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Spring Festival – Part Three Posted by sasha on Feb 6, 2011
For the third and final post on Spring Festival, we’re going to look at some of the traditions and customs of the first few days of the New Year. As I mentioned in Part One, we are now in the year of the rabbit, having said 再见 to 2010 and the year of the tiger…
Spring Festival – Part Two Posted by sasha on Feb 4, 2011
Now that we’ve learned some of the history of the Spring Festival, let’s focus more on the customs and traditions that go along with this holiday. In the days leading up to the official New Year celebration, there are many things to do. Many of the modern day preparations for Chinese New Year can also…
Spring Festival – Part One Posted by sasha on Feb 2, 2011
It’s that time of the year again – time for the most important Chinese holiday of them all – the Spring Festival (春节 – chūn jié). Also known around the world as Chinese New Year (农历新年 – nóng lì xīn nián), this holiday begins on the first day of the first month (正月 – zhēng…
Old Beijing Hot Pot (老北京火锅) Posted by sasha on Jan 20, 2011
While there are countless options for fine dining in Beijing, one of the best places to go for a good meal is Ghost Street (簋街). Here, you can find many great restaurants, including plenty of places specializing in hot pot. Your table is turned into a stove top, a massive bowl of broth is brought…
Riding That (Chinese) Train Posted by sasha on Jan 19, 2011
With the Spring Festival (春节 – chūn jié) fast approaching, hundreds of millions of folks in China will be buying train tickets to head home for the holidays. This is the biggest mass migration of people in the entire world, and it happens like clockwork every year. While I wouldn’t recommend attempting to travel by…
History of the PRC – Part Thirteen Posted by sasha on Jan 12, 2011
When we last left off, the CCP and KMT had ceased fighting with each other, albeit temporarily, to fight together against Japan. For years now, a civil war had been raging within China’s borders and little attention had been paid to its neighbor to the East, thanks to a policy of “first internal pacification before…
Great Wall at Mutianyu (慕田峪长城) Posted by sasha on Jan 7, 2011
About 100 km outside of Beijing lies the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. Representing just one of the many sections of the 6,000+ km long wall, this area is easily accessible from China’s capital city, is not quite as full of tourists as other sites and is restored enough to make the climb up…