Top blog post #1: Chinese vocabulary infographics

The Chinese Family Tree – explained

Talking about your family is complicated enough as it in English, what with the step brothers, sisters and all….but have you tried talking about your family in Chinese? They take the family tree to a whole new level. Here’s a visual guide to easily talk about your family tree in Chinese!

All kinds of expressions!

Feeling anxious? We’ve got a cute cat teaching you how to express that. Feeling satisfied? We have an adorable hound showing you how to say that in this handy infographic.

Top blog post #2: Chinese learning tips

Why Google isn’t your friend when it comes to learning Chinese

Looking to bring more Chinese to your Internet? Turns out Google wasn’t being your friend in that regards. But here’s how to change that.

Top blog post #3: Chinese culture

A Women’s fashion timeline

Are quipaos all that spring to mind when you think about traditional Chinese clothing? Think again then! This timeline will help you discover the many beautiful traditional fashion styles in China across the ages.

China’s best copies

China’s known for many things and copycat imitation is one of them. But it doesn’t only have drawbacks…. For instance, it allows you to see in China a lot of things you wouldn’t expect! 17th century castles, Eiffel towers…you name it, they (might just) have it.

There you have it. A few of our most read articles in 2013. Hope you enjoyed them! There are many more articles to discover in the blog! We try hard to write articles that are both interesting, fun and hopefully help you learn something new in Chinese… We’ll keep at it even more in 2014!

Enjoy learning!

The Nincha Team

Ninchanese is a new platform where you’ll have fun learning Chinese! We’re still working on it for now, so sign up to try the beta for free when we launch! And stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google + and Weibo.

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These top architectural wonders  were selected by Jing Daily, a magazine dedicated to the business of luxury and culture in China.

#1 China stunning architectural: Sifang Parkland (Nanjing)

Sifang Parklang is an 11-building complex, including a hotel, a conference center, residential villas, and the Sifang Art Museum. Guess they really like geometric shapes in Nanjing!Built over the course of 10 years on the outskirts of Nanjing, Sifang Parkland was developed by the 58-year old real-estate developer Lu Jun and his son, Lu Xun.

#2 China stunning architectural: Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport (Shenzhen)

Designed by Rome-based Studio Fuksas […] the Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport’s new Terminal 3 officially opened in November with its first flight taking off for Mongolia.

I already really liked Beijing’s Airport look and feel, can’t wait to go check out Shenzhen’s new airport terminal! The outside looks extremely impressive too! But as the author points out, I might not be getting a change to use the terminal any time soon.

In spite of its cosmopolitan architectural elegance and abundant passenger capacity, the $1-trillion airport currently serves mostly regional routes and has only one direct flight to Europe—Helsinki. Time will tell whether more airlines will connect to the new airport terminal.

#3 China stunning architectural: Shenzhen Stock Exchange (Shenzhen)

photo by philippe ruault – image courtesy of OMA

This building’s most unique feature is the three-story portion that sticks out from the rest, at 120 feet above the ground. Never mind the fact the Chinese stock exchange performed the worst this year, and Shanghai especially, this new Stock Exchange building is set to shine.

#4 China stunning architectural: New Century Global Center (Chengdu)

This massive new shopping center – 4 times the size of the Mall of America, can you imagine? –  is so huge you could almost fit anything you’d want in it. It IS the World’s largest building after all. So you could fit in it: 20 Sydney Opera Houses or 3 Pentagons. Instead, it holds an IMAX theater, shops, restaurants, offices, hotels, conference rooms, a “Mediterranean village,” a pirate ship, and a skating rink.

And a gigantic artificial beach, complete with a waterpark,fake sunrises and sunsets and everything. Makes sense for a shopping mall.

#5 China stunning architectural: The China Wood Sculpture Museum (Harbin)

Photo: Iwan Baan 

This surreal, sleek looking building sure sticks out in Harbin! Despite being a decent size, the city doesn’t have too many modern looking buildings yet…so this sort of looks like an alien tried to park his ship, don’t you think?

What do you think of these buildings? Did we miss architectural wonders that were built in China in 2013? Let us know in the comments below!

Now let’s see what gets built in 2014 I’m hoping this awesomely crazy bus comes to life!

The Nincha Team!

Ninchanese is a new platform where you’ll have fun learning Chinese! We’re still working on it for now, so sign up to try the beta for free when we launch! And stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google + and Weibo.

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The best Chinese copies: One Chinese City, Nine European Towns

To get an idea of how the Chinese see and imitate Western architecture, your first stop has to be Shanghai. In 2001, the city launched an ambitious “One City, Nine Towns” plan to develop its suburbs. And then somewhere, somehow, someone decided that each of these towns should be fashioned in a European style.

There’s therefore: Swedish Town (罗店, Luodian New Town)

Does this look Swedish to you? Source: TripleFiveChina

Holland Town (高桥, Gaoqiao New Town)

There’s even a windmill in Holland Town! Photo: Triple Five China

Thames Town (泰晤士小鎮, tài wù shì xiǎo zhèn)

Cobbled streets, cottage-like housing… no doubt, this is meant to look British. Photo credit: Tripe Five China 

Italian Town (浦江, Pujiang New Town)

An Italian town is all about angles and concrete… Photo: Triple Five China

About Best Chinese copies, there’s also Fengcheng New Town, which is supposed to resemble a Spanish city, Anting, which imitates Weimar’s architecture (Germany), Zhujiajiao New Town which mixes European style with the original ancient water town; and then a slew of towns mixing various, non-descript, European styles (Fengjing, Zhoupu and Baozhen). Admittedly, most, if not all, of these new cities are urban failures. They’ve become ghost towns instead of bustling new cities that help relieve population pressure on Shanghai’s city center. But they do make for a picturesque, albeit surreal, excursion.

Paris, Chateaux and Pyramids, oh my!

After this introduction to China’s copycat movement, it’s time to move on to grander, more bizarre scenes. Because the Best Chinese copies could not exist without a copy of? A little bit of Paris Hangzhou, being only a few hours from Shanghai, can be your next stop. There you’ll discover Tianducheng, which aspires to be, in short, Paris.

Overlooking Tianducheng and the French-themed village park

Tianducheng is a very popular destination for wedding photo ops! Source (and more pictures of Tianducheng): mdnphoto.com

Live like a King

An Eiffel tower, not your thing? Fret not. You can get your French on at Beijing’s full-size Chateau Zhang Lafitte, styled after the original French Chateau Lafitte.

Hard to tell whether this is in France or in China… Source: the whamphyri

You can also find a full-size Versailles replica up north in Harbin. And if you’re near Beijing, do go explore a Chinese wine-maker’s dream Chateau, Chateau Dynasty, which was built by Dynasty Wines in Tianjin. You’ll also find a Pyramid there. Copies of 17th-century Chateaux sure seem popular in China!

Why stop at a building? Let’s duplicate a town!

Italian flair As Italy is well known for its high sense of fashion, Florentia Village, an outlet mall, located between Beijing and Tianjin, entirely fashioned itself after an Italian city. To inspire shoppers to buy more perhaps?

Austrian chalets which will never see winter snow

If you want even more “authentic” architecture, head to the province of Guangdong, where you’ll find a copy of an entire Austrian village, down to the statues. Of course, they didn’t choose any old Austrian village, they went to a UNESCO World Heritage village: Hallstatt. A village from everywhere Lastly, it’s hard to resist mentioning this Jiangsu village, which just went for everything.

This is supposed to be the Sydney Opera House.

To see a hodgepodge of copied buildings, head to Huaxi Village. This village is known because it claims to be the richest village in China and because they choose to recreate a bunch of famous buildings from around the world: the Sydney opera house, the US Capitol, the French Arc de Triomphe, the Forbidden City… A strange choice of public buildings, sure, but in keeping with the Chinese copycat architectural trend witnessed before.

Understanding the architectural copycat movement

If you want to know more about the Best Chinese copies in China, this book explores the reasons and origins of this movement, which has become somewhat of a national pastime. Heard of or seen other striking architectural copies? Let us know!

The Nincha Team

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