We spent our first Chinese New Year this past week. Words can’t describe the experience we had being among the locals in this amazing celebration! We began noticing preparations during the past weeks. Pre-celebration preparations include thoroughly cleaning the home, buying new clothes, getting a new haircut. It is all about starting the New Year fresh. When we were at the Beijing and Chengdu airports last Thursday, we began to notice how busy they were becoming. By Friday afternoon, when the streets of Chengdu are usually teeming with Friday evening traffic, both pedestrian and auto, the streets were noticeably getting bare. By tradition, Chinese families return to their hometowns or villages for the Chinese Lunar New Year or Spring Festival. This is definitely a time full of time-honored culture and traditions focusing on the family, food, fun and fireworks!
On Sunday afternoon we checked into the Kempinski Hotel to spend the evening watching the city festivities. We wanted to give our driver, Tom, the evening off so he could celebrate with his family. As we were driving into the city, we noticed that the streets were practically bare, which is definitely not the norm. When you think about this city having over 10 million people, you’ve got to wonder where they all went so quickly!
We had dinner at Peter’s Tex Mex, which is one of our favorite places to eat. There we met up with two other couples living here and working for the same company as Joe. We took to the streets with them to experience Chinese New Year. There were fireworks stands on almost every corner, so our first stop was of course one of those. We stood and watched locals purchase fireworks and immediately light them up in the streets! With pedestrian traffic and cars going up and down the streets, it’s not what we were used to seeing at all back home. We made our way down to another fireworks stand where we eventually gave into temptation and purchased our own fireworks to set off. We instantly became a hit with the stand operator as well as onlookers watching the westerners and the purchases they were making. It wasn’t long before we were entrenched among the natives in their celebration! I especially loved watching the Chinese children. I don’t think I’ve ever seen these kinds of fireworks in the states. What we could buy on the streets of Chengdu was definitely up there with what we go to see at firework shows in the states. We spent almost three hours walking the streets watching and buying fireworks along the way
By 11:00 we were back in our hotel to watch the upcoming midnight celebration from our room. We had heard the sounds of fireworks since it got dark but at about 11:30 things began to build up to the midnight hour. There were increasingly more and more fireworks going off all over the city. At midnight it sounded like a war zone outside. There were constant popping and banging sounds and smoke hanging low everywhere. I’ve never seen fireworks like this before! It was the most amazing experience. Fireworks were literally exploding at eye level outside our hotel room window and we were on the 18th floor! This lasted until about 2:00 am. At that time, it was like everyone knew that this was the cutoff time. From that point on, we didn’t hear another firework for the rest of the night.
On Monday afternoon, we returned home and took it easy the rest of the day. There no visible indications of what had gone on the night before. Everywhere you looked the streets had been cleaned. On Monday we joined in watching fireworks in our neighborhood. It was fun to see the guards and neighbors all joining in together to set off fireworks. This would continue to some degree over the next few nights.
One thing Joe and I observed was that during this celebration almost all the business closed up. On Sunday evening and Monday, there was practically no businesses open. Some would remain closed through Tuesday some would be closed the whole week. In the days leading up to the New Year celebration, workers and businesses will work on the weekends so they can have a whole week off for the holiday. The official holiday is three days but most people will take the whole week. I haven’t seen anything like this since the Blue Law was in effect back home and everything would be closed on all the major holidays. It was obvious it was about the holiday celebration and the time with family and friends and not about what money could be made on these days.
On Tuesday, we met our friends and their kids for bowling and pizza. It felt like home to go bowling and afterwards we had Papa Johns Pizza and Dairy Queen dipped cones. I keep reminding myself on these kinds of outings that we are indeed in China! Joe golfed on Wednesday. On Thursday, we got a glimpse of our first sunshine in Chengdu since returning from the holidays in the states. We don’t get a lot of sunshine and blue sky in Chengdu so when we do it’s a treat. Joe and I got out for lunch, some shopping and explored Wenshu Monastery and Wenshu Fang (a shopping street). It was a beautiful day that got up to 62 degrees. Joe got a new camera at Christmas and this was one of our first outings to test it out in the daytime. Friday was another golf day for Joe.
The city is slowly coming back to life. People are returning home, businesses are opening back up, traffic is returning to its normal chaos. Most westerners choose to leave town during this time. All in all, it was a great experience and one I’m glad we stayed in town to experience. We’ve had a most relaxing week learning more about Chinese culture.
Happy New Year! Again!
Love to all.
On Sunday afternoon we checked into the Kempinski Hotel to spend the evening watching the city festivities. We wanted to give our driver, Tom, the evening off so he could celebrate with his family. As we were driving into the city, we noticed that the streets were practically bare, which is definitely not the norm. When you think about this city having over 10 million people, you’ve got to wonder where they all went so quickly!
We had dinner at Peter’s Tex Mex, which is one of our favorite places to eat. There we met up with two other couples living here and working for the same company as Joe. We took to the streets with them to experience Chinese New Year. There were fireworks stands on almost every corner, so our first stop was of course one of those. We stood and watched locals purchase fireworks and immediately light them up in the streets! With pedestrian traffic and cars going up and down the streets, it’s not what we were used to seeing at all back home. We made our way down to another fireworks stand where we eventually gave into temptation and purchased our own fireworks to set off. We instantly became a hit with the stand operator as well as onlookers watching the westerners and the purchases they were making. It wasn’t long before we were entrenched among the natives in their celebration! I especially loved watching the Chinese children. I don’t think I’ve ever seen these kinds of fireworks in the states. What we could buy on the streets of Chengdu was definitely up there with what we go to see at firework shows in the states. We spent almost three hours walking the streets watching and buying fireworks along the way
By 11:00 we were back in our hotel to watch the upcoming midnight celebration from our room. We had heard the sounds of fireworks since it got dark but at about 11:30 things began to build up to the midnight hour. There were increasingly more and more fireworks going off all over the city. At midnight it sounded like a war zone outside. There were constant popping and banging sounds and smoke hanging low everywhere. I’ve never seen fireworks like this before! It was the most amazing experience. Fireworks were literally exploding at eye level outside our hotel room window and we were on the 18th floor! This lasted until about 2:00 am. At that time, it was like everyone knew that this was the cutoff time. From that point on, we didn’t hear another firework for the rest of the night.
On Monday afternoon, we returned home and took it easy the rest of the day. There no visible indications of what had gone on the night before. Everywhere you looked the streets had been cleaned. On Monday we joined in watching fireworks in our neighborhood. It was fun to see the guards and neighbors all joining in together to set off fireworks. This would continue to some degree over the next few nights.
One thing Joe and I observed was that during this celebration almost all the business closed up. On Sunday evening and Monday, there was practically no businesses open. Some would remain closed through Tuesday some would be closed the whole week. In the days leading up to the New Year celebration, workers and businesses will work on the weekends so they can have a whole week off for the holiday. The official holiday is three days but most people will take the whole week. I haven’t seen anything like this since the Blue Law was in effect back home and everything would be closed on all the major holidays. It was obvious it was about the holiday celebration and the time with family and friends and not about what money could be made on these days.
On Tuesday, we met our friends and their kids for bowling and pizza. It felt like home to go bowling and afterwards we had Papa Johns Pizza and Dairy Queen dipped cones. I keep reminding myself on these kinds of outings that we are indeed in China! Joe golfed on Wednesday. On Thursday, we got a glimpse of our first sunshine in Chengdu since returning from the holidays in the states. We don’t get a lot of sunshine and blue sky in Chengdu so when we do it’s a treat. Joe and I got out for lunch, some shopping and explored Wenshu Monastery and Wenshu Fang (a shopping street). It was a beautiful day that got up to 62 degrees. Joe got a new camera at Christmas and this was one of our first outings to test it out in the daytime. Friday was another golf day for Joe.
The city is slowly coming back to life. People are returning home, businesses are opening back up, traffic is returning to its normal chaos. Most westerners choose to leave town during this time. All in all, it was a great experience and one I’m glad we stayed in town to experience. We’ve had a most relaxing week learning more about Chinese culture.
Happy New Year! Again!
Love to all.
1 comment:
So cool! What a neat experience!
Those are some serious sparklers that y'all bought. Wow! I loved the pictures of all of the little chinese children. It makes me want a little Sue Lee even more. :)
Post a Comment