Dragons are not real animals, but look like a combination of many animals such as snakes, fish and deer. They have two horns (角) and a long moustache. With fantastic powers, they fly in the sky or swim in the sea. They can make rain, too. The Chinese dragon is a symbol of strength and good luck. The emperors of ancient China loved dragons. Their clothes were covered with pictures of dragons.

We are proud to call ourselves the “descendants of the dragon”. In Chinese, excellent people are often called dragons. A number of Chinese sayings talk about dragons, for example, “Hoping one’s child will become a dragon.”, which means hoping he or she will be successful.

It is said that people born in the Year of the Dragon have certain characteristics. They are creative, confident, brave and quick-tempered. There are also some traditional festivals about dragons in China, such as Dragon Head- Raising Day and Dragon Boat Festival. We have different kinds of activities to celebrate them. These two festivals come every year, but the Year of the Dragon comes every twelve years. The dragon is very important in Chinese culture. As the “descendants of the dragon”, it is necessary for us to know the opinions on dragons in our culture. It can help us understand why our parents always want us to be “dragons”.

There are many classical (古典的) cultures in China. All of them have a very long history. Here we introduce three of them.

	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.

Yang Hongwei, 56, was born into a kite-making family in Weifang. She learned to make kites from her grandfather at the age of 16. After practicing the skill for 10 years, she started he own shop in 1992.

“Many places around the world have a tradition of flying kites.” Yang said. “But I think the cultural idea behind our kites is unique（独一无二的）.”

On Yang’s kites, people can see not only patterns（图案） like butterflies and birds, but also some prints telling Chinese stories. For example, she once made a kite showing a phoenix（凤凰）. On each side of the phoenix, there were pictures of 50 famous women from Chinese history.

Each woman’s picture is a little different from the others. Yang spent lots of time reading history books.

In her free time, she also travels to different countries including Germany, Australia, the United States and New Zealand to tell people stories of Chinese kites and the traditional ways they are made. “It is an important job of mine, to spread our culture around the world and on to young people,” she said.