Today is the eve of the Chinese new year…the Year of the Pig begins at midnight in China, which will be/was 10:00 AM here in the US Central time zone.
It is one of the biggest holidays in China and most businesses will be closed for the entire week to allow people to visit with family and friends to celebrate. The New Year – traditionally called Spring Festival – actually spans 15 days concluding with the Lantern Festival.
This year our new year celebration will be low key since I’m still on the sofa o’ recovery as I’m having a bit of trouble with my incision healing properly. However, I decided this morning that one of my goals for this year is to learn how to make jiaozi (dumplings) for next year’s New Year celebration, which will begin the Year of the Rat on February 7, 2008.
One of my favorite online stores and sources of information about Chinese culture, China Sprout, has a great section on the Chinese New Year.
Saturday, February 17
Xin Nian Hao…Happy New Year
Monday, February 12
China’s Campaign to Eradicate Rude Behavior
The BBC reports on a campaign being launched in Beijing to end line jumping (and other “social ills”) before thousands of foreigners arrive to attend the Olympics next year.
Thousands of volunteers have been out on the streets trying to persuade people to wait in line in order to present a better image to visitors.
The campaign was launched under the slogan: "It's civilised to queue, it's glorious to be polite."
This cracks me up! Before traveling to China for the first time in 2003, we were warned that the Chinese do not line up. We experienced this a few times mostly in the airports, the grocery stores and while shopping in downtown Guangzhou. We were not offended by it because we went in informed with the attitude that this is the Chinese way and then, we put our elbows out and made our way through the crowd.
The article concludes with this sentence: Officials in Beijing also want to tackle other social ills including spitting and dropping litter.
What about the children relieving themselves via split pants on the side of the roads? Cute, but not very sanitary. I really didn’t see any litter at all when we were in Beijing, but I did witness a lot of public spitting...which is why it's a good idea to remove your shoes on entering your hotel room and replacing them with a pair of slippers that you will probably just want to discard in China before you come home!
