China Increases Effort to Protect Her Heritage

China has announced that steps would be taken to increase the preservation of ancient villages as they face a crisis of decline, decay and even utter desolation. A historical country, it is home to at least 12,000 traditional villages. Most of them have existed since before the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and a quarter of them were created before the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) according to the Director of the Rural Township Construction Department under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development.

A country-wide census has been conducted in 2012 and the survey returned with the results of more than 2,000 key cultural sites and over 3,000 provincial-level heritage sites which need preservation. China has been undergoing rapid urbanization and modernization in the past thirty years and this has inevitably challenged the ‘old' culture. Without proper care, China is at risk of losing its past heritage and cultural identity with villages vanishing due to migrational patterns into cities for better job prospects.

Plans to protect and redevelop these traditional villages have began with significant emphasis on settlements in Southwest China's Yunnan province, Guizhou province and in Eastern China's Zhejiand and Fujian provinces. Authorities will continue to catalogue and designate plans for villages in dire need of preservation especially those with significant cultural value to the Chinese cultural identity. This long-term preservation plan will receive a substantial financial support from the government. President Xi Jinping has commented that ancient communities must be safeguarded. He condemned widespread demolition and new construction as inharmonious and an incorrect ideal to building up this beautiful country. Therefore, securing these traditional locations are of vital priority as the lightning-pace expansion of China threatens to demolish the ancient identity of this country.

A Brief Glimpse into Traditional Chinese Instruments

Traditional Chinese instruments are alluring and exotic in the musical world. Consisting mainly of stringed variations, they provide an interesting contrast to Western musical instruments from the way they are built to the sounds they produce.

In 2001, a 12 Girls Band were formed in China after auditions were conducted from a selection of 4,000 contestants. 12 girls were picked to complement the Chinese mythology of 12 hairpins which represent womanhood. Inspired by the art of Yue Fang, ensembles who played in Tang Dynasty courts, these classically trained musicians performed both classical and contemporary compositions. Their debut album which was released in 2004 covered versions of Coldplay's Clocks and Enya's Only Time.

Exposing Chinese traditional instruments to the world, these 12 girls performed using guzheng (zither), yangqin (hammered dulcimer), dizi (flute) and xiao (vertical flute). Duxiangqin (single-stringed zither) and hulusi (three-piped gourd flute) sometimes make appearances. With their innovative variations to modern songs using classical instruments, the world is able to get acquainted with these Chinese instruments which were once played in teahouses and public gatherings during classical China. Only noble families and families with stature could afford to pay for these musicians.

These instruments are categorized into silk, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd and hide. Each category has similar instruments with same features. For example, silk instruments are mostly string instruments that are plucked, bowed or struck. Silk was initially used for the strings; hence the category silk but today, metal and nylon strings are more frequently used. Bamboo refers to woodwind instruments, stone contains various forms of stone chimes while gourd imitates the sound of a phoenix by being a mouth piece that is made out of hollowed-out plants. Clay is the ocarina with six holes for the finger tips while metal includes bells, cymbals and gongs.

It is interesting to study the varieties of Chinese musical instruments and the ideology behind them. Closely connected to nature, the materials used to make them are organic and even the composition of classical songs are well acquainted with the Chinese beliefs in mother nature.

The top 5 affluent cities in China

When Westerners picture China's richest areas, they tend to think of the larger cities: Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen. These metropolises are certainly where the bulk of the nation's consumers live. But, while it is true that these cities are home to China's rising middle classes, as well and the largest concentration of its super rich, there are many other factors which demonstrate the extent of Chinese affluence.

When the China County Economic Research Bureau released a relative affluence map in 2010, what surprised observers the most was the fact that many of the names on the list were completely unknown to most foreigners, with neither Beijing nor Shanghai featuring in the top 5.

1. Kelamayi, Xinjiang Named after the Uyghur language word meaning ‘black oil', this city of 450,000 people lies close to large pockets of oil and natural gas reserves, including one of the largest oil reserves ever discovered in China, in 1955. Since then the city has blossomed into a key oil-producing and refining centre. In 2008 the GDP of Kelamayi reached ¥66.1 billion. The city also produces natural stones, like Jade.

2. Dongguan, Guangdong A teeming industrial city at the heart of a region of 25 million inhabitants, Dongguan lies on the Pearl River Delta. It is home to the world's largest shopping mall, New South China Mail. Within Dongguan itself there are approximately 6.94 million people. The city is a manufacturing hub and is also widely-renowned for its sex industry.

3. Suzhou, Jiangsu Suzhou is located in the south-east of Jiangsu province, in eastern China, on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Founded in the 6th century, the city boasts over 2,500 years of diverse history, with relics of the past remaining in abundance. There are numerous canals, stone bridges and pagodas, as well as beautifully landscaped gardens. This has all contributed to making the city both an important economic hub and one of China's key tourist destinations.

4. Foshan, Guangdong Foshan is a city of around 3.6 million inhabitants in the Guangdong province of southern China. The city comprises migrants drawn to the area from outlying Chinese provinces, speaking mostly Mandarin, and natives who speak a Foshan variant of Cantonese. Foshan was once a hub for the porcelain industry; it is now home to many large private enterprises. Its main claim to fame is its predilection for the martial arts.

5. Wuxi, Jiangsu Wuxi is a venerable ancient city in Jiangsu province on China's east coast. The city itself is split into two portions by Lake Tai, the northern half looking across the Yangtze River, while the southern half faces Zhejiang. Wuxi has a long history of commercial involvement, particularly trading with modern Shanghai. A regional transportation hub, Wuxi is also famous for its fertile farmlands, and is one of the 15 great economic hubs of China.

The strength of Chinese currency

While the Chinese Yuan was expected to depreciate after a period of uncertainty towards the end of 2012, there is every sign that the currency is stabilising, putting investment back on the mind of speculators the world over. In fact, the Yuan recently hit its highest levels since the start of its revaluation process in 2005, reversing last year's downwards trend.

Graphs indicating the performance of the currency in terms of its market price, related to the daily fixing rate by the People's Bank of China, demonstrated the verve with which the Chinese Yuan is performing compared to the ubiquitous US dollar.

One significant aspect of the resurgence of the Yuan is the fact the weakening trend of the currency against the dollar, as determined by the People's Bank's own fixing, had remained unchanged. The effect of this had been to open a large gap between the market and the People's Bank fixing. Current figures demonstrate that this has been totally reversed.

Western economies have viewed much of the People's Bank's monetary activities with trepidation, particularly when it has appeared that the Chinese financiers appear to eschew conventional tools, such as the manipulation of interest rates and reserve requirement ratio. Yet the People's Bank have been willing to allow the Yuan to drift far higher – while all the time wishing the trend would be steered in the other direction. This type of financial speculation has been the key to the People's Bank's robust position in the first place. The bank expanded rapidly because its balance sheet was allowed to swell as money was created, preventing the Yuan from appreciating any quicker than it did. This process was halted due to the fiscal phenomenon of persistence money overflow.

The strength of the Yuan may well indicate that the money flow has reversed, with the trend coinciding with the worldwide risk-on sentiment. Concerns about the effect of quantitate easing on the dollar have undoubtedly helped drive the international markets' current appreciation of Chinese Yuan.