How are you? I do hope that you have had a good week and you are enjoying a relaxed and easy weekend.

With this letter, I would like to say Hello to you while to share some art works of mine with you.

This week, I have completed 3 paintings, one of them is to match a Chinese classical poem, anyway, I am not in the emotion to re-write the music and to sing at this time, so, instead of showing the new painting to you, I would like to show you one of my combined art works - Guan Ju :-)

After came back to Shenzhen, the strongest feels is that the city has had a huge change.

-- The garden is bright much more in the night, for the surface of the building has been fixed more neon lights; the streets are more beautiful, there are more trees, flowers and flower baskets here or there...

-- Except the original best service in China -- to be offered CNN, BBC and many more foreign TV channels with a very low cost, I do find that the channels of Shenzhen TV have been become bilingualism, the subtitles are in English and in Chinese.

-- The subway has been extended nearby my home. Almost every day, we are encouraged to take public vehicle -- if we reduce to drive or if we do not drive, it will be the support to the Universiade 2011in Shenzhen.

Friday evening, 4 of my classmates in China Central Academy of Fine Arts suddenly called me from their hotel in Long Gang district of Shenzhen, they would like to visit me before they left for their hometowns in Liaoning, Shanxi and Jiangsu, I invited them to have a dinner in a restaurant near my home.

When they told me that they would reach the destination after going through the other 6 stations, I took a book with me and went out of the door, because I thought, in case they went out of the nearest subway station, they had to walk at least 1500 meters, I would certainly wait for them in the restaurant for a while. However, before I went out of the garden, I got a message on my cell phone, they had been in the restaurant already and they were waiting for me. With so much surprise, I came to them, then I found that a new subway station had been launched near my home, the former narrow streets because of the subway project have been recovered its width and pretty.

Wow! I cannot imagine how big change in the city just in the several months I was in Beijing. :-) That really makes me think of the words -- the Second-Time Pioneer! That has also made me re-feel the atmosphere of us in the First-Time Pioneer 20 years ago. :-)

I am thinking, since the circumstance is changing every day, all of the organizations and every individual cannot sit on the past achievement, to enjoy the past honor, all of us should have to keep up with the times, advance with times. Otherwise, we would be obsoleted by the times soon.

Check up my own knowledge structure, aimed at the fact that my English is limiting me to develop my combined art dream, this week, I have re-opened my study platform in Beijing Foreign Studies University and re-started my daily distance English study...

How about you? Do you have anything special in your life? Do you agree with my idea to Keep Up With the Times?


I am just a student on Art of Painting, Music, English and Management, to work on the web site in my free time. I would really like to do a few things with what I have learned to make this little web site to be an Electronic Bridge of Inter-Art & Cross - Culture Exchange, Chinese Language Learning & Friendship Making. To help the others while to improve myself.

I would like to appreciate you for your understanding, directions, supports and help.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, you are welcome to write to shirley@ebridge.cn or leave your message on Message Board.

Shirley Yiping Zhang
July 24, 2011