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Lantern Festival in 60 Seconds Posted by sasha on Feb 22, 2018
The Lantern Festival is the 15th and final day of Spring Festival. On this day, people in China will solve lantern riddles and eat rice balls called tangyuan. At places like the City Wall of Xi’an and the Grand View Park in Kunming, you can see an impressive lantern display. Check out some highlights of…
Guess the Chinese Word Posted by sasha on Feb 20, 2018
When learning a language, you’re always told to do your best not to try to translate everything into your mother tongue. I tell this to my Chinese students who are studying English, as directly translating everything often results in them speaking horrible Chinglish. For example, “Yesterday I with my mother together go shopping” or “I…
A Visit to Honghe, Yunnan Posted by sasha on Feb 14, 2018
Most travelers to Yunnan province stick to the weal-beaten path of Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, and Shangri-la. While these places are all amazing, there’s are so many other smaller towns in this corner of China that are worth a visit. One such town is Honghe, a few hours south of the capital. I visited Honghe in…
An Intro to the Chinese Zodiac Posted by sasha on Feb 12, 2018
One tradition associated with the Spring Festival that almost everyone knows about is the Chinese zodiac (生肖 – shēng xiào), a 12-year mathematical cycle that relates each year to an animal. Of course, there’s an interesting story in Chinese folklore that explains the order of the animals: As the story goes, the gods decided to have a…
Spring Festival in Videos Posted by sasha on Feb 8, 2018
The Spring Festival is fast approaching, and millions upon millions of people in China are in a mad rush to get home to celebrate. Trains are packed, the dumplings are ready, and hong bao are stuffed with lucky money for lucky kids. It’s a chaotic and exciting time in China as we get ready to…
Chinese Vocabulary for Spring Festival Posted by sasha on Feb 6, 2018
The Spring Festival is the grandaddy of ’em all when it comes to Chinese holidays, and it goes on for fifteen whole days. Everyone is busy getting ready for the celebrations and trying to make it home. The worst thing that can happen in China is not making it back home for the New Year…
10 Posts for Spring Festival Posted by sasha on Feb 1, 2018
Spring Festival (春节 – chūn jié) is far and away the most important Chinese holiday. In the lead-up to the Chinese New Year, the biggest mass migration on planet Earth takes place as people rush to get home to their loved ones. There are huge feasts, massive parades, and more fireworks than you can possibly…