Podcast
Good fortune - and delicious ice cream
Updated: 2010-07-16 13:24
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With artists creating unique work, ice-cream makers stirring up delicious treats and fortunetellers looking into the future by interpreting coffee grinds, the Turkey Pavilion has become one of the most popular at Expo Garden.
The theme of the pavilion is inspired by Catalhoyuk, one of the first known settlements in the world, and features relics from different civilizations. The relationship between Turkey and China is shown through "Dreaming of the Past," which features ancient Chinese and Turkish clocks with 12 zodiac signs, and the earliest China-Turkey agreement carved on a stone table.
But more enticing to visitors are the food, beverages and art.
Maras ice cream is famous worldwide for its strong taste. Visitors wait in long lines in front of the ice-cream vendor in the pavilion to taste the delicious treat and have their picture taken with the ice-cream maker.
Art enthusiasts will enjoy watching demonstrations of ebru, the Turkish art of paper marbling. The patterns are created using floating dyes and then carefully transferred to a sheet of paper or other surfaces.
Murat Elhan, the 35-year-old artist who started learning paper marbling when he was 10, intrigues visitors with this traditional Turkish art.
For a more supernatural experience, the pavilion features an exotic form of fortune telling. Tasseography is a traditional form of seeing into one's future by interpreting coffee grinds. The cup is turned over into the saucer to cool, and then the patterns of the coffee grinds can be used for fortune telling.
Deniz Genez Aydin, 45, the fortuneteller at the Turkey Pavilion, majored in technological management and runs a business consultant company in Shanghai. This form of traditional fortune telling has been her hobby since she was 15 and is a family tradition.
"The coffee fortune telling is a type of psychological therapy to assist people to make decisions and help them see the opportunities that they ignored. I could pick up the sign for you and you have to open your mind and think more by yourself," she said. "I believe that everyone has the potential and capabilities to see the future, because we all have the sixth sense. Nobody knows the exact future because it is totally up to us, up to our decisions."
（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is fluent in Korean and has a 2-year-old son.
