health and happiness, and you could hang it in houses or cars. Chinese paper-cutting is pasted on window glass, and used to decorate houses in Spring Festival, and it could be designed into different shapes, such as animals, flowers, and letters. You could totally get this two skills, and make Chinese knot and paper cutting to decorate houses.

▶How to make terracotta warriors (兵马俑), china, and pottery. When visiting Terracotta Warriors, you would admire its greatness and excellent skills. But please remember, you could make your own terracotta warriors and bring them home. Outside the Terracotta, there are stores for you to experience how to make terracotta warriors. Besides terracotta warriors, you could also go to experiential stores to learn how to make china and pottery.

The British—-and especially the English—-are bad at complaining. Because of British politeness rules, according to which conflict should be avoided, people either just do not complain, or sometimes bottle it up and then outpour it in another way in other unimportant situations. In fact, there is a TV programme which shows the British in typical situations where they would be perfectly reasonable in complaining, but they don’t. In one scene, a woman reads a newspaper over people’s shoulders and the people say nothing or look embarrassed.

The British are also well-known for putting up with bad service everywhere from restaurants to airports and railway stations because the standard rules of behaviour say that it is bad to draw attention to yourself. This is why, when you travel on the tube in London and there is yet another delay, the passengers will look at each other, sigh, smile wearily and raise their eyes to heaven. They might even say, “Huh! Typical!” in a resigned (顺从的) tone of voice that says that there’s nothing that can be done about it. When complaints are made, they are made in an apologetic or a humorous tone of voice. In France, on the other hand, angry passengers might riot (闹事) and burn down the subway station if they had to put up with the poor service that the London underground provides.

Americans and other Europeans who are much more direct and in-your-face than the British, often wonder why British people always say “sorry” or “excuse me” when they complain. It’s like they’re apologizing for something that isn’t their fault, they say. They are missing the point. British people are not really sorry—it is because the word “sorry” actually works as a distancing skill. This is important in terms of negative politeness and not drawing attention to yourself. If you do not say “sorry” or use other distancing words like “could”, “would”, “might”, “possibly”' and so on, you will be seen as rude.