Traditional Chinese medicine falls under three categories: plant, mineral and animal. The plant category is the largest. The Shennong Materia Medica, published between the first and second centuries, is the earliest materia medica extant, and lists 365 medical ingredients. The Newly Revised Materia Medica of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) that lists 884 medical ingredients, was the first government commissioned pharmacopoeia in the world. The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) Compendium of Materia Medica, compiled by Li Shizhen, records 1,892 medical ingredients. According to contemporary statistics, there are now a total of 12,800 medical ingredients used in TCM.

Traditional Chinese medicine theory covers ingredients' properties, taste, prescriptions, type of medication, and usage.

There are five medicinal properties: cold, hot, warm, cool, and plain. Cold and cool, and hot and warm are similar, varying only in degree. The plain property is neutral, and comes between the two greater categories. Classification of medicinal properties has close links with the causes of disease.

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According to TCM theory, human illness has two causes, one internal and the other external. External factors include climatic changes beyond human endurance, and the invasion of toxic substance. Internal factors refer to strong and sustained stimulus as caused by the seven human emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hate and desire, or an improper diet, that cause an imbalance or dysfunction of internal organs. The human body is believed to encompass, like nature, six natural factors: wind, cold, summer-heat, dampness, dryness and fire. Any imbalance or abnormal change in these factors causes illnesses.

An important function of traditional Chinese medicine is to regulate or restrain these six natural phenomenon so as to maintain balance, and hence the normal physiological mechanism. For instance, cold property medicines cure febrile diseases, and those with hot properties cure cold-like syndromes.

Traditional Chinese medicine is also employed to eradicate or inhibit any germs or viruses known as toxic factors that invade the human body.

There are six classifications of taste in traditional Chinese medicine: pungent, sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and bland. The two pungent remedies are the pungent-hot such as ginger, and pungent-cold such as peppermint. These are generally used to induce sweat and stimulate the qi. Sweet ingredients act mainly as a tonic; sour ingredients are to stop sweating or diarrhea; bitter ingredients purge intense heat and remove dampness; salty ingredients diffuse masses in the abdomen; and bland ingredients remove dampness and promote diuresis.

Forms of traditional Chinese medicine include decoction, bolus, powder, soft extract, pills, and medicated alcohol.

Nation-dedicating Temple (Baoguosi)

The Nation-dedicating Temple is the first temple one meets along the mountain way and stresses love and patriotism. It was built in the 16th century, enlarged in the 17th century by Emperor Kangxi and recently renovated. Its 3.5-meter porcelain Buddha, made in 1415,is housed near the Sutra Library. To the left of the gate is a rockery for potted miniature trees and rare plants.The first hall here is the Laughing Buddha Hall dedicated to the Laughing Buddha. Stepping out of the first hall, tourists can find the Great Hero Hall dedicated to Sakyamuni, sitting on a lotus flower. On both sides of the hall, there are 18 arhats. Following from the hall, is the Seven Buddhas Hall. The seven Buddhas, molded in gold and each 20 meters high, sit cross-legged on a blue-brick-base. The last hall in the temple is the Hall of Universal Benevolence God. The hall has two stories. The first story is dedicated to the god of Universal Benevolence, and the second floor contains the depository for Buddhist doctrines.Besides the four main halls, there are several pavilions, platforms and guestrooms within the temple. The temple has the typical structure of Chinese ancient garden covers an area of more than 10 acres. Every yard of the temple is quite different from another by its unique and wonderful landscape with a nearby forest enhancing a sense of tranquility.

Fuhu Temple
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"Crouching Tiger Monastery", as it is known in Chinese, is sunk in the forest. Inside is a seven-meter-high copper pagoda inscribed with Buddhist images and texts.  The renovated Fuhu Temple is sunk deep within the forest. Inside is a 7 m-high copper pagoda inscribed with Buddhist images and texts.

Wannian Temple
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The Wannian Temple of 10000 Years is the oldest surviving Emei monastery. Its dedicated to the man on the white elephant, the Bodhisattva Puxian, who is the protector of the mountain.

This monastery is the oldest surviving Emei Temple (reconstructed in the 9 th century). It's dedicated to the man on the white elephant, the Bodhisattva Puxian, who is the protector of the mountain. This 8.5 m-high statue is dated from AD 980, cast in copper and bronze and weighs an estimated 62,000 kg. If you can manage to rub the elephant's back, good luck will be cast upon you.

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The statue is housed in Brick Hall, a domed building with small stupas on it. When the temple was damaged by fire in 1945, Brick Hall was the only building left unharmed. There is also a graveyard to the rear of the temple.

Qingyin Pavillin
Named the Pure Sound Pavillin because of the sound effects produced by rapid waters cousing around rock formations in the area, the temple itself is built on an outcrop in the middle of a fast-flowing stream. There are small pavillions from which to observe the waterworks and appreciate the natural music.

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There are several small pavilions from which to observe the waterworks and appreciate the natural music. It's possible to swim here although the water is only likely to be warm enough during the summer months.

Xixiang Pond
According to legend, the Elephant Bathing Pool is the spot where Puxian flew his elephant in for a big scrub, but there's not much of a pool to speak of today. If very lucky, you'll meet some monkeys here. The monkeys have got it all figured out-Xixiang Pond is the place to be. If you come across a monkey "tollgate" ,the standard procedure is to thrust open palms towards the outlaw to show you have no food.

Monkey Etiquette
The monkeys have got it all figured out. If you come across a monkey 'tollgate', the standard procedure is to thrust open palms towards the outlaw to show you have no food. The monkeys are integral part of the Emei trip.

Some of these chimps are big, and staying cool when they look like they might make a leap at you is easier said than done. There is much debate as to whether it's better to give them something to eat or to fight them off.

One thing is certain, if you do throw them something, don't do it too much moderation. They get annoyed very quickly if they think they are being undersold.

Golden Summit Temple
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At the Golden Summit with a altitude of 3077 m, this magnificent temple is as far as most hikers make it. It has been entirely rebuilt since being gutted by a fire several years ago. Covered with glazed tiles and surrounded by white marble balustrades, the temple now occupies 1695 square meters. The original temple had a bronze-coated roof, which how it got the name of Jinding.

It's constantly overrun with tourists, pilgrims and monks, and you'll be continuously bumped and jostled. The sun rarely forces its way through the mists up here and the result is that it is usually impossible to see ver far past your own nose.

From the Golden Summit it was once possible to hike to Ten Thousand Buddha Summit (Wanfo Ding) but pilgrims now take a monorail.

An excavated pit at the side of an expressway in Shandong's Linzi contains visible 2,000-year-old remains of horses and wooden carriages. The horse skeletons are on their side, in an attitude of motion. The pit was discovered in the late 20th century, when the expressway was being built. These early ancestors of modern transport, no longer "roadworthy," are now protected historic artifacts.

 
The Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) bronze statue of a horse and carriage unearthed in Gansu's Wuwei. 
Ancient Vehicles
Among car enthusiasts are those to whom so-called vintage cars are a mechanical and historical work of art, yet these vehicles are no more than one hundred years old. Compared with the truly ancient horse-drawn conveyance, they are "modern".

Two-thousand-year-old horse-drawn carriages are not, however, the oldest Chinese vehicles. In Henan's Anyang ruins, archaeologists have painstakingly unearthed carriages from 3,000 years ago, but even these are not believed to be China's earliest. It must therefore have taken the Chinese almost four millennia to go from the cart age to the automobile era.

Vehicles used in ancient China were mainly horse-drawn carriages, ox carts, and wheelbarrows. The horse-drawn carriage was a mode of transport for the nobility. Prior to the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220), carriages were an important item of battle materiel in which warriors stood to fight the surrounding enemy. Ox carts were for freight transport, and the common people used wheelbarrows both as passenger transport and for carrying goods.

Early animal-drawn carts had standing room only. Wooden boards on all four sides protected passenger safety and also provided a surface against which to lean. There was usually a canopy on top for decoration and shelter from bad weather. The higher the canopy, the more beautiful the cart was considered to be. Carts for carrying warriors or criminals had no canopy.

Carts with seats came later. There were generally three, the one to the left for VIPs, the middle one for the driver, and the one on the right for his attendant. This arrangement accorded with the ancient convention of the left position being most honored.

By the Han Dynasty a greater variety of carriages had developed. Those for use by the nobility were sumptuously decorated and comfortable, to the extent of being able to recline while travelling. The ox cart was used for passenger transport as well as for carrying goods. As an ox had the strength to draw a large cart steadily, with no jerks, passengers would often put a table inside and enjoy a mobile drinking party. It is recorded that certain ancients put their conveyances to more practical use by placing stone mills inside their carts, which rotated as the carts moved.

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The ancient Chinese also developed special mechanized cart functions. Compass cart (upper): The wooden figure in the cart always faces south. Mileage cart 
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(lower): The two figures beat the drum when the cart completes a unit of mileage. 
Vicissitudes of Cars in China
Nature has been generous to the Chinese, sending them both subterranean and surface oil. As early as 1,000 years ago, Chinese ancestors used surface petroleum as fuel, calling it "fat water." It was regarded as a utility similar to coal and firewood.

On being burned this "fat water" produced black smoke, a phenomenon particularly noticed by an ancient scientist named Shen Kuo (1031-1095). He developed China's first oil product -- a new type of inkstick, from its black residue. This black ink dried to a slick sheen, and was of a much better quality than that made from charcoal. He named his new product Yanchuan Stone Liquid, and renamed "fat water," calling it instead "stone oil," which is to this day the literal meaning of the Chinese for petroleum.

His position as government official prevented Shen Kuo from devoting himself entirely to science. He was nonetheless sure that "stone oil" would in future be of inestimable value and have comprehensive applications. He predicted: "As from my own invention, this matter (stone oil) will have myriad uses."

Unfortunately, the true value of this blessing from nature was not, as Shen Kuo predicted, realized until 880 years later. The birth of the national auto industry in 1956 brought the matter of oil to public attention, but it was not widely used until the appearance of family cars in recent years.

The earliest motor car in China can be traced back to 1902. The first car owner was Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty. On her birthday that year, Minister Yuan Shikai sent her a foreign-made car as a gift. The car, with its wooden body and wheels, resembled a four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage, with the driver's seat at the front and two passenger seats behind.

Although the empress dowager liked the car very much, she never drove it, and neither is it certain that she actually rode in it. The story goes that she had problems with the driver's dominant position in the car, and was unhappy at his being seated in front of her. She was less happy still that the driver sat, rather than kneeled, when driving. On the driver arguing with the empress dowager that he could not drive in any position other than sitting, in order to avoid further trouble hovering ministers stepped forward and anxiously urged Cixi not to ride in the vehicle. There are several versions as to what happened later, but one thing is certain -- the car has never been used since. It was first placed in the Forbidden City and later moved to the Summer Palace.

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Horse-drawn carriages depicted in a Han Dynasty tomb chamber mural.
In the decades following, only a handful of private cars appeared in the capital's households. It was not until the 1990s that the number of family cars began to increase at such an astonishing speed. Today, if all Beijing residents in possession of a driver's license were to drive a car, the number of cars on the streets would soar from 2 million to 3.5 million.

Cars are nowadays a popular topic of conversation among Chinese people, style, price, and special features being the aspects most discussed. Auto web sites and exhibitions have become commonplace over the past year, and new models emerge at a rate of knots. It is said that these days, Guangzhou has more car dealers than rice shops. This is not to suggest that rice is a purchase less popular than cars in the city.

The bamboo plant, fargesia spathacea, is the staple food of the giant panda and a cultural icon in Chinese history. In sharp contrast to other plants, the bamboo only blossoms every 60 to 80 years, and perishes soon after. It takes one to three decades for its seeds to grow. In the past 3 million years bamboos have undergone more than 50,000 extensive blooms. Pandas survived by migrating, but this is no longer an option owing to the sharp decrease of bamboo forests. The last two bloomings of bamboo caused 250 giant pandas to starve to death.

Icon of Thousands of Years

In ancient China bamboo was a feature of various aspects of daily life. It was used for food, clothing, housing and transportation. China's first books were crafted from bamboo strips strung on string, and almost all ancient musical instruments were made of bamboo. Bamboo also had assigned roles within feudal ethics.

Chinese ancients designated the plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum as "four gentlemen," and pine, bamboo and plum as the "three friends in winter." Renowned Tang poet Bai Juyi (772-846) summed up the merits of bamboo according to its characteristics: its deep root denotes resoluteness, its tall, straight stem represents honorability, its hollow interior modesty and its clean and spartan exterior exemplifies chastity. He thus concluded that bamboo lives up to the title "gentleman."

Besides being a symbol of virtue, bamboo was believed to be endowed with soul and emotion.

The mottled bamboo is the "bamboo of imperial concubines." This epithet has its origins in a story about Emperor Shun, who died of overwork during an inspection tour of the south. He was buried in what is now Hunan Province, and as his wives Ehuang and Nuying mourned him by the Xiangjiang River, their tears fell on and stained bamboo growing on its bank. A Tang poet wrote: "The trace of tears on bamboo gives expression to bitter yearning."

Another breed of bamboo, Mengzong, honors a dutiful son. Meng Zong was a student during the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280). His father died when he was an infant, and his mother was later stricken with a serious illness that did not respond to conventional medicine. The doctor suggested that soup made from bamboo shoots might help, but they were impossible to find in winter. Desperation and grief reduced Meng to tears. His sincerity moved the heavens, and several bamboo shoots broke through the soil. After taking the soup his mother recovered, and word of Meng's filial piety soon became known across the state.

Filial piety is a cardinal principle of traditional Chinese morality. According to Confucius, it is the essence of all benevolence. In some dynasties, "rule of piety" was set a state policy. In the Han Dynasty (206 B.C- A.D 220) the Law of Fealty and Honesty was promulgated, stipulating that piety was a key criterion in evaluating officials, as it was widely believed that the dutiful have loving hearts, and the honest are incorruptible.

Alter Ego of Literati

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Ancient Chinese literati held bamboo in profound esteem. This explains why there are so many writings and paintings dedicated to it throughout history.

On moving to a new residence, Eastern Jin (317-420) calligrapher Wang Huizhi had bamboo planted in the courtyard before furnishing any of the rooms, saying: "How can I endure a day without this gentleman?" Song author Su Shi (1037-1101) expressed his talent not only in his poems but also in paintings of bamboo. A student of celebrated bamboo painter Wen Tong, Su held that the consummate portrait of bamboo is one derived from close observation of the plant and minute comprehension of the ethos it incarnates. He was quoted as saying: "I can live without meat, but not without bamboo." His remarks, "While painting bamboo one should have a finished image of it in mind," gave rise to the popular idiom xiongyouchengzhu, the concept of having a well-thought-out plan.

Of all the painters in history, Zheng Banqiao (1693-1765) of the Qing Dynasty is believed to have been the best at drawing bamboo. One of the Yangzhou Eight Eccentrics, Zheng was lauded both for his artistic accomplishment and moral character. Born into a poor but intellectual family, Zheng lost his mother at three, and learned the art of painting from his father. He passed imperial examinations at county, provincial and national levels in his youth, but was not granted an official post until reaching age 49. While serving as magistrate of Weixian County in Shandong Province, Zheng decried corrupt officials and the cruel rich, and showed deep concern for the masses. Such feeling can be discerned from his works during that period. For instance, one of his bamboo paintings bears the inscription: "Lying in my room in the office building, I hear the rustle of bamboo, and wonder if it is the sobbing of the people. For us local officials, everything we do, no mater how trivial it might be, focuses on the people."

Zheng's righteousness was resented by the influential and wealthy. During a severe famine he decided personally to dispense the government grain reserve to the starving people, and was subsequently removed from his charge. Rather than being angry, Zheng wrote the poem: "Orchids sequester in remote mountains and precipices, bamboos sway to make cool shade. I should give up this official post as soon as possible, so that I can lie down among them with a light heart." Zheng later returned to his hometown of Yangzhou, and made a living by selling paintings.

Zheng Banqiao reveled in painting bamboo all his life. As a teenager, he put white paper on a lattice window, and observed the shadows of bamboo. His paintings focused on the vitality of the plant, portraying it as spare and aloof yet sturdy and proud. An inscription on one of his bamboo paintings reads: "Firmly cleave to the mountain, take root in a fractured bluff; grow stronger after tribulations, and withstand gales from all directions."

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It was not only men that revered bamboo. Tang (618-907) female poet Xue Tao remained single all her life, taking bamboo as a loyal companion. Her lines "lush and hardy to show rare moral courage, hollow inside to maintain humility" are still quoted today. After Xue's death, bamboo was planted in her garden to commemorate her. This area later evolved into the River-Watching Tower Park in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

Today as people become more aware of the interaction between mankind and nature, the establishment of bamboo preserves should bring growing areas of bamboo forest. This will be of great benefit to the giant panda, and can also be viewed as a restoration of traditional Chinese values.