砹: [ ài ] 
[ 国标码:EDC1 部首:石 笔画:10 笔顺:1325112234 ]
1. astatine(AT)
2. potato lifter
(Source: dict.cn)
Archive for June 21st, 2008
Children Chinese – Shang & Chou Dynasties (2)
Saturday, June 21st, 2008Warriors: The leaders of different clans were continually waging war with each other. Warriors were knights in bronze armor who went to battle in horse-drawn chariots made of wood and bronze. They wore bronze helmets, and carried daggers, spears, and axes. Each chariot had a driver, a spearman, and an archer. Behind them, came the foot soldiers, who were usually peasants, forced to leave their fields. Foot soldiers wore tunics and trousers.
Farmers: Most people were farmers (peasants). Their life was very hard. Farmers lived in nearby villages. Their homes were very simple. In the summer, peasants lived on the land near their fields. Summer homes were made of bamboo branches. In the winter, they moved to their permanent homes in the villages. Winter homes were drafty, one room houses with thatched or tile roofs, dirt floors and no furniture. The walls were made of mud. Doors faced south. Each family had their own winter home.
They farmed small plots of land with primitive stone and wood tools. They did not own the land. They worked the land assigned to them by the royals and the nobles. They had to give the nobleman part of the food they grew. They were also expected to give gifts to the nobleman of wine or silk. They worked without pay on the noble’s house, roads, and bridges. They pretty much worked all the time.
Their gods were the gods of nature, the river god, the rain god, the earth god. They believed in many gods, but the most powerful was the sky god, T’ien, the king of gods. To the peasants, T’ien was more brilliant and more powerful than any earthbound king.
As in Xia times, the earliest times, each year they celebrated the Spring Festival. Several villages would gather for the Festival. Unlike the nobles, marriages were rarely arranged. Boys and girls met each other at the Spring Festival. This is when young boys and girls found husbands and wives. Girls were about 15 years old when they married. Boys were about the same age, or a little older.
It was during Shang times that the Spring Festival evolved into what we call today Chinese New Year.
Merchants and Craftsmen:
Since this group did not produce food and were not part of the nobility, they were outside the class structure. Like slaves, they were hardly considered men. In times of war, when the city was attacked, they were not taken inside the protective walls, but were left to fend for themselves as best they could
(Source: ancienthistory.mrdonn.org)
Beijing Olympic – 100,000 Beijingers to serve as smoking ban inspectors
Saturday, June 21st, 2008More than 100,000 Beijingers would be tasked to check the enforcement of a smoking ban at public facilities that would take effect since May 1 in the Olympic host city of Beijing, a health official said.
More than 1,000 people have been trained on the enforcement of the ban, while another 100,000 people would be appointed as inspectors by all the city’s enterprises and institutions, said Deng Xiaohong, spokeswoman of the Beijing Health Bureau.
People caught smoking in forbidden areas face a minor fine of 10 yuan (1.4 U.S. dollars) while enterprises and institutions that violate the ban face fines between 1,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan, according to Zheng on Thursday.
Restaurants, bars and Internet cafes have been exempted from the proposed smoking ban at public facilities in response to concerns expressed by business owners, officials said earlier this month.
These places will only be told to separate smoking and non-smoking areas from May 1 as part of the new regulation.
Beijing had originally wanted restaurants to keep 70 percent of their areas smoke-free, but the plan was dropped amid restaurant owners’ worries about potential business decline.
From Oct. 1 last year, Beijing banned smoking in the city’s 66,000 cabs, and imposed a fine of 100 yuan to 200 yuan (14 to 28 U.S. dollars) on drivers if caught smoking in cabs.
China has pledged itself to a non-smoking Olympics and a Green Olympics, and this year’s event will be the first non-smoking Olympic Games after the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), of which China is a signatory, went into effect in 2005.
About 350 million people in China smoke, statistics from the Ministry of Health show. That is about 26 percent of the country’s population and a third of the world’s smoking population. About 1 million people die from smoking-related diseases each year.
(Source: en.beijing2008.cn)
