Chinese New Year and Spring Festival!

Now that January is coming to an end that means the next exciting Chinese adventure I’ll be having is Chinese New Year and Spring Festival! This is just a little pre-Festival post to explain what’s going on here in the east and how I’ll be spending my nice, long 2 and a bit weeks off work!

Chinese New Year is to China, what Christmas is to the west and this year it falls on either the 9^th or 10^th of February – it was a topic of hot debate in one of my classes recently, and I forget the conclusion. Google says the 10^th, so I’ll say that. This year is the Year of the Snake! One of the major draws of this whole living and working in China experience was, of course, the idea of spending the most famous of China’s holidays in the country itself! And I am more than a little excited to witness the celebrations! Mainly lanterns. I want to see pretty Chinese lanterns.

The holiday of Chinese New Year itself, from what I understand, IS Spring Festival and lasts for about a week, or just over. On 15^th February is the Lantern Festival and marks the end of the holiday (I think!). This is a totally hectic time for travel; during this period you could call it a great migration really as major cities empty with people heading to their small home towns to spend the holiday with their families. I recently found this out when attempting to book train tickets; EVERY ticket (and I mean every single ticket) was sold out for the days I wanted. Curses.

So for my holiday, the plan is this: fly to Běijīng and see the Year of the Snake in there (I bet it’s phenomenal! I am expecting a fireworks display the likes of which I have never seen), next travel to Xī’ān (the land of the Terracotta Warriors) via sleeper train (quite nervous and excited about experiencing a Chinese train for the first time…) and then finally, fly to Shànghăi and end the holiday here with the Lantern Festival! 我不可以等!!! In pinyin: Wŏ bù kě yĭ děng! Meaning: I can’t wait!

Here are just a few photos from around Fúzhōu showing the city getting ready for the big holiday:

Lanterns and knot-shaped things decorating a number
of trees along roads - like our Christmas lights I guess

Mini display outside my fave bakery

Close up of what I think are dragons? So Chinese!

These trees decorated entrances to shops, banks etc.
The hanging red cards are wishes for the new year I think

Close-up of display within the same bakery

Random Eiffel Tower structure decorated with Spring Festival things

One of many shops going New Year mad
selling loads of lanterns and good luck charms

So, this will be my last post before my trip. 春节快乐 everyone! And apologies in advance for the length of my next (most likely numerous) posts about Chinese New Year!

下次见! (Until next time!)

xoxo

Climb Every Mountainnnnnn

Sorry it’s been a while since my last post! I could say I’ve been a busy little bee, but that would be a lie.

Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Or 新年快乐  (xīn nián kuài lè) as the Chinese say!

My first post of the year is about a massive hardship I’ve recently voluntarily put myself through: climbing Gŭ Shān (Drum Mountain). Though not mentioned on here, I have actually conquered this hike before – though barely living to tell the tale. About 2 weeks after arriving in China, as a ‘bonding’ exercise my colleagues and I had to climb it. ABSOLUTE TORTURE IT WAS! I am by no means a sporty/energetic person, and being around 20 degrees in temperature really didn’t help the situation at all! BUT, I survived and the view from the top and the feeling of accomplishment once I got there was definitely worth it!

So anyway, at the beginning of the week – quite randomly – I decided to try again! Luckily, Fuzhou has recently seen a wave of nice sunny weather, so the day was beautiful and full of promise! Now by mountain climbing, I mean steps. A hell of a lot of them. 2000 to be exact. The sad thing is, this was only halfway up the whole mountain! One day I’ll attempt to tackle the whole trek. Probably. 

The hike took us just over 2 hours (up and down) and, like before, was pretty darn hard! Damn it, looks like the gym isn’t working! But once I reached the top, I was super happy I’d made the decision to go up. Nice to breathe some non-polluted air for a change!

One of the noteworthy things is how a Chinese girl ‘hikes’. So there we were: 2 sweaty foreigners in our (frankly) dirty gym gear breathing very, very heavily, trying to survive the experience, and all around us were Chinese girls holding tiny handbags and dressed in jeans, skirts, furry coats, and various kinds of inappropriate footwear. If the walk proves too strenuous for them, fear not, they always have the option of giving their bag or coat to their boyfriend to hold. Or in one case, a girl’s boyfriend was actually pushing her up the path. Interesting... Anyway, this totally inappropriate clothing choice goes for the gym as well – velour tracksuits, converse, and I once saw one woman wearing heels and one wearing a skirt. Laughable!

Photies from Gŭ Shān:

This horrid sight faced us
around every corner

Pretty lanterns - SO Chinese

More torturous steps

YESSS!!! YESSSSSSSSSS!!!

Fuzhou

V for Victory!

Xià cì jìan!

xoxo