Chun Jie, the Spring Festival, the coming of the Chinese New Year, all happens this Saturday at midnight. The coming year is the year of the snake. It’s really awesome to see Beijing being completely transformed in preparation for the year’s largest holiday. Buildings, roads, parks, restaurants are all being decorated in red. Red is the color bringing luck, and warding off evil spirits.

Since I am staying with a homestay family, I will have the opportunity to experience the coming of the New Year from a truly Chinese perspective. Where better to experience the largest Chinese holiday of the year, than in the nation’s capital? I’ve been told it involves family, a lot of home-made dumplings, drinking, and specifically massive amounts of fireworks. The description given by my homestay family was, imagine 4^th of July in the US, multiply that by 22 million (the amount of people living in Beijing) and that for 5 nights in a row. There are quite a few students who do not have a homestay family, but they will be able to spend Chun Jie with the other homestay families. My family will be hosting a total of 7 students. Also, the extended family of my homestay family might make an appearance, so I’m really excited.

For Chun Jie, I will also have a few days off next week, since all of China basically shuts down. Even now most restaurants and small shops are already closed. This is because most shop owners travel back home to the countryside to be with their families. This makes getting lunch for instance, a significant challenge. During my days off however, I plan to go with several classmates to visit Harbin, in the north of China. This city is famous for its International Ice Festival, which features massive ice sculptures made by artists from all over China. I am immensely looking forward to this trip, as we will be taking a sleeper train to Harbin (about 12 hours).

I’ll try to post some pictures of the celebrations next week.

To everyone Xin Nian Kuai Le!!

(happy new year!)

Location: Beijing, China