Temple Fair

It is now officially year of the dragon! The parking lot was littered with last night's fireworks bits in the morning. I wondered if the cars with alarms still had any juice left.



The start of the new year marks the start of temple fairs. Although temple fairs rarely happen at temples anymore, the name nevertheless has stuck. These fairs are full of traditional Beijing snacks, folk art, performances, acrobatics, and useless trinkets and toys.

There are at least 7 or 8 different fairs around Beijing area. We decided to check out Ditan, the biggest one. The entrance fee was 10 RMB (1.7 CAD) per person and opened from 9 to 5PM daily for 1 week after New Year's day. Ditan was packed full of people, shoulder to shoulder. We had to fight our way through to every booth but it definitely felt like new year!

Decorated gore, a folk art craft.




Really not sure what this is suppose to be. We even came across a guy dressed up as this character. Hmmmm....




A sedan ride around the park.




This I found really funny. All the bamboo sticks sticking out of the garage bags were from the thousands of BBQ meat skewers sold at the fair.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Beijing, China

Wishing Grandma a Really Long Life

We are headed to Nanjing to visit my 95 year old grandmother. She not only watched me growing up, she is also the only grandparent I have left. I am excited to see her and do some much needed catching up. She lives in a nursing home and rooms with two other ladies. Grandma is very independent.  She cleans her own space, doesn't need any help going down stairs, and she still reads the newspaper everyday. For being over 90 grandma gets 80 RMB (13 CAD) per month from the government. When she turns 100 her compensation goes up to 130 RMB (22 CAD).

We took grandma out for lunch and took her for a walk around the neighborhood. She is really mobile for her age. Grandma kept on telling me how tall I have gotten. Not sure why since I am in my thirties and had stopped growing long time ago. She even asked about my husband who she met in 2003. Did I mention she has fantastic memory!

I wanted to buy some New Year goodies for grandma. After we dropped her off, mom and I went to check out the temple fair at Fuzi (夫子庙) Temple. Temple is usually the busiest place during the New Year period. In front of the temple, there was this huge golden wish tree. People can buy red ribbon and write down their wishes on it and then the ribbon gets thrown onto the tree. The higher it can be thrown the better chance the wish coming true.




Setting up for new year shows.









After getting rice cake, hairy crabs (grandma's favourite and mine too), and new shoes, we dropped them off at grandma's and said our good-byes. Tomorrow mom and I head for Beijing.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Nanjing, China

A Very Karaoke New Year

Today is New Year eve. My day started out with a trip down memory lane. I grew up in the neighbourhood called Jiangxi North Road where my grandparents had a tiny corner unit of maybe 250 square feet. Down the street was an intersection road nicknamed “little triangle” where grandpa taught me how to ride a bike. In the southern corner of the “little triangle” was a very popular restaurant where grandma use to buy me treats and wonton soup.





Little triangle is still there today. The restaurant had disappeared and replaced with little shops of street food. The tiny corner unit was torn down years ago and converted into a mall. One thing that hasn’t changed is that it is still hassling, bustling and full of life.












I didn’t want to brave the crazy crowd down on the Bund where all the big New Year light shows and fireworks were held. A few years ago I fought the crowd and had a great time, but for hours I couldn’t get a cab to get back to my hotel.

I met up with some old friends who decided singing Karaoke, China’s favourite pastime, was a great way to ringing in the New Year. I am no Celine Dion, not even William Hung, but I tagged along. The karaoke bar is located in a large mall in the Hongkou district. Our private room was big enough to house a small concert equipped with big screens, disco balls, flashing lights and auto applause. I snacked and spectated mostly. I really wish I was more musically inclined. Everyone who sang was loving it.

Unfortunately, I was feeling my age and didn't even make it pass midnight. I slept through my last few hours of 2011. Hopefully that will give me a lot of energy in 2012!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Shanghai, China

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.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

What is your travel plan for the new year?
I will be checking out a few new countries in South America - Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

Happy Holidays!

On behalf of Ruby Roads Premium Travel and Events, I want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday! Tis the season to reflect and set new goals and dreams for the new year to come.

A Christmas tree is displayed in front of the National Stadium,
commonly called the "Bird's Nest" stadium in Beijing. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)