Happy New Year

The loud cracking of fireworks hasn't stopped since this morning. The neighbourhood is in full throttle welcoming the year of the dragon. Our family is celebrating the New Year in Beijing this year. Due to lack of space, we decided to host New Year dinner in a restaurant. I must admit I was a little disappointed. Small part of me was looking for that childhood memory of what New Year should be like.

During the day we cleaned the house. It symbolized a clean "sled" to start the new year. Dinner was great. Fish for a plentiful year, fried pineapple turnover for a sweet year, chicken, braised pork, veggies and of course dumplings! One dish baffled me a bit. Mashed yam set on a potato chip and topped with jam. It was a strange combo, but it tasted light, fluffy, sweet with hint of savory.






When dessert came around, the waitress dropped serious hints that she would like to go home soon and celebrate new year with her family. We felt bad for her and left shortly. As soon as we hit the street we were bombarded with people everywhere setting off even louder and brighter fireworks.

Line of firecrackers just about to be lit.






By the intersection of our neighbourhood, they set up a giant dragon head lantern made out ceramic plates, spoons and cups.






Dragon lantern all lit up at night.






Everyone gathered in front of the TV right around 8 to watch CTV's annual spring festival show. We ate more food like sunflower seeds, peanuts, oranges and candies as we commented on the celebrities that showed up perform, the quality of the sketches, and other random gossip. Minutes before midnight, the neighbourhood became insane. Imagine that the Celebration of Lights wasn't lit up way out in English Bay but rather in the parking lot ten meters away. I felt I could reach out and catch a spark. It sounded like a war zone. Car alarms were going off everywhere. I watched everything like a little kid with my mouth open. People looked like they were having so much fun. I was kicking myself for not buying fireworks too. People didn't stop with the fireworks until close to 2AM.

Fun note, it is tradition that during your zodiac year, you have to wear something red on you all year long. A popular item is red underwear!






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Beijing, China

Travel in China During Chinese New Year

After living in Canada for over 20 years, this year my parents decided to move to China for one year.  I made plans to visit them during the month of January since this year Chinese New Year falls on the 23rd. I am so excited to be welcoming the Year of Dragon with my family in China. It puts a smile on my face every time I think about my childhood new year memories.  The heavenly smell, joyous sound and colourful sight all around make New Year one of the best time to visit China.

I had no problem booking my flight from Vancouver to Shanghai in early October, however I had to strategically plan my trip for while I am in China.   Here is what I think helps in planning an awesome Chinese New Year trip.

1. Book early!  Many Chinese work outside their hometown and New Year is the only time they get to spend time with their family.  A couple days before New Year, flights, trains and buses will be packed with people anxious to get home in time for the celebration.  This means the tickets will become hot hot hot commodities.  

2. Research your transportation 

• Flights are the easiest to book early for a reasonable price with websites such as www.ctrip.com.  
• Train is a very good way to travel since China has the biggest rail network in the world.  Almost every city and town is accessible by train but it is also the busiest mode of transport.  Unlike flights, you can't book months before hand. Tickets are sometimes released for purchase only 5 days before departure.  The quality and speed of the train also vary drastically.  Make sure you do your research before booking and don't get stuck sitting in a booth style seat with 5 other people from Beijing to Shanghai for 10 hours.
• Bus is not my favorite way to travel in China. In all honesty, they are not bad.  It is a personal choice for me.

3. Stay Put. Of course, when traveling in China, avoiding any sort of crowds is impossible but minimizing crowd surfing is no problem.  I recommend arriving in China at least 3 to 4 days before New Years and then stay put in one location.  Avoid traveling again via air, train and bus until a few days after New Years.  As I mentioned above, a couple days before New Year it will be mayhem at the airport, train and bus stations as 1 billion people all try to get home at once.  I would just enjoy the markets, shops, parks and people around you.  There will lots to see and experience.

4. Look for Travel Deals. For this trip I will be arriving in China almost one month before New Year.  I will be visiting my extended family around the country and perhaps take a few small side trips.  Just like in North America, the month leading up to Christmas, travel agencies offer many discount packages leading up to the holiday price hike. 

5. Give the smaller "guy" a chance.  The bigger cities like Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong are probably the most popular destinations for New Years however, I really like the second or third tier cities like Suzhou or Tianjin.  It will offer a bit different and intimate local flavour on the holiday than the big metropolises.  Not to mention, a little less crowded.

Spending Chinese New Year in China is an incredibly unforgettable experience of a life time.  Just make sure to keep an open mind and plan ahead.

My Childhood Memories of Chinese New Year in China

Some of my favourite childhood memories are celebrating Chinese New Year in China. For a couple weeks leading up to it red and gold coloured decorations were everywhere and people would greet each other with lucky sayings such as "Gong Xi Fa Cai" 恭喜发财(wish you wealth) or "Wan Shi Ru Yi" 万事如意 (all your wishes come true). Mom and Dad would take me around and visit our relatives around town for dinner. Of course my favourite part was receiving my red envelops full of money from the aunts and uncles. New Year dinners were always the most delicious. The families normally pull out all the stops: Chinese pork sausages, freshly fried spring rolls, eight treasure sweet sticky rice, just to name a few. After dinner, oranges and tea were served and the adults would eat sunflower seeds and chat (gossip) for hours about the their year. I would play with cousins and was fed candy and treats in the other room. On the way home, I would sit on the bar of mom's bike all bundled up. I can only hear the wind blowing by and see the road underneath me rolling on which always made me sleepy. Occasionally, I would hear mom muttered to dad "it is a cold night" and then to me "almost home". 

For New Year's Eve and as long as I can remember, we had dinner at home with grandma. After dinner we would all anxiously sit in front our 15" coloured TV and watched CCTV's annual five hour long Chinese New Year Celebration show until midnight. Back in the early 80's China had about four TV channels. The show is kind of like Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve but imagine it being watched by an entire country of 1 billion people at the same time. I am pretty sure it is the highest rated show ever in the world every year. We would, of course, eat sunflower seeds, oranges and drink tea during the show. The comedy sketches were always my favourite. I also really like the pop stars they would have on the show which was not very often. The show always had way too many folk singers who would sing old folkie or red songs. Sometimes I would catch my mom, even my grandma humming along. I really wish we had PVRs back then. The stand out performers on the show often become household names the next day. Dashan or Mark Rowswell is a Canadian who was the first foreign national to become a domestic (while completely unknown to the west) superstar after appearing on the New Year show. I can still remember seeing him on the show and being amazed by his command of the Chinese language. 

When midnight hit I would rush to the balcony and watch the fireworks go off all around us. The sky would be lit up bright one flash at a time. Mom would say to me "you are now another year older." 

The next day, I would sleep in and wake up to breakfast of New Year dinner leftovers. Mom would put me in a new outfit. We would walk around the neighbourhood and chat with the neighbours. It was like Halloween, everywhere we went people would feed me candy and sweets. People would stop by our house for well wish chats as well and give me more sugary treats. I am sure mom gave away treats too. But as a kid I tended to only care about whether I got candy or not. 

Chinese New Year is technically two weeks long. But it never seemed long enough in my memories. I blinked and it was time to head back to school.

Note: 2012 Chinese New Year is on 23rd of Jan and it is year of the Dragon.

Happy Chinese New Year of the Tiger! 新年快乐!

Happy Chinese New Year or Spring Festival! This year is the year of the tiger. This is the most important holiday to all who are ethnically Chinese.

CNY is based on the lunar calendar and the first day always falls on a different date. The best part for me growing up was CNY is actually 14 days long! Yes, you read it right, CNY is two weeks long! Needless to say, it is my favourite part of the year.

The Legend:

Long time ago, there was a beast named "Nian" (Nian 年 means year in Chinese). He terrorised the village every year on the first day. The villagers would leave out food offering for Nian, so he would not eat the livestock, crop and small children. This went on for years and years, the villager grew more scared, but angrier too. Finally, they decided to fight back. They made firecrackers that made really loud noises to scare Nian off. When Nian came to the village, everyone was still very scared. But one brave little boy who wore a red jacket stepped forward and threw the first firecracker at Nian. It worked! Nian ran off with his tail tucked behind his back. Therefore, the villagers every year celebrated the win over the beast with red decorations and firecrackers to keep Nian aka evil spirits away.

The Customs:

• To prepare for CNY, each family would clean the house thoroughly, get a new hair cut and even try to get rid of all debts (that includes library books on loan) to ensure a clean start for the new year.
  
• CNY is a family holiday much like Christmas. It is all about eating a large family feast on NY eve.
  
• In northern China, it is customary to make dumplings (饺子) with vegetable and pork fillings. People also like to tuck a coin in one of the dumplings. Whoever is lucky enough to bit into the coin dumpling, it is said he or she is going to have a good year.
• In southern China, people likes to make a sweeter treat called new year rice cake (年糕).
• Children often receive red envelops containing cash from their older and married relatives such as parents, grandparents and etc.
• Chinese people considers themselves a year older on the first day of CNY, not on their actual birthday. Therefore, the Chinese population technically only has one birth date.

Year of the Tiger:

Chinese Zodiac is a series of 12 animals that represents every year. 2010 is the year of the Tiger. For people who was born as a tiger (1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998), it is said :

Tiger people are sensitive, given to deep thinking, capable of great sympathy. They can be extremely short-tempered, however. Other people have great respect for them, but sometimes tiger people come into conflict with older people or those in authority. sometimes Tiger people cannot make up their minds, which can result in a poor, hasty decision or a sound decision arrived at too late. They are suspicious of others, but they are courageous and powerful. Tigers are most compatible with Horses, Dragons, and Dogs

My family and I will be celebrating in Vancouver amongst all the Olympics madness. I will be helping mom make won tons (since we are southerners) and other very yummy goodies. But no more red envelops for the very grown up me :(.