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    Although travelers can try dishes from around China and the globe in well-known food cities like Beijing and Shanghai, it is outside these major metropolises where a world of exciting Chinese cuisine(中国菜) awaits the true foodie(美食家). With this in mind and after three years of living in China and writing about Chinese food, I started a six-month journey with my husband and two daughters.

    Here are four of the eight most amazing Chinese food cities I've come across so far. The list is in no particular order.

1 Chengdu, Sichuan Province

    Crowned as Asia's first UNESCO City of Gastronomy(美食学) in 2010, Chengdu is best-known for its fiery hot pot and spicy dishes, which are characterized by the use of Sichuan pepper and are usually layered with salty, sour and sweet flavors. There are also dishes that aren't spicy at all, such as beer-braised duck.

    Hot pot is as ubiquitous in the city as the smell of chili. At Zigong Delicious Hotpot, the house specialty(招牌菜) tiaoshui wa is a cauldron(大锅) of fiery chili(辣椒) to which vegetables, noodles or other meats can be added.

    For a real taste of Sichuan's signature（招牌）pepper, hua jiao, spend a morning at the Chengdu Spice Market where the locals sell and buy it by the sack.

2 Lanzhou, Gansu Province

    Synonymous in the minds of food-lovers with hand-pulled beef noodles, Lanzhou also has one of the liveliest street food night markets in China.

    Just west of the city center, the buzzing Zhengning Road bazaar（集市）houses more than 100 street food stalls. Available is a broad selection of hot and cold dishes with emphasis on local Hui cuisine.

    No trip to Lanzhou is complete without feasting on noodles at Wumule Penhui, the 2012 winners of Lanzhou's annual pulled noodle competition. The halal restaurant makes noodles spicy enough to satisfy even the most hardened heat-seekers.

3 Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

    The birthplace of Cantonese food, Guangzhou is thought by many as the best place to eat in China. The city of 12 million has a passionate food culture, with equal excitement reserved for the opening of a hole-in-the-wall congee joint（粥店）and a high-end restaurant.

    The local cuisine is characterized by fresh clean flavors（口味）, seafood, barbecued meats and the wonderful tradition of yum cha, which is tea drinking accompanied by dumplings and small dishes.

    Congee is the way locals love to start their day, and one of the most popular vendors is Ru Xuan Sha Guo Zhou. Here, one can get a bowl of signature seafood congee any hour of the day.

    Roast meats are Bing Sheng's most popular order—their roast goose is marinated（腌制）with five-spice, boiled, air-dried, then roasted by a flame oven to give a crisp skin.

    For something more home style and removed from the madness of downtown, head to Ji Cun for steamed chicken and simple farmer-style dishes.

4 Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province

    This ancient canal city is home to huangjiu, an amber-colored rice wine that's important in Chinese cooking.

    Open since 1894, the dining chain is known by almost every Chinese for its appearance in early 20th century novels by Chinese literati Lu Xun.

    Xianheng's delicacies（佳肴）include crispy-skinned chicken, smoked red dates in rice wine, beans flavored with fennel(茴香), and crispy bream in rice wine.

    Fried fermented（发酵的）tofu is also a local specialty, which is available all over town at small street stalls including one just outside Xianheng.

    Some people have the feeling that nothing can be done about their poor reading ability（能力）.They feel hopeless about it.Can you learn to read better,or must you agree that nothing can be done about it?

    To be sure,people are different.You cannot expect to do everything as well as certain other people do.If all the students in a class tried out for basketball,some would be very good players,others would be very poor;and many would be in between.But even the very poor players can become much better players if they are guided in the right way,and with plenty of practice.It is the same with reading.Some seem to enjoy reading and to read well without any special help.Others find reading a slow and tiring job.In between,there are all degrees of reading ability.

    Many experiments have shown that just about every poor reader can improve his reading ability.In these experiments,the poor readers were given tests of reading ability.After some of the causes of their poor reading were discovered,they were given special instruction and practice in reading.After a few months,another test of the same kind was given.In nearly all cases,these people had raised their reading scores.

    If you want to slow aging, you might want to eat less. This finding is good news—if you were a mouse. The researchers studied mice, not people.

    John Price and other researchers studied two groups of mice. One group was able to eat as much as it wanted. The researchers limited what the mice in the other group ate. Their diet had 35 percent fewer calories than the first group of mice.

    Price says the mice with the diet restrictions were “more energetic and suffered fewer diseases.” They were not just living longer but seemed to stay younger for a longer period of time.

    The researchers found that fewer calories slow down a natural mechanism in cells called ribosomes. Price explains that ribosomes are responsible for making important proteins in the cells. But with fewer calories, they slow down. This gives the cells more time to repair themselves.

    The researchers say ribosomes use from 10 to 20 percent of the cell's energy to make those proteins. Price wrote that “because of this, it is impractical to destroy an entire ribosome” when it starts to break down. However, “repairing individual parts of the ribosome on a regular basis enables ribosomes to continue producing high quality proteins for longer than they would otherwise. This top quality production, in turn, keeps cells and the entire body functioning well.”

    Price said, “ribosome is a very complex machine, like a car.” They need “maintenance to replace the parts that wear out the fastest. When tires wear out,” he explained, “you don't throw the whole car away and buy a new one. It costs less to replace the old tires.”

    “Food,” he said, “isn't just material to be burned—it's a signal that tells our body and cells how to respond.” Price said the findings help to explain how exactly our bodies age. And this may “help us make more educated decisions about what we eat.”

    Steven Spielberg never fails to blow us away with his imagination.

    The US director's latest film Ready Player One, which was released in Chinese mainland cinemas on March 30, is a story set in the year 2045, when people escape their hopeless everyday lives by putting on a VR mask and entering a virtual (虚拟的) world named Oasis. This fantasy land is filled with characters and settings right out of classic films and videogames like The Shining and Overwatch. It's a feast both for the eyes and mind. And at the age of 71, Spielberg is still “at the top of his game”, wrote reporter Rafer Guzman on Newsday.

    Indeed, Spielberg has always been a gamer himself or rather a game changer. When his thriller Jaws came out in 1975, it struck a chord (引起共鸣) with audiences all over the world and kept people from going swimming for fear. The film was also the first example of what we now know as summer blockbusters.

    “Jaws invented that form of pleasurable entertainment, wrote Stephen Marche on Esquire. It also turned sharks, in the popular imagination, from fish into monsters.”

    And again, in his 1982 film E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial Spielberg challenged people's beliefs that aliens are something to be feared by telling a story about a loving friendship between a space creature and a little boy. “Spielberg redefined popular sci-fi”, wrote Marc Lee on The Telegraph. “Extra-terrestrials no longer had to be a threat to humanity: the universe, he was saying, is also full of awe and wonder.”

    Now comes Ready Player One. When Wade Watts, the film's teenage protagonist (主角), finally prevents Oasis from falling into the wrong hands, he's given ownership of the virtual world by its late designer James Halliday. But Watts makes a decision that he hopes will make people want to appreciate their real lives, instead of spending all their free time escaping reality in Oasis, which is a real-life message that Spielberg is trying to deliver to the audience.

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) is one of the world's largest and finest art museums. Following the suggested route will help you explore the museum.

    The Temple of Dendur

    This 2000-year-old building stood near the Nile River, surrounded by a wall that no longer exists. But you can still peek through the gateway. Whose "house" is this? It's not for people. It's for gods. Can you identify them? They face out. A king faces in, bringing offerings.

    MetSpeaks

    Bringing together some of the most respected thinkers on a given subject, MetSpeaks features lectures, discussions, talks, films, and forums in which compelling voices explore timely issues that connect to the Met's exhibitions and permanent collection. Program times, audiences, and topics vary.

    Time to Sketch

    Settle down for a few minutes, pick something in this gallery, and have fun drawing it. Enjoy the chance to look carefully as you create your own sketch. You'll be surprised at how much more you notice, thanks to exploring art by sketching.

    MetAccess

    Make the Met yours! Choose from a variety of services and exciting programs that are tailored to meet the needs of visitors with disabilities. Program times, audiences, and topics vary.

    Ask for the Access Information brochure and Access Calendar at Information Desks, download the Access Calendar (PDF), or call 212-650-2010 or email access@metmuseum.org.

    Admission

    Fee includes admission to the Main Building and same-week admission to the Cloisters museum and gardens.

    When the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris (巴黎圣母院) was on fire, it seemed as if the nation had lost a piece of its soul. A similar tragedy took place in 19th century Russia. And the rebuilding effort of the Russians might offer some inspiration for the French.

    Standing in the heart of the Russian capital, with 60,000 square meters of floor space and 1,500 rooms, the Winter Palace was among the world's grandest building. On Dec. 17, 1837, a fire broke out at the Winter Palace. By the morning of Dec.19, only the structure's framework remained.

    For the czar (沙皇), the fire presented a political challenge. Fearing that Russia's enemies would cast the fire as a blow to the czarist orders, the czar's supporters quickly worked together to shape the description of the fire in Russia and abroad. They wanted the country to appear united. And they certainly didn't want despair to become the story.

    The first full account of the fire was written in French by the poet Petr Viazemskii. A Russian translation appeared two months later. That text and others painted a highly idealized picture of the response to the tragedy. The accounts noted that the czar forcefully directed the fire's containment. Soldiers were selfless to save the palace. The Russian people felt the loss just as deeply as the czar.

    To erase the shame of the fire, the czar set a nearly impossible goal: rebuild the palace within 15 months, and he ordered that rebuilt palace look exactly as it had before. Thousands of workers labored on the construction site. They made rapid progress. On Match 25, 1839, the czar celebrated the rebirth of the Winter Palace.

Outwardly identical to the old version, the new palace featured more iron and brick in its structures—and less wood. It was far less fire-prone than the original.

    Notre Dame hasn't experienced the same level of destruction as the Winter Palace, if the Russian phoenix of 1839 is any indication, there is hope that a renewed Notre Dame will once again grace the banks of the Seine.