China Travel 2.0

Chunjie，aka 春节 Spring Festival. The Chinese New Year is on February 14, 2010 (Chinese Lunar New Year). It is the most important festival in china and within the Chinese heart.

Lyndsey Biddle would like to share her feelings about it. It is the right time to prepare for it if you plan for a special trip to China. What is special about Chunjie/Spring Festival? You will have some idea after reading her article. If you have experience Chinese Spring Festival before, please share you thoughts and leave your comments about what you’ve observed in your experiene; the fireworks and the jiaozi, etc.                        Winser （Thanks for @blcsfo for the native English）

Spring Festival, which begins one week before the Chinese New Year, is the busiest, brightest, and loudest time of year in China.

The Chinese go all out over their Spring Festival decorations. Red lanterns and wall decorations painted with characters for good fortune and happiness adorn every wall. The red color is meant to be for good luck. At this time of year everything, literally everything, is red, or covered in red. During the New Year the Chinese also give children Hongbao(红包), which are red (here we go again with the red) envelopes filled with money.

The Chinese follow a special lunar calendar which determines the date the New Year will fall on and brings with each New Year a new zodiac sign. There are twelve zodiac signs: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey Rooster, Dog, and Pig. The twelve zodiacs repeat themselves in a cycle and based on your year of birth the Chinese can determine traits about you personality. If it happens to the year of your zodiac, it is said to be a lucky year for you.

Red Lanterns Decorating Tianjin, China’s Ancient Culture Street (Image by Lyndsey Biddle)

The most important aspect of the Spring Festival is the family reunion. For many Chinese this is the only time during the year to come home to their families. As a result, trains planes, and every other form of transportation will be jam packed. Don’t plan on going anywhere during this time of the year. Once together, families will sit down for a large feast to celebrate being together and to kick off the New Year.

As a foreigner in China, though I got to participate and enjoy the New Year, I experienced the festivities as an outsider, a laowai. I loved setting off fireworks and eating jiaozi 饺子(dumplings) just like the Chinese but to see everyone reuniting with their families made me miss home. Luckily, some great Chinese friends invited me to their home for a huge New Year feast. The Chinese are like that, warm and welcoming.

The most memorable part of the Spring Festival, and particularly Chinese New Year’s Eve, is the firecrackers. My ears are still ringing from them over a year later. At midnight on New Year’s Eve everyone congregates in the street and simultaneously sets off billions of colorful and loud fireworks. It is quite a sight to behold but stand back a little ways to avoid the sparks.

If you want to witness and take part in some of the most interesting Chinese traditions, Spring Festival time is the right time to visit. However, keep in mind that it will be difficult to book train tickets and plane tickets will be very pricey. This is by far my favorite time to be in China. Xin Nian Kuai Le 新年快乐! Happy New Year!

Lyndsey writes for laptop briefcase, a website that offers luxury briefcases direct from the manufacturer. Lyndsey has traveled much of the world and has lived and worked in the US, France, China, and India. She currently resides in Kolkata, India