A greeting is a way of saying "Hello" to someone. People in different countries greet each other in different ways. Here are some.

World Greetings

New baby brother

I was sitting in school

when I heard the news.

“Your baby brother is born,

and wants to see you!”

Dad got me from school

and to the hospital with no delay.

Hurrying on our journey,

he almost forgot the way!

My brother's hands were tiny,

and wrinkly soft, like a prune.

After he smiled at me,

Mom said, “He'll come home soon!”

Everyone “oohing” and “aahing”,

they say “He is so sweet.

And one day he'll walk around

on those little baby feet!”

    Ancient China produced many types of beautiful works of art. Among them, calligraphy (书法), poetry (诗歌) and painting were the most famous. Often they would be put together in art. These became important starting with the Song dynasty.

    Calligraphy is the art of handwriting. In the old time the Chinese considered writing as an important form of art. Calligraphers (书法家) would practice for years to learn to write perfectly, but with style. Each of the over 40,000 characters needed to be written correctly. And each stroke (笔画) in a character had to be written in a certain order.

    Poetry was also an important form of art. Great poets were famous all over the country, but all educated people were expected to write poetry. During the Tang dynasty poetry was so important that writing poetry was part of the examinations to become a civil servant (文官) and work for the government.

    Chinese painting was often connected with calligraphy. It is one of the oldest artistic traditions in the world. The most traditional way of Chinese painting is known as "national" or "native painting (国画)", which is quite different from Western painting. People can draw mountains, homes, birds, trees and water on it.