Dear Friend,

A new idea can generate a lot of excitement. That's exactly what happened when we introduced ChinaSprout's first Easter Basket in our last newsletter. This week, we have created even more fun themed gift sets, perfect for Easter and all year round. We're adding new products daily to our Easter Page so be sure to check back often. And, don't forget to take advantage of our free folk music CD offer on orders of $75 or more. In addition to our new gift sets, apparel, accessories, books, and home décor products, we are also introducing a new section to our newsletter —Letha's Health Secrets— so that you can continue to enjoy Letha's fascinating Chinese health and beauty tips.

Easter Gift Sets

We are continually updating our Easter page with new products for the holiday. As a special treat, we have created unique Easter Gift Sets, filled with all sorts of wonderful goodies packaged with fun! Choose from Monkey King, Panda, Chibi Maruko, or Pucca sets fore the little sprout on your gift list.

Add Music to Your Life

To help welcome spring, we are giving away a FREE Folk Music CD, between April 4th and April 18th, valued up to $13.95, to customers whose order totals $75.00 or more. Don't miss your opportunity to add one of our wonderful Chinese folk music CDs to your collection. Our FREE Folk Music CD offer is good while supplies last. In order to apply the coupon to your order, add the Folk Music CD to your shopping cart. When you arrive on the Shopping Cart page, enter in the coupon code 1143997887 and hit the "Apply Coupon" button. After the coupon is successfully added to your order, you will see the message: "Coupon Applied". LIMIT ONE PER CUSTOMER.

Spring Cleaning

We are expecting many new products from China very soon. In order to make way for these new arrivals, we are continually putting lots of our current stock on sale. Be sure to check out the sales pages in each our sections for fantastic spring savings. Out with the old and in with the new!

Embroidered Silk Shirts

Double Happiness Pendant

Quilt Baby Blanket

Floppy's Friends

Gift Set

Watch your children's face light up with excitement when they receive a ChinaSprout gift set. We created these gift sets, especially for our customers, after receiving many requests for Easter baskets. The best part about these fun self-contained packages is that they make wonderful gifts all year round. Each of our four gift sets is theme-specific.

Apparel and Accessories

Supplement your warm weather wardrobe with our lightweight silk shirt or stunning mandarin jacket. Complete the ensemble with our silver charm bracelet, charms, or double happiness inspired jewelry. For baby, our colorful quilt is pretty enough to become an heirloom. If Easter gift bags are in your future, consider spreading wishes of good fortune and including a pretty sandalwood panda fan.

Home Decor

What's Hot? Peony! Use our peony flower fabric to reupholster a favorite piece of furniture, like the one shown in this NY Times article. Or, add a vibrant splash of color when you feature our peony inspired table accents or cushion cover in your decorating designs.

Books and Learning Tools

ChinaSprout has a wide range of products for language students at every level, from the casual learner to the serious scholar. Best of all, our tools come in many forms -- textbooks, workbooks, CD-ROMS, dictionaries, and more. Choose the tool that's right for you and you'll find yourself inspired.

Children Picture Books

Kids and adults alike will enjoy our new storybooks. Many are presented both in Chinese and English. Reading them together is not only fun, it will also help improve your Chinese language skills!

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “Letha Hadady, one of the nation’s leading experts on natural Chinese remedies, is leading a quiet lady-like revolution to bring herbal medicines from the Far East and elsewhere into everyday use in American homes.” Read the latest on her blog Letha's Health Secrets.

Natural Remedies for Spring Health and Beauty

Traditional Asian health care believes that seasonal home remedies prevent illness and aging for many people. Special foods and herbs can prevent stress, allergies, fatigue and other problems that occur with weather changes. Watch this blog for seasonal health and beauty advice.

Read the full story here

Silk for your Sore Throat

Traditional Chinese medicine uses all sorts of things as herbs because everything in nature–plants, minerals, and animal products–can improve our energy, vitality, and beauty. Silkworm is used for more than making lovely clothes.

Read the full story here

Lose weight and pain

Want to lose weight, improve digestion, and reduce inflammatory pain? Think papaya and pineapple enzymes! Enzymes are special proteins that speed chemical reactions in the body. Proteolytic enzymes (known as proteinases or peptidases) digest protein.

Read the full story here

Click here for more listings

The China Related TV list is compiled weekly by Kirby Bartlett-Sloan. Kirby, an adoptive parent of three Chinese girls, has one of the most comprehensive TV listings of programs on China and from China that are in the English language.

Travel Cafe - Hong Kong: City of Luck

Hong Kong: City of Luck
Wednesday April 05, 2006 1:30pm-2:00pm on TRAVEL - The Travel Channel - Network Series / Travel

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations - Asia Special

A culinary tour of Asia includes Osaka, Japan, where Bourdain samples sushi at an underground bar and participates in rituals and festivals; and a trip to Beijing, China, for some Peking duck. Also: a visit to the Jianfu Temple, center of Taoism during the Tang Dynasty. Wednesday April 05, 2006 6:00pm-8:00pm on TRAVEL - The Travel Channel - Network Series / Travel

Chinese Jade - Ch'ing Ming Celebration

Shopping Thursday April 06, 2006 1:00pm-3:00pm on QVC - Other / Shopping

Click here for more listings

China: The New Contemporary-Art

NYTimes - April 2, 2006 - Sitting in the back row among a crowd of 400 people at Sotheby's York Avenue salesroom yesterday morning, a Singapore collector unknown to even the most knowledgeable of experts on Asian art spent nearly $1 million on a dreamy portrait of a dazed-looking comrade.
Read the full article here Read another article here

The Pipa Player Wu Man Discovers World Music in America

NYTimes - April 2, 2006 - IN 1990, at 25, Wu Man was ushered onto a plane in Beijing as China's leading player of the pipa, or Chinese lute. Sixteen hours later, she arrived in New Haven, an unknown adrift in the United States with scant English.

Read the full article here

Cool Tat, Too Bad It's Gibberish

NYTimes - April 2, 2006 - At a Los Angeles tattoo parlor four years ago, he had two Chinese characters etched in a prominent spot on his left forearm. He assumed that the translation in the sample book the tattoo artist showed him — "one love" — was correct.
Read the full article here

NOTE: Select NY Times articles require registration which provides free and instant access to breaking news, reviews, online classifieds and more on NYTimes.com.

Benevolence can overcome cruelty, as water can extinguish fire." -- Quotations from Mencius

There is nothing quite like kindness to quell the fire of an adversary. Mencius understood very well that the key to overcoming a difficult situation is to use more sugar than salt. By employing benevolence, we may even learn to better understand a situation or person. When we find that common ground, we truly do overcome. All of us at ChinaSprout wish you and your family a "hoppy" holiday!

Your Friends,

The ChinaSprout Team

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