During our trip to Beijing, China and its environs, we saw what it means to be an ancient civilization. There were places and things that were really time-weathered. Buildings hundreds and thousands of years old were kept in good condition. It’s an old civilization indeed.
The Great Wall of China.
Chengde, the summer residence of the Qing dynasty emperors
Tian An Men, the entrance to the Forbidden City
Here’s the antique : the door bar of Tian An Men’s gates. Huge.
Oranges, oranges everywhere! The 5Xmom, Chan Lilian, tagged me with this meme from wingz:
“First u goan get some mandarin orange mia skin/peels then u make funny funny object (preferably those object related to CNY one la!) with it and then u take piktures and u post the piktures in your blog then u tag anoder 3 more flers ok?”
Ok.. last nite I came back late. Not because of night life but because of a patient… wait, I’ll post it after the holidays. So, I didn’t do this meme until today.
Note: 3 oranges (kums) were hurt during the filming, but their sacrifice was for a good cause. So I didn’t mourn for them. 
I shall post the photos here and you guess what I was trying to create, ok? The answers are at the end of the post. No peeking!!
This is easy.
Another one.
And last but not least:
Now, let’s take a look at the cast… the Citrus reticulata:
Mandarin is a group name for a class of oranges with thin, loose peel, which have been dubbed “kid-glove” oranges. These are treated as members of a distinct species, Citrus reticulata Blanco. The name “tangerine” could be applied as an alternate name to the whole group, but, in the trade, is usually confined to the types with red-orange skin. In the Philippines all mandarin oranges are called naranjita. Spanish-speaking people in the American tropics call them mandarina.
Kum by any name would taste just as sweet, err… or not. There are various cultivars or varieties of the ubiquitious “kum”. Here are the lokam, ponkam and, the smaller cousin, the teochew kum sitting on top.
1. Lokam? ?? (lúg?n) is from Fujian (??), in South China, particularly an area called Yongchun (??), hence the name ????. The
2. Ponkam, ?? (pèngg?n) is from Taichong (??) in Taiwan.
However, the ponkam and lokam are apparently referring to the same thing:
‘Ponkan’ (’Chinese Honey Orange’)–round to oblate; large, 2 3/4-3 3/16 in (7-8 cm) wide; peel orange, smooth, furrowed at apex and base; medium thick; pulp salmon-orange, melting, with 9-12 segments, very juicy, aromatic, sweet, of very fine quality and with few seeds. Tree not as cold-hardy as ‘Dancy’, small, upright; can be maintained as a “dwarf’ and in China, where the fruit is greatly prized, may be planted 900 to the acre (2,224/ha). R.C. Pitman, Jr., of Apopka, Florida, organized the Florida Ponkan Corporation in 1948, served as its President, and has continuously promoted the culture of this delicious fruit.
I suppose that the Taiwanese call it Ponkam and Chinese call it Lokam. I tried them both and they look the same, although the Ponkam that I used tasted less sweet than the Lokam. I wonder whether it’s universal or just these brands that I bought.
3. Teochew Kum, ??? (cháozh?ug?n) is from, hardly a surprise, ?? in ?? (guangdong) province. The skin is smoother and clings to the more closely than the other variants of kum.
The one on the left is from Teochew Kum. The skin is smoother and “cling-ier”.
What about medical info on kums? Here’s one:
The first study was conducted by researchers at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine who found that drinking mandarin orange juice may reduce the risk of developing liver cancer in patients with chronic viral hepatitis.
So, eve, now you know why I was having Kum for lunch. Have a great time eating kum… and I wish you all “A Golden New Year” and “BE careful on the road! Don’t drink and drive!”
Hmmm… maybe I should post about the patient who kept me in hospital last night…
Fujian
Chaozhou in Guangdong.
Taichong, in Taiwan.
Oops.. almost forgot… the answers:
1. Peony flower.
2. Koi.
3. Asia and australia, ok including NZ
4. The colon and rectum… kept me up last night… it’s always on my mind.
No need to tag anyone lah… cos people are getting busy preparing for CNY celebrations… if you have some orange-peel art to show… tell me in the comments box, ok? 
Oink!!
And this one had a tummy tuck! Err.. needs a face transplant.
Here’s an orange-peel woman on TSL Designs Blog.
Which pair represents you on Valentine’s Day?
.. or perhaps this?
Update: Flowers for you:
Found them at the nursery at Jalan Kulim, in Bukit Mertajam.
Keep reaching for the sky.
The Chinese is obsessed with prosperity. Fame seems to be secondary to fortune in our books. Hence the Chinese New Year greeting, ???? (g?ngx?f?cái). Another icon of prosperity is the Carp, or popularly called koi or ? (l?), which not surprisingly features prominently in the decorations for Chinese New Year. Here’s an example:
A lantern with carp motifs
According to one account, Koi were brought to China from Persia:
It is said that King Shoko of Ro had presented a Koi to the first son of the great Chinese Philosopher Confucius at his birth somewhere between 551 and 479 BC. Confucius named his son (Kong Li, ??) after the fish because it was considered to be a symbol of strength and power. Legend has it that this Koi was the only fish able to swim up the Yellow River falls. Records dating back to this time suggest that these early koi were made up of basically a red and gray coloration.
Confucius
From here our story moves to Japan, where the Koi were introduced by the invading Chinese somewhere near 200 AD. They have been raised primarily for food in Japan until fish farmers started to notice color mutations somewhere in the beginning of the 18th century. The farmers of Niigata, a Northern prefecture of Japan, were fascinated by these fish and would catch and remove the fish from their food ponds and isolated them. Soon they were breeding the mutations for color and conformation and the koi industry had begun. To this day the Niigata region is the center of the worlds finest koi breeding.
However, there is some doubt about the accuracy of the above account, which might have arisen from the misinterpretation of the name “Lu Zhaogong” to Ro Shoko by the Japanese.
The common carp, Cyprinus carpio, was initially bred for food but later it’s beauty was noted and they were kept for ornamental reasons. The name “koi” originated from the Japanese for “carp”. The name for carp kept for its beauty is “Nishikigoi” (??). A homonym of koi means ‘love, affection’ and koi are therefore symbols of love and friendship in Japan.
Also, the koi is associated with perserverance in adversity and strength of purpose. Because of its strength and determination to overcome obstacles, it stands for courage and the ability to attain high goals. There is a Chinese legend that a carp which succeeds in swimming upstream and hurdling the upper rapids of the Yellow River, called the Dragon’s Gate, will be transformed into a dragon. There is a Chinese idiom, ????? (l?yú tiào lóngmén), literally “the carp leaps up to Dragon’s Gate”, which expresses the idea of a sudden improvement in one’s status.
The point where the narrow river meets the broad segment of the Huang He, there’s a stretch of 100-metre wide fall. Imagine the koi leaping up the waterfalls.
Why are kois painted in odd numbers, particularly 9? Nine koi symbolise longevity. Also, odd numbers represent the “yang” element. Since water is a “yin” element, an odd number of fish will complement it.
Nine carps in a Chinese painting.
And finally, what has koi got to do with prosperity? It’s fish. The Chinese word for fish is ? (yú), which sounds like ? (yú), meaning, surplus. So fish is a symbol of overflowing blessings. As they say… ????.
Icthyos.
References:
1. http://www.butterflykoi.com/aboutkoi.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koi
3. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_symbolism_of_koi_fish
4. http://www.huaxia.com/ly/shls/he/hh/lytlm.html
5. http://www.geomancy.net/resources/art/arowanafish.htm
