Unforgettable Memories: April 2011

Guangzhou

Guangzhou is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about 120 km (75 mi) north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port. One of the five National Central Cities, it holds sub-provincial administrative status.

Guangzhou is the third-largest city in China and southern China's largest city. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 6 million, and an urban area population of roughly 11.85 million, making it the third most populous metropolitan area in China. Some estimates place the population of the entire urban agglomeration as high as 24.2 million, making it the 2nd biggest urban area in the world after Tokyo. The Guangzhou government's official estimate of the city's population at the end of 2009 was 10,334,500, an addition of 152,500 people from the previous year.When the migrant (defined as being present in the city 6 months or more) population is included, the city's population is over 14 mln. In 2008 Guangzhou was identified as a Beta World City by the Global city index produced by GaWC

Guangzhou has many nicknames, for example, The Flower City, Five Goats City, Goat City, Wheats City, Ceiba City, and Immortals City.

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Budapest

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Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural,commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2010, Budapest had 1,721,556 inhabitants, down from its 1980 peak of 2.06 million. The Budapest Commuter Area is home to 3,271,110 people. The city covers an area of 525 square kilometres (202.7 sq mi) within the city limits. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with a unification on 17 November 1873 of right (west)-bank Buda and Óbuda with left (east)-bank Pest.

Historically, Aquincum, originally a Celtic settlement, was the direct ancestor of Budapest, becoming the Roman capital of Lower Pannonia.Magyars arrived in the territoryin the 9th century. Their first settlement was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241-42. The re-established town became one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture in the 15th century. Following the Battle of Mohács and nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule, development of the region entered a new age of prosperity in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Budapest became a global city after the 1873 unification. It also became the second capital of Austria-Hungary, a great power that dissolved in 1918. Budapest was the focal point of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, Operation Panzerfaust in 1944, the Battle of Budapest of 1945, and the Revolution of 1956.

Cited as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, its extensive World Heritage Site includes the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrássy Avenue, Heroes' Square and the Millennium Underground Railway, the second oldest in the world. Other highlights include a total of 80 geothermal springs, the world's largest thermal water cave system,second largest synagogue, and third largest Parliament building. The city attracts about 2.3 million tourists a year.

Considered a financial hub in Central Europe, the city ranked 3rd (out of 65 cities) on Mastercard's Emerging Markets Index(2008), and ranked as the most livable Central/Eastern European city on EIU's quality of life index (2009, 2010). It is also ranked as "Europe's 7th most idyllic place to live" by Forbes. It is the highest ranked Central/Eastern European city on Innovation Cities' Top 100 index, and has featured well in a number of specialist rankings.

Budapest is home to the headquarters of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), and the first foreign office of the CIPA.

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Shang Hai

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Shang Hai is the most populous city in

China

. The city is located in eastern

China

, at the middle portion of the Chinese coast, and sits at the mouth of theYangtze River. Due to its rapid growth in the last two decades, it has again become one of the world's leading cities, exerting influence over finance, commerce, fashion, and culture.

Once a fishing and textiles town, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to its favourable port location and was one of the cities opened to foreign trade by the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. The city then flourished as a centre of commerce between east and west, and became a multinational hub of finance and business in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, the city's international influence declined. In 1990, the economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance and foreign investment to the city.Shanghai is now aiming to be a global finance hub and international shipping centre in the future, and is predicted to become one of the world's main global financial centres, on the level of even London and New York in this regard.

Shanghai is also a popular tourist destination renowned for its historical landmarks such as The Bund, Peoples Square (the former racing track) and Yuyuan Garden, and its extensive yet growing Pudong skyline. It hosted the World Expo in 2010, attracting 73 million visitors. It is described as the "showpiece" of the booming economy of China

The two Chinese characters in the city's name are 上 ("above") and 海 ("sea") which together literally mean 'Upper Sea'. The earliest occurrence of this name dates from the Song Dynasty (11th century), at which time there was already a river confluence and a town with this name in the area. There are disputes as to exactly how the name should be interpreted, but official local histories have consistently said that it signifies 'The upper reaches of the sea'. Due to the changing coastline, Chinese historians have concluded that in the Tang Dynasty Shanghai was literally on the sea, hence the origin of the name. A more poetic name for Shanghai switches the order of the two characters, "海上", and is often used for terms related to Shanghainese art and culture.

Shanghai is commonly abbreviated in Chinese to "沪".As it is also an official abbreviation, this character appears on all motor vehicle license plates issued in the municipality today. The name "沪" is derived from Hù Dú (沪渎 / 滬瀆), the ancient name for the lower section of the Suzhou Creek as it enters the sea, the same section which is today regarded as the lower section of the Huangpu River.^[15] The character "沪" (Hù) is often combined with "松" (Sōng) to form the name Songhu (松沪). Sōng comes from another ancient name for the Suzhou Creek, the Song River, after which the town Songjiang is named. For example, the 1937 Battle of Shanghai is better known in Chinese as the Battle of Songhu. A second abbreviation for Shanghai is "申" (Shēn), derived from the name of Chunshen Jun (春申君), a nobleman and locally revered hero of the Chu Kingdom in the third century BC whose territory included the Shanghai area. Sports teams and newspapers in Shanghai often use this character in their names. Shanghai is also commonly called Shēnchéng (申城, "[Walled] city of Shēn").

Another early name for Shanghai was Huating (华亭). In 751 AD, during the mid-Tang Dynasty, Huating County was established at modern-day Songjiang, the first county-level administration within modern-day Shanghai. Today, Huating is most often encountered as the name of a four-star hotel in the city.

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Tokyo

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Tokyo is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. It is located on the eastern side of the main island Honshu and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands. Tokyo Metropolis was formed in 1943 from the merger of the former Tokyo Prefecture (東京府 Tōkyō-fu^?) and the city of Tokyo (東京市 Tōkyō-shi^?). Tokyo is thecapital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family.

The Tokyo Metropolitan government administers the twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, that cover the area that was the city of Tokyo as well as 39 municipalities in the western part of the prefecture and the two outlying island chains. The population of the special wards is over 8 million people, with the total population of the prefecture exceeding 13 million. The prefecture is part of the world's most populous metropolitan area with 35 to 39 million people (depending on definition) and the world's largest metropolitan economy with a GDP of US$1.479 trillion at purchasing power parity in 2008, ahead of New York City, which ranks second on the list

Tokyo was described by Saskia Sassen as one of the three "command centers" for the world economy, along with New York City and London. This city is considered an alpha+ world city, listed by the GaWC's 2008 inventory and ranked third among global cities byForeign Policy's 2010 Global Cities Index. In 2010 Tokyo was named the second most expensive city for expatriate employees, according to the Mercer and Economist Intelligence Unit cost-of-living surveys, and named the fourth Most Liveable City and the World’s Most Livable Megalopolis by the magazine Monocle. The Michelin Guide has awarded Tokyo by far the most Michelin stars of any city in the world (Tokyo has more Michelin stars than the combined score of Paris, London, New York and Los Angeles)

Tokyo was originally known as Edo, meaning "estuary". Its name was changed to Tokyo (Tōkyō: tō (east) + kyō (capital)) when it became the imperial capital in 1868, in line with the East Asian tradition of including the word capital ('京') in the name of the capital city. During the early Meiji period, the city was also called "Tōkei", an alternative pronunciation for the same Chinese characters representing "Tokyo". Some surviving official English documents use the spelling "Tokei". However, this pronunciation is now obsolete

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Beijing

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Beijing is a metropolis in Northern China, and the capital of the People's Republic of China. Governed as a municipality under direct administration of the central government, Beijing borders Hebei Province to the north, west, south, and for a small section in the east, and Tianjin Municipality to the southeast. Beijing is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China.

Beijing is divided into 14 urban and suburban districts and two rural counties.Beijing is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads and motorways passing through the city. It is also the destination of many international flights arriving in China. Beijing is recognized as the political, educational, and cultural center of the People's Republic of China, while Hong Kong and Shanghai predominate in economic fields. The city hosted the 2008 Olympic Games.

Few cities in the world besides Beijing have served as the political and cultural centre of an area as immense as China for so long.The Encyclopædia Britannica describes it as "one of the world's great cities," and declares that the city has been an integral part of China’s history for centuries; there is scarcely a major building of any age in Beijing that does not have at least some national historical significance.Beijing is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, and huge stone walls and gates. Its art treasures and universities have long made the city a centre of culture and art in China

"Beijing" means "Northern Capital", in line with the common East Asian tradition whereby capital cities are explicitly named as such. Other cities that are similarly named include Nanjing, China, meaning "southern capital"; Tokyo, Japan, and Đông Kinh, now Hanoi,Vietnam, both meaning "eastern capital" (東京); as well as Kyoto, Japan; and Gyeongseong (京城), now Seoul, Korea, both meaning simply "capital".

Peking is the name of the city according to Chinese Postal Map Romanization, and the traditional customary name for Beijing in English. It is still used in many languages. The term Peking originated with French missionaries four hundred years ago and corresponds to an older pronunciation predating a subsequent sound change in Mandarin from [kʲ] to [tɕ].([tɕ] is represented inpinyin as j, as in Beijing. The latter is best approximated in English as "bay-DJING", rather than the hyperforeign pronunciation "bay-ZHING".)

The pronunciation "Peking" is also closer to the Fujianese dialect of Amoy or Min Nan spoken in the city of Xiamen, a port where European traders first landed in the 16th century, while "Beijing" more closely approximates the Mandarin dialect's pronunciation.

The city has been renamed several times. During the Jin Dynasty, the city was known as Zhongdu (中都), and then later under the Mongol Yuan Dynasty as Dadu (大都) in Chinese and Daidu to Mongols (also recorded as Cambulucby Marco Polo). Twice in the city's history, the name of the city was changed from Beijing (Peking) to Beiping (Peiping) (北平; Pinyin: Běipíng; Wade-Giles: Pei-p'ing), literally "Northern Peace". This occurred first under the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and again in 1928 with theKuomintang (KMT) government of the Republic of China.On each occasion, the name change removed the element meaning "capital" (京) to reflect the fact the national capital had changed to Nanjing, in Jiangsu Province. Such renaming was reverted twice; this occurred first under the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who moved the capital from Nanjing back to Beijing, and again in 1949, when theCommunist Party of China restored Beijing as its capital after the founding of the People's Republic of China.The abbreviation of the municipality is its second character (京) and is used on licence plates, among other things.

Yanjing (燕京; Pinyin: Yānjīng; Wade-Giles: Yen-ching) is and has been another popular informal name for Beijing, a reference to the ancient State of Yan that existed here during the Zhou Dynasty. This name is reflected in the locally brewed Yanjing Beer as well asYenching University, an institution of higher learning that was merged into Peking University

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Unforgettable Memories

i will never forget the time that we have spent together .. no matter what happens , it will always be inside my heart

Guangzhou

Budapest

Shang Hai

Tokyo

Beijing

Translation

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