There is a saying that if you ate a different Chinese dish every day of your life, you would not be able to eat every dish over an entire life time. While Chinese cuisine can be a vast and complicated subject, generally there are eight major cuisines, with a four of those considered to be the ‘Great Traditions’ recognized as the best of the best, and also meant to represent the best of the North, South, East, and West. Most people will be familiar with Chuan, the food from Shaanxi’s neighboring province of Sichuan, as well as Yue, the food of Guangdong, commonly referred to as Cantonese cuisine.

People express their creativity in many ways, often through arts, crafts, or other artistic venture. However, it can be difficult at times to find the necessary supplies, tools, or space to practice your craft. And while Taobao is always an option for purchasing materials, many like to get a feel for the materials and their quality before buying. Not to mention that it is not always practical to buy expensive tools to cram into your apartment.
Luckily, in recent years entrepreneurial-minded artists have created spaces to resolve just these sorts of problems. From leather-crafting to pottery wheels, if there is an artistic passion that you would like to pursue, then these places are perfect for you. In addition, they can help you discover other who enjoy the same activities as you, offering an environment in which you can share and learn from others.
Some of these places even offer classes or other types of instruction, usually in Chinese, so even if you are a beginner, you can easily get started on the path to being more creative.

If there is ever a time when the expat lifestyle gets hard, it is around special occasions, especially those holidays which are typically designated for family. With travel restrictions still in place, many who would typically head home for the comfort of familiar surroundings will find themselves stuck both far from home and without a clue of what to do. Even those well-seasoned expats who are experienced with the whole holiday away from home situation may find themselves a bit adrift this year, as friends and family who may have come to call will not be able to do so this year. So, whether this is your first year away from home or your fifteenth, you might need some help recreating a bit of the holiday magic right where you are.

One of the great things about life as an expat is that you are able to meet people that you would have never had the opportunity to meet staying at home. Along with the diversity of people comes a great variety of traditions and different spins on the holidays that can help you to celebrate in a truly international style. To better understand each other and where we are coming from, we interviewed several expats about how they celebrate the holidays back home.