Right now, China is the world’s 4th most visited country by international tourist arrivals after France, USA, and Spain. With its fast growing tourism industry, more reciprocal deals with other countries, and exceptionally rich tourism resources, experts predict that China will become the 1st most visited country by international tourist arrivals by 2020.

So at this very moment, What’s Holding You Back from Traveling to China?

Taroko Gorge, located in downstream of Liwu Creek, near the entrance of the Central Cross-Island Highway. Taroko Gorge in eastern Taiwan is one of the most famous scenic mountain resorts. Taroko means “great mountains” in native language. As Liwu Creek water erosion constantly cuts through the uplift crust, the marble rock is exposed, thus forming the steep Taroko Gorge landscapes. 20 km-long Taroko Gorge is the world’s largest marble canyon.

This is a video uploaded by Chinese Civilization Channel at youtube.com . This pipa piece is the most viewed one of its 风华国乐 (Grace of Traditional Chinese Music) playlist.

This is just one example of videos uploaded by Chinese Civilization Channel. So far, I found it the best “China” channel on youtube. Since joining youtube on June 19, 2008, in about one year and a half, this channel has uploaded 13,400+ high quality videos organized with 147 playlists. It has attracted 4,400+ subscribers and ~12 million total upload views.

Puppet show is a common form of performance art that you can find in many different cultures. Although its exact date of origin is hard to define, many historians believe that puppet show is developed with other drama forms around 2000 years ago independently in various ancient cultures.

As a performance art, puppet show is believed to be “originated in Han dynasty, and thrived in Tang Dynasty”. In Three Kingdom Period, puppets were used in juggling performances; in Sui Dynasty, puppet show was introduced in storytelling.

Welcome to the 9th (December 21, 2009) edition of China Carnival. Before going into posts, I wish everyone a merry Christmas and happy new year!

We have 8 posts (new record high~ applauds) today. Fangfang, a new “China” blogger at chinasundae.com contributes two, one about some opinions on Han Buddhism and another about some travel tips. Our old friends Zhu, Chris, Katie and Richard continue to present their posts about Beijing, Martial arts, travel tips, and spirituality, respectively.