The Forbidden City, rectangular in shape is the world's largest palace complex and covers 720,000 square meters (178 acres, or 0.28 square miles). Surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall are five halls, seventeen palaces, and numerous other buildings. The Forbidden Palace is reputed to have a total of 9,999.5 rooms. However, according to surveying by the Palace Museum, there are about 8,600 existing rooms. (The majority of buildings in the Forbidden City have an odd number of rooms, distributed symmetrically about an axis. However, the Imperial Library had six rooms as a charm against fire, because the number six is associated with water in astrology. So that the building does not look out of place, the sixth room was built very small, hence the half-room.)

FIBA 2006 World Basketball Championships

The FIBA 2006 World Basketball Championship will be in Japan. The world championships (or "Worlds") take place every four years and feature national teams. It's considered the biggest basketball tournament in the world by almost every country other than the United States, which popularly tends to think of the Olympic basketball competition as king. Both are huge, but the worlds stands out.

Question: Where can I find great Chinese recipes? I love to cook and I am looking for traditional Chinese dishes.

A: A great place to find Chinese recipes is at www.chinatownconnection.com/chinese-recipes.htm. They have recipes of over 100 favorite Chinese dishes. Some of the well known are Chinese Egg Rolls, Chow Mein, and Won Ton Soup.

Come explore Houston Chinatown for a culinary feast and cultural adventure.
Translated literally, dim sum means "heart's delight." Perhaps that's because you eat to your heart's delight when feasting on dim sum. There's pork, shrimp, beef, and vegetable dumplings; steamed barbecue pork buns; crispy egg rolls; Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce-the array is endless and unforgettable.

Thanks to Dorothy Huang, my first Dim Sum tasting came, not in China, but in Houston. A Chinese culinary expert, Dorothy teaches cooking classes and gives tours of Houston Chinatown. I signed up for one through Leisure Learning Unlimited and discovered a new love: the smorgasbord that is dim sum. For the class, we (the eager students) met at Ocean Palace Restaurant for lunch and a lesson. Also, everyone must check out Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai restaurants in Houston for a complete guide to Houston's Chinese - Asian restaurants.

Houston Asian Business is flourishing. You can see it in Houston Chinatown and all over and around Houston. Why is it booming so fast? Well, the answer is simple: cheap operating costs and housing. Houston has one of the lowest price housing for a big city in the U.S. In addition, operating costs for businesses is low as well. Texas has no State tax and there is plenty of land surrounding Houston for businesses to continue building.

Now is the time to come to Houston and start your business.