Chinese Astrology

Chinese astrology has existed for over 6,000 years and forms a significant element of Chinese culture. It is built on the foundation of astronomy and developed into an art form in the belief that the position of celestial bodies directly and profoundly impacts human beings and everything naturally occurring on Earth. According to the traditions of Chinese astrology, the combination of an individual's birth time, day, month and year can reveal not only their destiny, but also personality traits, overall health, lifestyle, compatibility or incompatibility with others and career choices.

This is based on the very complex relationships existing between what is referred to as the 12 branches, 10 heavenly stems, five elements - metal, wood, earth, fire, water - and the forces of yin and yang, which oppose each other. Five classical, or major, planets, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury, Mars and Saturn, are associated with the Wu Xing, which assigns the elements - metal, wood, water, fire and earth respectively - and one of five animals - the white tiger, azure dragon, black tortoise, vermilion bird and yellow dragon respectively - to these planets. Their positions, in conjunction with the positions of the sun, moon and other stars, comets, etc, are believed to determine a person's destiny.

Chinese astrology uses a sixty year cycle, which is basically based on the 12 year rotation of Jupiter around the sun and consists of two interacting, separate cycles. The first of these two cycles is based on the 10 heavenly stems, which are essentially the five elements in their opposing yin and yang forms. The 12 animals used in Chinese Astrology, namely the rat, ox and tiger, the rabbit, dragon, snake and horse, the goat, monkey and rooster, dog and pig - in that order - represent the earthly branches and form the second cycle.
These animal signs, the zodiac of Chinese astrology, were not used until the Chinese writing system evolved. Early astronomers had used a time reckoning system based on Jupiter's orbit around the sun, which takes 12 years to complete (explaining why most time measurements are based on the number 12) and divided the celestial circle into 12 equal sections. Assigning animals to these sections allowed the people of the time to easier recall what each animal represented, as opposed to trying to understand the already mentioned, complicated relationships between branches, stems, elements, yin and yang.

Because the signs used in Chinese astrology are based on the 60 year cycle and the Chinese New Year varies slightly (in 2012, Chinese New Year fell, for instance, on January 23, while in 2013, it will be on February 10) it is essential to consult a proper chart if wishing to determine a person's Chinese zodiac sign. In addition, a person may also have traits of other animals due to the time of their birth.

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Dragons Are Part of Chinese Culture for Kids

Dragons play a relatively significant part in the Chinese culture for kids. However, not everyone knows of their importance. For example, Chinese dragons represent good luck. It is also part of the New Year celebrations. However, do you know why they are part of the Chinese New Year?

The dragon taking part in the New Year celebration dates back to ancient times. Unlike how they are viewed now, these creatures did not breathe fire. Instead, they were caring and wise during ancient Chinese times. In addition, during those times, dragons were the protectors of rivers, rain, precious gems, and metals, which makes this part of Chinese culture for kids' fun and entertaining because they can see just how different each culture views dragons. Kids are also able to see their transformation over the centuries

In Japan, Korea, and China, the dragon is a major symbol within many different paintings. You probably have seen many Asian paintings of the various kinds of dragons, but didn't know of or possibly even notice what sets them apart from each other. However, if you look close enough, you are able to point out the difference between the different creatures from amongst all three countries relatively easily:

• All Chinese dragons have five toes
• All Japanese dragons have four toes
• All Korean dragons have three toes

The Chinese legend of the dragon:
"The farther dragons travel from their home in
China, the more toes they lose! Fortunately,
When wandering dragons return home to China,
All their missing toes grow back. But, as most
Dragons would prefer to keep all their toes, all
The time, few dragons ever wander very far
From home."

One of the 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac is the dragon. You are very lucky if are born in the year of the dragon. The reason why people are lucky is that these people are tactless, potentially great, and passionate leaders (although they can be arrogant at times as well).

Dragons have been extremely important throughout Chinese history. People of all classes are born with the same dragon-like traits, including emperors. Emperor Huang Di and Emperor Yan Di (brothers) were a couple of the Emperors that were born under the sign of the dragon.

You will find dragons as part of the Chinese culture for kids spanning centuries worth of history for kids to learn, especially when you view the dragon's importance to their New Year's celebrations and National day celebrations.

Dragons have been part of the Chinese culture for kids and adults for thousands of years. These magnificent creatures appear in everything, from art work to Chinese zodiac signs and practically everything in between.

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Five Common Misconceptions About Chinese Tea Purchasing

Now more and more people fall in love with Chinese premium teas but purchasing Chinese famous teas seems challenging. Here, we listed five common misconceptions we concluded when people buying Chinese teas in recent years. Read them, you may become more experienced and better prepared in tea purchasing.

Misconception #1 Expensive teas are definitely better than the cheaper ones.

Here, we don't just mean it for the teas sold by different vendors because it is obvious that it is not so under the circumstances. Even it is not right when we study the relations of the prices and the quality of the teas dealt with by the same vendor. As a commodity, tea price is mainly decided by the supply-demand relations. That is to say, in fact, people's preference which is sometimes irrational has great influence to tea prices.

For example, Dragon Well and Biluochun are almost the most expensive green teas in China. Do you know why they are so expensive? Of course, they are wonderful indeed, but is it the only reason for the high price? No, another main reason is that they are produced in Suzhou and Hangzhou, the two wealthiest places in China dubbed as paradise by Chinese intellectuals and poets. That is why Dragon Well and Biluochun are easily known and become so popular. Some others kinds of teas such as Huoshan Huangya, Dinggu Da Fang, Huangshan Mao Feng are also wonderful in quality, however, they are not so fortunate as Dragon Well and Biluochun because they are produced in the remote areas and are difficult to be transported to towns and cities especially in ancient times. Therefore, if you want to buy Chinese teas, don't just focus on Dragon Well and Biluochun, some other teas good in quality but low in price are also good options. As a matter of fact, China is so big and there are so many famous teas.

Another example, nowadays, Chinese crave for the Mingqian tea (tea harvested before Qingming around 5th April), driving the price of the Mingqian tea such as Mingqian Dragon Well Tea to the sky high. Is the Mingqian Dragon Well Tea really so good? Is it worthwhile? Not necessarily. Tea quality is determined by many factors such as the tea cultivar, growing area, and harvest time and production method. Harvest time is only one of the factors. Now a great deal of Mingqian Dragon Well Tea we found in the market was made of tealeaves from one tea cultivar named as Wuniuzao. The Dragon Well Tea made from Wuniuzao cultivar is much worse in taste and flavor compared with the ones from the traditional cultivar Longjing Qunti while Cultivar Wuniuzao is more than 10 days earlier than the Qunti cultivar in tea buds sprouting, and more and more tea farmers join in growing Wuniuzao so that they can produce more Mingqian tea and earn more money. During recent years, the Wuniuzao Dragon Well Tea is growing fast in quantity year by year.

Misconception #2 Teas harvested earlier such as Mingqian tea is definitely better than those harvested later
Not necessarily, you can see it from what we've talked above in Misconception #1. In fact tea cultivar plays a bigger role in tea quality than the harvest time. And here is another example. You know the temperature becomes lower when the altitude increases in the same area and we all know teas growing at high mountains are much better than those at the lower altitude of the same area, however, they are much later in sprouting, sometimes later more than 15 to 20 days. And we find teas made of leaves harvested from high mountains of 1000 meters above the sea level around Mid April are always better than Mingqian tea at the foot of the mountain.

Misconception #3 I can buy the authentic famous teas so long as I go to the producing areas of its origin.
Every year, when tea farmers start harvesting and producing teas, huge crowds pour into the producing area, especially in Mejiawu, Hangzhou, the core producing area of Dragon Well and Dongshan, Xishan, the two core producing area of Biluochun. Can they really get the authentic Dragon Well or Biluochun by doing so? Not necessarily.

Thanks to the celebrity status of Dragon Well and Biluochun, the local Chaqing (plucked fresh tealeaves but not processed) is several times higher in price than those in other areas, and the local Chaqing which is quite limited can't meet the high demand. The huge profit drives people to find lucrative ways. More than 20 years ago, Chaqing from the Huangshan, Anhui province and Wuyuan, Jiangxi province were brought to Hangzhou for production. Both areas are close to Hangzhou and have a great deal of quality Chaqing. However, in recent years, to meet the high demand of Mingqian Dragon Well and Biluochun, Chaqing from Sichuan and Guizhou are brought by air to Hangzhou. By dong so, it can not only solve the shortage of the local Chaqing but also produce much more Mingqian tea because the tea trees sprout almost one month earlier than the ones in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Misconception #4 Pay too much attention to the grade of the tea.
The grading of tea is much sophisticated and confusing. For example, there are commonly six grades of Dragon Well tea but some tea manufactures have their own unique grading system and there are always the grade emerging that you may have never heard of in the market such as Supreme, Special A, and Jipin. You will be confused by the grades even as a professional. We suggest you care about it but don't pay too much attention to it. The best way is to make a sample comparison between teas of similar prices without caring too much about the grades.

Misconception #5 Green tea should be green in color and the greener the better
Totally false, nowadays, more and more people even young Chinese assume dried green tea should be green in color and the tea in yellowish color is not the tea of the current year. To take people's fancy, more and more tea makers make the tea light roasted, resulting in greener tea with bad taste. In fact, authentic Dragon Well tea made in the traditional ways is yellowish in color instead of green, the same as Huangshan Maofeng.

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