Unconsciously, one person or one thing is walking into your heart, and I have scarcely remembered when I began my writing. All I can remember is that I started to keep a diary in a notebook with a plastic cover which I felt as if I had found a priceless treasure.

When I had an English class in junior high school, I had a strong interest in English. Although Chinese and English are different languages, I remain enthusiastic and interested in Chinese writing and English learning until today.

I spent more time in learning English than in writing article before I joined Steemit. After all, it’s almost unrealistic to earn a living by writing on Steemit. However, if you learn English well, you would have a chance to show your talents and realize your ambition.

Steemit is such a good platform where you can not only develop your writing skills but also earn more money. Why not go ahead with it?

With the popularization and application of computer, I rarely write with a pen, but when I start with a first draft some characters escape me for the moment which I have always talked about. There are even some wrongly written characters in my writings. Out of practice for a long time, everything will become unfamiliar.

But all of this has been completely changed by Steemit.

Full of talented men and overwhelming posts with beautiful pictures, Steemit is an arena where only the strong stand out from the competition. If you want to get the upvotes from the big fish or whales, you should produce high - quality articles.

English learning is set in a secondary place. I begin to search for knowledge that I could need but know only a bit, and hunt up my daughter’s textbooks and reading materials to read it carefully. I also take time to read Readers, Youth Digest, etc carefully.

Even in the course of English learning, I also pay attention to some of the knowledge points in case of need.

From a self-learner of English major, I begin to become that of Chinese language major, all of which benefits from Steemit.

Although the road is endless and faraway, I still want to pursue the truth in the world.

**Brief Biography of Old Wu, or 老吴 in Chinese:

Old Wu, male, born on Dec. 12, 1968, Chinese nationality, is a good man and has been studying English for over 30 years. He teaches himself English, and he does not believe in fate, so he keeps working hard. Humorous and optimistic, he will become your good friend. **

This page is synchronized from the post: Steemit Has Changed My Study Habit

2001年，在原单位精简机构、减员增效的浪潮中，我被从科室里精简了下来，去干一个四班倒的工作。科室里最年轻，唯一一个具有全日制学历的读书人被减了下来。

至于原因，自己也心知肚明。只知低头拉车，不知抬头看路；又不懂得功夫在诗外的道理，只知傻干，又不会逢场作戏，奉承巴结，请客送礼。我不下地狱，谁会下？按照那位领导的意思，新的工作是个“夜深人静好读书”的地方。

那一年，女儿才6岁，妻子又在10公里外的市区里的一个分厂工作，两班倒。如果我去上四班倒的工作，孩子又如何办呢？晚上谁来照看呢？因家中还有爷爷奶奶，母亲无法前来照看我的孩子，女儿从一岁多点就进了托儿所。

走投无路的我，抱着女儿去了分管我们科室的领导家里。自然是一大堆无关痛痒的话，大势所趋，形势所迫，每个人都有可能，困难想法克服云云。

我没有再说什么，抱着女儿出了领导家的门，突然间泪水就来了……一路上我低头默默走着，生怕女儿看到。哪知怀中的女儿却伸出手去抹我眼角落下的泪水，没说一句话。

回到家中，我把女儿放到沙发上，正在盘算着该如何去跟女儿说以后的打算。坐在沙发上的女儿却突然说了句话——“我跟她拼了去”，只让我终身难忘。

年仅6岁的女儿已经什么都明白了，也懂得生活的艰难和不易。所以，长大后的女儿一直都很自立，做事也有主见。

我在跌打滚爬中，整整干了一年的四班倒的工作。一年后，女儿开始上小学了，我便辞职离开了原单位，招聘去了一家外贸公司。2003年，通过招考进了政府机关。

而那以前的原单位，因经营不善，2008年就破产了。

我现在有时还会想，如果当年没有把我精简下来，就算在科室里混到企业破产，可那时已经40岁的我还能干些什么呢？我甚至从心里要感谢起那一段经历了，温水煮青蛙不就是这个道理吗？

只是女儿6岁时说的那句话，至今还回响在耳边，如黑暗中的荧光，却让我看到了一点光明和希望，也让我在世态炎凉中，感受到了一丝的温暖。

This page is synchronized from the post: 终身难忘的一段往事 An Unforgettable Thing for Life

Rising and falling along lofty ridges and towering ranges, twisting and turning across deserts and plateaus for thousands of kilometers, the Great Wall of China is a fantastic sight. It is a great military defensive system of the world built in ancient times.

The construction of the Great Wall went on for over two thousand years through various historical periods and particularly during the Ming Dynasty. It was then over 6300 kilometers from Yalu River in the east to Jiayuguan in the west and became known as the Great Wall of ten thousand Li (one li equals to 0.5 kiometer).

Most parts of the Great Wall we see today were constructed in this period.

The Great Wall today may have lost its former functions; it has nevertheless become a monument of the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation. It is one of the wonders of the world, symbolizing the wit and spirit of the Chinese nation.

The Great Wall ranks the first in the program of “Chinese Attactions Most Favored by Foreigners”, followed by Mt.Tai.

It is about in March of 2015 that I visited the Great Wall at Badaling. Bustling people and steep road, it is just like climbing Mt. Tai, and from time to time you may run into foreigners from different countries.

Walking along the Great Wall, I met with a foreign visitor from Germany with a clown riding on his neck, who spoke good English. Many visitors vied each other to have a picture with him and, of course, with the clown. Waiting for quite a while, I had a picture taken with the foreign friend and his clown on the Great Wall, showing I have visited here.

We had a good laugh, and I know, that was our happy smiles. Wish the foreign friend a pleasant journey.

Chairman Mao, the great leader and founder of China, once said, “不到长城非好汉”(One who fails to reach the Great Wall is not a hero.) —these seven Chinese characters are still engraved near the Great Wall at Badaling.

That’s a pleasant trip to the Great Wall.

Brief Biography of Old Wu, or 老吴 in Chinese:
Old Wu, male, born on Dec. 12, 1968, Chinese nationality, is a good man and has been studying English for over 30 years. He teaches himself English, and he does not believe in fate, so he keeps working hard. Humorous and optimistic, he will become your good friend.

This page is synchronized from the post: Old Wu and a Foreigner on the Great Wall 老吴和老外在长城上

For so a long time
I haven’t seen you
Big fish and whales
Where have you gone
Perhaps
Running away into the distance
But for what reason
I don’t know

Giving guidance and help
You lead me into the sea
I’m only a minnow
Swimming in the sea
Trembling with fear
To you
I owe it all
For what I am today

I miss you
My dear friends
Come back home
Come back home
But nothing changed
Nothing to say
Nothing to see

Brief Biography of @bring— Old Wu, or 老吴 in Chinese:
Old Wu, male, born on Dec. 12, 1968, Chinese nationality, is a good man and has been studying English for over 30 years. He teaches himself English, and he does not believe in fate, so he keeps working hard. Humorous and optimistic, he will become your good friend.

This page is synchronized from the post: Where Have You Gone

Brief Biography of @bring—Old Wu, or 老吴 in Chinese:
Old Wu, male, born on Dec. 12, 1968, Chinese nationality, is a good man and has been studying English for over 30 years. He teaches himself English, and he does not believe in fate, so he keeps working hard. Humorous and optimistic, he will become your good friend.

First, Mount Tai and Taian City

As a Chinese, you may not know Taian, but you definitely hear of Mount Tai. In the program “Chinese attractions that foreigners are interested in “, Mount Tai ranks the second place after the Great Wall.

Mount Tai is located in the territory of Taian City, Shandong province. It is the world’s natural and cultural heritage, one of the ten famous mountains of China, the World Geopark and the national 5A tourist attractions. The name of Taian derives from the sentence: “The country is prosperous and the people are at peace”. Taian is the National Health City, the National Historical and Cultural City, the National Forest City, and has won the Chinese Habitat Environment Award.

By the way, the earliest Taian Railway Station is probably built by the Germans and then renamed the Taishan Railway Station; and the station at Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is the Tai’an station. Therefore, the outsiders to Tai’an must pay attention: Taishan Station and Taian Station are not the same place.

Second, Taishan Pancake

Located in the North Temperate Zone, Taian has a semi-moist warm temperate continental monsoon climate, characterized by four distinct seasons, rain and heat in the same quarter, cold and dry over the same period, adequate lighting, and concentrated rainfall. Sunshine, air temperature and precipitation of Taian City are very beneficial to the growth and development of crops and forest fruits. The main crops are wheat, corn, vegetables, silkworms, fruit trees and peanuts.

Growing a lot of corn, Taian has its food product: Taishan Pancake. With a history of over 1000 years, Taishan Pancak, made of corn, millet as raw material, is a famous traditional food product which is thin, crisp, ans shelf-stable. Pancake roll stuffed with scallions is a local cuisine.

Growing up by eating pancakes, I have a special feeling for pancakes. In Shandong the people of Linyi also eat pancakes, but Linyi pancakes are not the same as Tai’an pancakes. It looks like that Linyi pancakes are thick and wet, and Tai’an pancakes are thin and dry.

When I was a child, my father and other miners went to visit West Lake, bring some pancakes with them, and the people of the South were unable to understand: “Look, they are eating paper.”

Although pancakes look like paper, if you are the first time to eat pancakes, your tooth will suffer. I had studied for four years in a secondary school in Weifang City, where people don’t eat pancakes. When I came back home to eat pancakes, I found it a hard thing.

Third, Process of Making Pancakes

a. Select the corn particle to remove the bad;
b. Put corn in a bucket with water, usually for a night;
c. Use stone mill to grind the corn into thick paste;
d. Put the corn paste for a period of time to let it ferment, the degree of fermentation can determine the sweet and sour of the pancake；
e. Wipe the griddle with soybean, put the corn paste on the heated griddle with a spoon;
f. Extend the paste evenly on the griddle, slowly making circles to make it mature;
g. Lift the pancake
h. Stack and store.

The freshly made pancakes are the best to eat, and if they are stuffed with salted fish or shallots or sauces, that’s more delicious.

The pancakes are delicious, but making them is the most laborious.

Burn up and smoked, the maker suffers a lot, even in summer. It would cost at least three or four hours to finish a big pot of corn paste. I still remember when I was a child, my mother got up to make pancakes with the first cockcrew. Mother did not have the breakfast until she finished the work.

Now, even the pancake production is also mechanized, which is no longer so tiring. However people always feel that the hand-made pancakes are good to eat. It is said that on the top of Mt.Tai, a piece of pancake, stuffed with a shallot and a bit of sauce, is worth several yuan, or is it 10 yuan, and I’m not sure.

The pancakes bear the culture, and the memories of my childhood, where I can find happiness and the sweat and hardship of my mother.

When I pick up the pancakes, as if I am chewing the hard times, I seem to see my mother keeping making pancakes in smoke, backhunched…

This page is synchronized from the post: Taishan Pancake

Hello, my dear friends on Steemit. I am @bring from China, and you may call me Old Wu, or 老吴 in Chinese for I am already in my fifties, which is the age of knowing the destiny according to a saying in Chinese history. But I do not believe in fate, so I keep working hard.

Time flies. It occurs to me that it is six months since I joined Steemit on July 30, 2017. I am lucky to meet with Steemit, and then we are well acquainted with each other, and become bosom friends. To her, I pour all my sorrow and feelings, hidden deep in my heart, endlessly and completely, but she is only listening quietly. To my surprise, she rewards me with dollars at last, saying I have done a good job. Since then I start to write articles on Steemit every day.

Till now I have published about 300 articles, and got my first bucket of gold on Steemit (withdrawing about $5000), with reputation scores of 62.97 and 743 followers.

Happily, I have joined “the Global Translation Program” launched by @rivalhw and become a translator. The article “English Teahouse Series One: Words and Dictionary” written by me was published on OCD International Daily thanks to the recommendation of @htliao and @travelgirl, two predecessors in the Chinese community.

I have also tried to write several English or bilingual articles for speakers of English. In the future I will focus on “going global” in my writing. I’m sure I will have more opportunities to participate in all kinds of activities on Steemit.

However, there are some problems that deserve attention. Others have pointed out the problems in my writing, even if I am not delighted to hear criticism, I should also be open-minded, showing tolerance. Tit for tat is undesirable.

To err is human, to forgive is divine. I should have never been too rigorous and dogmatic in picking faults in English translations which are fluent and authentic in general.

For new things, what should be given is encouragement and support. Spring is coming, the Spring Festival is also drawing near, and we can also feel the breath of spring on Steemit – all kinds of activities in full swing and the bustling crowd. This is also a festival of Steemit.

Finally, I would like to draw some words as the end of this article from a poem of Chairman Mao, the great leader and founder of the People’s Republic of China.

“多少事，从来急；天地转，光阴迫。一万年太久，只争朝夕。”

So many deeds cry out to be done,
And always urgently;
The world rolls on,
Time presses.
Ten thousand years are too long,
Seize the day, seize the hour!

This page is synchronized from the post: My Six Months on Steemit