Ning is snowing today

Ningbo is snowing today.瑞雪兆丰年。

My cute nephew

My cute nephew is one year and 1month old now.

This is Tracy

Hello Everyone
Welcome here
This is Tracy from China.
Wish to make new friends here.
And hope everyone have a wonderful and great prosperous new year in both personal life and business in 2014 and always.

What Are the Benefits of Arts & Crafts for Children?

If your kids love digging into arts and crafts projects with paint or glue up to their elbows, relax -- they’re learning and developing in essential ways while they’re making a beautiful mess. Children derive many important benefits from the opportunity of working with arts and crafts projects, making creative activities worthwhile in your home.

Arts and Crafts Defined
Although arts and crafts often fit together, they are different processes, according to art therapist Anna Reyner, writing for the Earlychildhood News website. Art involves unstructured activities in which you can explore with your imagination, whereas crafts involve structured activities with a specific goal in mind.

Imagination and Self-Expression
When children participate in both arts and crafts, creativity and imagination receive strong stimulation, states the Americans for the Arts website. A child with a paintbrush in his hand suddenly has the ability to create vivid paintings and express himself boldly with color and brush strokes. The youngster can also learn about symbolic communication through the art he creates, choosing various colors to communicate feelings, for example.

Individual Craftsmanship
With exposure to various types of arts and crafts, a youngster can develop her own individual craftsmanship interests. Working with clay might spark a strong interest in pottery for a child, who can then go on to develop and enhance her skills and talents. The youngster can benefit from setting goals for achievement. As a child improves, she can also look back on her progress to note the strengthening and refinement of her skills.

Strengthening Academics
If you integrate art and crafts into your child's academics, your child can derive additional benefits. Many literacy and mathematical concepts can become easier to comprehend and even more interesting with the addition of art, according to Reyner. For example, if your youngster draws a picture or creates a sculpture of a character from a story, he may boost his reading comprehension and interest in literature. A child who uses artistic manipulatives such as paper shapes and beads can gain mastery of mathematical concepts due to the hands-on nature of the items.

Life Skills
As your child creates a work of art, she has begun the process of communicating visually, advises author and educator MaryAnn F. Kohl, writing for Barnes and Noble Kids’ Expert Circle. A youngster also builds problem-solving skills, fine motor skills and even social skills as she works with artistic media. The process of making her own creations and noticing other people’s creations provides important opportunities for the appreciation of other people’s strengths and acceptance of her own abilities. A child also learns that the ability to follow directions is an integral part of the satisfaction of seeing the final result when making a craft.

2014 Chinese New Year Celebrations

Chinese New Year, or Chinese Spring Festival, holds the most significant position among all Chinese festivals and holidays. It's also called the Chinese Lunar New Year, because its date is determined by the Chinese lunar calendar, which falls sometime from late Jan. to early February and varies from year to year. The celebration lasts 15 days. There are many exciting things happening during this New Year. If you want to participate in the celebrations, there are many things you can do to join the festivities and to pay homage to Chinese traditions.

1.Research Chinese New Year. It's a very significant holiday in Chinese culture and the festivities extend over a period of two weeks. The Chinese New Year is accompanied by a belief in good fortune, and there are many decorations around to herald the new year.Chinese celebrators head to temples to pray for good luck during the New Year celebration period. There they burn incense sticks and can also have their fortunes told. If you are not of Chinese descent but would like to participate, attend a Chinese temple and take a tube of fortune sticks which can usually be found at the entrance to the temple. Ask a question, shake the tube and the number that falls out can be interpreted by one of the fortune tellers at the temple.

2.Clean your home in time for New Year. This tradition is founded in the belief that cleaning the house at this time of year will "sweep away the bad luck" that has accumulated inside over the past year.[2] Cleaning also makes the house ready for the good luck to start entering again.
•Put away dustpans and brooms so that the good luck won't be swept away after cleaning.
•Keeping fresh and hygienic is also an important part of celebrating; even a new haircut will do.
•Be aware! Do not clean your home during the New Year, such as sweeping or wiping the windows. To do so is to "sweep away" the good luck you've just received for the New Year. Over the following 13 to 15 days, you're relieved of cleaning duties. It may be a little dirtier than usual but it is an important part of observing the tradition.

3.Decorate your home. The color that is most recommended is red. Red is the color or symbol of good luck in Chinese culture. The number "8" also symbolizes good luck and wealth, as in Chinese the word for eight rhymes with fortune or wealth.
•Take care not to overdo the decorations. Display a few good ones to bring life and fortune from their brightness and colorful nature.
•Place flowers through the house, such as lotuses. Lotus flowers symbolize rebirth and new growth.
•Place mandarins in bowls throughout the house. Mandarins with their leaves still intact are the fruits of happiness for the New Year. Keep their numbers even though, as uneven numbers bring unhappiness. When offering mandarins to others, always offer them in pairs.[3]
•Set out a tray of candies with eight different types of candies arranged along it. The traditional candies are those made from lotus seeds, longan, peanuts, coconut, red melon seed, candied melon, etc.

4.Offer a sacrifice to the Kitchen God. While this deity may have a funny name, it is like all gods and should be worshiped. This sacrifice could include foods such as fruits, for example. Good behavior should be used so that he will make a "good report when he goes back to Heaven." Many families have a large poster of him in their kitchen.

5.Have a traditional dinner on New Year's Eve. This is one of the most important parts of the holiday and the food eaten at this time of year has traditional meanings related to the Chinese New Year. Some Chinese choose not to eat meat on the first day of Chinese New Year because each new year carries the name of an animal.[5] The remaining days carry no such restrictions. Traditional dishes include fish, jai, chicken, law pak ko, lin guo (sticky rice cake), noodles and desserts. Dumplings play a special role in New Year food because of their shape, a shape which resembles the ancient Chinese gold or silver ingots.[6] Some of the food meanings include:[7]
•Jiu, a traditional hard liquor, and daikon, the Chinese radish, carry the meaning of longevity.
•Red chilies mean good luck.
•Rice ensures harmony.

6.Cook your own Chinese cuisine. If you'd like to do more than simply order at the local Chinese restaurant, try these delicious recipes suitable for Chinese New Year:
•How to make Chinese dumplings
•How to fry pot stickers
•How to make Chinese New Year cake nian gao (sticky rice cake)
•How to make Chinese noodles in a peanut sauce
•How to make a Chinese bean paste bun
•How to make shrimp with Chinese lobster sauce.

6.Dress for the occasion. If you have traditional Chinese clothing, this is the perfect time to wear it. Outfits can be purchased in Chinatown, and silk Chinese clothing is very beautiful. Prefer the color red for all your clothing during this time. Associated with joy, happiness, good luck, wealth and good fortune, red clothes will ensure that you're fully participating in the spirit of the celebrations. Gold is another suitable color; try combining the two for a very elegant look.
•Avoid wearing too much black during the celebration period. Black symbolizes bad luck and even death. This is a time of good fortune and life!

8.Interact with others in a positive manner. Chinese New Year is a time of happiness and good fortune and it's important to spread the goodwill. Avoid having any quarrels, fights, or negative attitudes during the New Year. These will bring you bad luck. •When greeting other people during the New Year period, use greetings such as: Gung hay Fat Choy"/ "Gong Xi Fa Chai" – these mean "Happy New Year" in Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese respectively.
•"Kung hei fat choy" means: "We hope that you will be wealthy".

9.Visit your relatives and friends. This is the most important part of the New Year and is a time of connecting and sharing the celebrations together.
•Bring Angpau, the red envelopes, with you, to pass to children. Usually, the red envelopes are filled with money or treats. The red color is meant to scare away any evil spirits. These envelopes are usually given to the unmarried from the married. And for the sake of continued prosperity, it's a good idea (or lesson) to encourage children to save the money that they're given in the envelope.

10.Set off firecrackers. The firecrackers used in China and Hong Kong are loud, banging fireworks that are mostly lit on the ground. The loud noises are thought to scare the bad spirits away, to prevent them from bringing bad luck. Many Chinese choose to decorate their homes with plastic firecrackers too, to ward off bad luck and to symbolize the deafening noise made when the real firecrackers are set off.

11.Visit a parade. Parades are full of excitement, including firecrackers, activities, and dragon dancers. There are people who are disguised as dragons and lions; the dragon is revered in China rather than being viewed as a monster. Indeed, it could be said that the dragon almost symbolizes China itself. A five clawed dragon used to be worn by emperors on their clothes and they also wore yellow and other people were forbidden from doing so. Nowadays you can wear yellow and dragons too, as it's not only for royalty. The lions and dragons also scare off the bad spirits like the firecrackers, and the dragon dance and lion dance are an important part of the Chinese New Year. They're decorated beautifully and are a sight worth seeing.
•Look online or in your local newspaper for information about local Chinese New Year parades in your area. Be sure to take your camera and to wear adequate clothes if it's cold outside.
•The Lantern Festival is held on the last day. People carry lanterns designed as insects such as dragonflies or animals with them on the streets. Sweet rice cakes and other sweets are eaten on this day and people put candles around their house to guide the spirits home.

Doing Business in Ningbo, China

Ningbo is located at the middle part of China's coastline and south flank of the Yangtze River Delta, bordering on Shanghai and Hangzhou. Ningbo is one of the cities opening up to the outside world, an independently planning-city enjoying the same rights as those of a provincial government in economic management, "a large city" entitled to formulate local laws and regulations, and a famous historic city with rich cultural heritage. It covers an area of 9,816 sq.km and has a population of 5.6456 million. The jurisdiction of Ningbo City encompasses two counties (Xiangshan and Ninghai), three county-level cities (Yuyao, Cixi and Fenghua) and six urban districts (Haishu, Jiangdong, Jiangbei, Zhenhai, Beilun and Yinzhou) . Ningbo boasts a long history. It is the birthplace of the "Neolithic Hemudu Culture" dating back more than 7,000 years. Ningbo has been a well-known key port for foreign trade ever since ancient time. Ningbo ranked with Yangzhou and Guangzhou as the three biggest ports for foreign trade in Tang Dynasty and with Guangzhou and Quanzhou in Song Dynasty. After the First Opium War, Ningbo had been one of the five commercial ports opened to the Western countries. Ningbo port has become one of the important ports in China. Enjoying sound conditions for economic development, the social economy of Ningbo has been developed rapidly since opening up to the outside world. Enjoying sound conditions for economic development, the social economy of Ningbo has been developed rapidly since opening up to the outside world. Ningbo enjoys subtropical monsoon climate featuring mild temperature, moderate humidity and distinctive seasons. The city is an ideal tourist place with culture monuments and historical sites. Since the first foreign enterprise established in Ningbo in 1980, the foreign investment inviting increased very fast, the industrial structure of foreign investment is further optimised and project quality greatly improved. The foreign investment concentrated in following industries: light industry, textile, electronics, petroleum chemistry, machinery, transportation, infrastructure, culture and tourism, real estate, etc., which make up the shortage of fund for a large scale development in Ningbo, promoted the adjustment of industrial structure, improved the comprehensive competitive power and economic importance of the city. Utilising the foreign investment become the main part of the economic development in Ningbo. Ningbo enjoys subtropical monsoon climate featuring mild temperature, moderate humidity and distinctive seasons. The city is an ideal tourist place with culture monuments and historical sites. Since the first foreign enterprise established in Ningbo in 1980, the foreign investment inviting increased very fast, the industrial structure of foreign investment is further optimised and project quality greatly improved. The foreign investment concentrated in following industries: light industry, textile, electronics, petroleum chemistry, machinery, transportation, infrastructure, culture and tourism, real estate, etc., which make up the shortage of fund for a large scale development in Ningbo, promoted the adjustment of industrial structure, improved the comprehensive competitive power and economic importance of the city. Utilising the foreign investment become the main part of the economic development in Ningbo. Ningbo is focusing on the following main ten industry projects: 1. Electro-information & photo electricity mobile communication terminal, computer and network products, integrated circuit, liquid crystal display,digital video & audi, software 2. Equipment manufacturing plastic injection modling machinery,electricity transmission and substation transformation, digital-controlled machine tool 3.Automobile and parts economy car,automobile parts,car decoration 4.New materials electronic i nformation material, ndfeb products,high molecule material,nano material 5.Textile & garments After-weaving trimming, medium & high quality clothing material, clothing design; famous-brand clothing & trappings 6.Household appliance Kitchen equipment & sanitation, famous-brand appliance 7.Precision apparatus New-type industrial automatic apparatus, new-type measuring apparatus, high-efficiency optic apparatus 8.Fine chemical industry & biological medicine Ethene fine chemical products, biological medicine, Chinese medicine, chemical medicine 9.Molding Plastic mould, metal die-casting mould, powder metallurgy mould, rubber mould and related products 10.Stationery Research, development, design, production and marketing of stationery. Ningbo, a quasi provinceial city of China, a famous prot city of China, the excellent touristcity of China,the happinest city of China, the civilised city of China. We welcome you and always.

How to Find a Supplier in China

How to Find a Supplier in China Suppose you come up with a product idea or think you have market channels for certain products, and you want to find a supplier in China because of the low product development cost and low production cost there. If you Google the product name or concept, you will find tons of China suppliers/manufacturers. However, you still think you have not got one, because you want to find a capable and reliable one that would satisfy your specific needs and have a strong desire to do business with you. Many people get frustrated because they have been communicating with suppliers in China for months, but fail to move forward. The reason, most likely, is that they did not find the suitable one at the beginning. To successfully find a suitable China supplier, you need a strategy. This strategy will consist of awareness, knowledge and a good amount of homework. Below are some practical steps to find a suitable Chinese supplier for you.StepsUnderstand what you need. You need to first know what is available and have a way to categorize the information. Here are some categories to help you think about Chinese suppliers: manufacturer vs. 3rd-party supplier; Big corporation vs. small family-owned; 3rd-party supplier with in-house product development capability vs. 3rd-party supplier that just buys-in and sells-out; vertically integrated manufacturer vs. assembly-based manufacturer; etc. Properly categorizing the suppliers will help you understand what you need. For example, if you need to import products in a narrow range, you may choose a manufacturer other than a 3rd-party supplier. If you are a small business and need dedicated attention, you may want to develop a good relationship with a small family-owned business. Do some preliminary Internet research to further develop your category system towards your specific needs. Create a data table to help you record the search result, so the job can be done more efficiently and effectively. The table should include columns like company name, contact information, business scale and scope, category check boxes (important), and notes. Use search engines to search information related to your product name. The first 100 results would be the most relevant websites related to the product of your concern. You can also find your competitors' information and develop a better sense of market segment and marketing channels. Use popular business directory websites to obtain very structured information for Chinese suppliers. The directory websites are also excellent resource to obtain industrial knowledge. Narrow down the the list of suppliers you want to work with to a manageable amount. At this stage, you may already know what your real needs are and what is available. Initiate contact with the suppliers you want to work with, and further develop relationships with them. Eventually, you will find the one. The process can be fun and a friendly experience.TipsAnalyzing the types of suppliers has strategic importance. It will help you to understand where you are, what kind of results to expect, and what are the things you need to take care of in the mutual cooperation. You may want to have an experienced person help you to analyze the information. In your strategy, you will also need to include the consideration of the future contracting and operation. You may seek advice from Chinese professionals who understand the Chinese mentality, culture and business practices. You may get the incorrect interpretation if you visit the supplier's English website, or you could omit data that contains key information. Just because a site is ranked higher in Google search listing, this does not necessarily mean it is a more serious business. Some very good Chinese suppliers are not well-versed in having their website listed highly, while some other Internet guys can have their website listed very highly. Use your industrial judgment. Information comes from seemly insignificant data, for example, the email addresses may reveal useful information about Chinese suppliers. However, do not judge an address too quickly. You never know where good information can come from. Be aware that while the decision-maker may not speak any English, establishing good relationship (guanxi) with the top management is crucial for long-term success. Email is good for exchanging product specifications, catalogue and price list. To establish a deeper relationship, a phone call is 10 times better than email. A personal meeting is 100 times better than a phone call. Many people want to start a business, so you have to show you are more serious. As long as your contact person uses English, you can just go ahead and give that person a phone call. It does not matter how much you and that person can understand each other; you can always follow up with an email. Work with suppliers that have already exported their products to Europe or the US. Pay attention to the agent relationship. Many manufacturers may have their products exported to the US in good quantity through a third party supplier without an exclusive supply agreement. They may want to have direct channels to the US, and that might mean more business for you. Consider accessing the U.S. customs records for your supplier to get an independently verified list of their shipments to the U.S. This will tell you who their customers are, how loyal those customers are, as well as the volume capabilities of your factory. Import Genius offers these hard-to-find customs records at affordable rates. A visit to your supplier production site in China is the only reliable way to truly know its capabilities, to check that the data you have collected on the company is 100% correct, and that ISO & Quality principles are applied: Check the factory organization, its process flows, the quality of goods produced, the packaging, the workers' training level, the overall working conditions, equipment maintenance, etc. This will give you an indication of how the company is managed. A face-to-face meeting with the supplier's management team will also give you an idea of their experience and willingness to embark on your project. You will also be able to create a friendly relationship, which is crucial for your project!Warnings If you send out inquiries you will get tons of replies from suppliers of all kinds. Some guys may continuously send you product info for years, and are able to pass through all sorts spam protection. You may not want to use your primary email account to register with these sites. Be careful with suppliers sub-contracting your order! When facing a backlog of deliveries, Chinese suppliers usually sub-contract them partially or in full, without taking the precaution to inform their clients! Most of the times this leads to sub-standard deliveries