Tea is an important part of Chinese tradition. Tea has very close relationship to Chinese culture.

It is said that Chinese tea was discovered by King Shen Nong. People say that he lived 5,000 years ago. One summer day, while he was visiting a faraway part of his country, he felt very thirsty. The servants began to make water hot enough to turn into gas for him to drink. Dried leaves from a near plant fell into the water. The king drank some, and found it could make him feel less tried. Also as a scientist, Shen Nong was interested in the new dink. And so, tea was created in 2737 BC.

    Drinking tea has many advantages. It makes people feel less tired, clears heat inside the human body and helps people lose weight. As you add a cup of tea to your daily life, please check the following helpful advice.

    Drink it hot. Tea oxidizes(氧化) quickly, so it is suggested that you drink it hot.

    Do not drink too much strong tea. It will probably be harmful to your stomach and make you feel sick if you make the tea too strong.

    The best time to drink tea is between meals. It may not make you have a strong wish to eat when your stomach is full.

Do not drink with medicine. It many change the medical result. You can drink tea two hours after you take medicine.

    Green tea is the best choice for office workers. Why? Because green tea helps stop the bad result of the computer.

When we are talking about animals in China, the most precious (珍贵的) animal we would think of is the panda. In fact, we have one kind of bird as precious as the panda,1many people don't know much about it. The bird is called crested ibis (朱鹮) . It is as2as snow with a red face and looks very beautiful. It is also in danger like the panda.

Crested ibises3in tall trees by small rivers or rice fields. They look for small fish and4small animals for food. About one hundred years ago,5crested ibises lived in China, Russia and Japan. Later, as they lost their homes,6them was getting smaller and smaller. Between 1965 and 1980, people didn't see any of them living in the wild. Luckily, on May 23, 1981, scientists7seven of them in the south of Shanxi Province. 8protect crested ibises in the wild, the Chinese government is setting up nature parks and developing other plans. Now scientists are doing a lot of research to help them to9more babies. Today there are about 1,500 crested ibises living in the wild. Zoos and research centres10after about 500 crested ibises.

Chinese music has a very long history. It's one of the oldest types of music in the world. Chinese ancient music was different from modern pieces. The ancient Chinese played instruments, but they didn't have a lot of songs with words. A lot of the music was for ceremonies and big events. 

The most famous instrument in ancient China was the guqin. It's a kind of stringed instrument（弦乐器）. People thought the guqin was very beautiful. They believed it could make people happy or sad, and even change the weather! 

In the Tang Dynasty（618-907）, there were many kinds of instruments. Music was important to the government. As a result, there were lots of musicians at the palace. Some of them came from other countries. They played their own music and sometimes they taught the Chinese how to play new instruments. 

During the Song Dynasty（960-1279）, the Chinese developed new instruments. One of these was the pipa. It's a kind of guitar with four strings. Musicians wrote more than 200 songs for it. These songs are still popular today. 

In the Ming Dynasty（1368-1644）and the Qing Dynasty（1644-1912）, there were many new styles of music. Some music was for the theatre. Other music was for the home, Beijing Opera is a traditional form of Chinese theater. It uses many different instruments, including the guqin and the xun. 

Today, Chinese music is a mix of traditional and modern music. There are many pop stars in China and people listen to music from all over the world. But traditional Chinese music is still popular, too.