China is the third largest country in territory in the world after Russia and Canada. However, few people think of China as a desert nation, yet it is among the world’s largest. More than 27%, or 2.5 million square kilometers, of the country comprises useless sand (just 7% of Chinese land feeds about a quarter of the world’s population).

Ironically, here, I am not going to talk about environment conservation. I will show you five most “beautiful” deserts in China.

When we see some people showing amazing skills, such as in sports, playing instruments, juggling, acrobatics, etc., we might talk to ourselves: Geeez, I can never do this!

However, you might not know how many months and years they have been practicing the skill off the stage. They failed frequently and painfully in the beginning. Then they failed less. Someday they started to shine. And finally they made it on the stage in front of you. It’s a matter of practice.

Welcome to the January 21, 2010 edition of china carnival.

We have four posts today. Zhu continues to tell us her Beijing stories and this time it is about the well known Tian’An Men. Devin presents one of his days traveling in China. Matt talked about the interesting habit of Chinese to ask other people’s income. In the end, “Watch me eat” shares some good Chinese food somewhere in NY state.

We travel because we want to experience new things. We want to see new sights, meet new people, taste new food and just generally experience and be a part of things we normally wouldn’t were we to stay still and not venture out into the great wide world that spreads before us, offering its cultures and treasures and becoming our proverbial oyster, allowing us to sample its delights before moving on to something different.

Let’s take this Jade Cong of Liangzhu culture as an example. It is square outside and round inside, with a middle hole. Experts have speculated that it may represent our ancestors’ “hemispherical dome” belief. The square means earth, the round circle means heaven. And Cong has both of them; it is a symbol of connection between heaven and earth.

At the time, every time when a good harvest, or memorial day, they held a grand sacrificial ceremony. Liangzhu ancestors would use this Jade Cong to communicate with heaven and earth gods.