The Lantern Festival (Yuan Xiao Festival)
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
The Lantern Festival (also called Yuan Xiao Festival) is on the 15th day of the first Chinese lunar month. According to the custom, people start to prepare for the celebration of Lantern Festival to be held on the 14th day of the first Chinese lunar month. Two of the most important things are lanterns and sweet dumplings (called Yuanxiao in Chinese).
“Yuan” literally means first, while “Xiao” refers to night. The Lantern Festival is the first time when we see the full moon in the lunar year. It is traditional festival for family reunion. And the lanterns in various sizes are hung in the trees or somewhere. Besides, the lanterns owners write riddles on a piece of paper and post them on the lanterns in ancient time. If someone knows the solution to riddles, they can pull the paper out and go to the owners to check the answer. If they are right, they can get some small gifts.
How can I use the currency exchange when planning my vacation budget?
I like travelling a lot, and I have made many plans to travel around the country, but always fail to fulfill them. However, this time my plan of travelling to Beihai was really a quick decision. I made he decision in the morning according to the suggestions of my collegues, and then drove my car heading for Beihai in the afternoon. It is in such a hurry that I had no time to pack anything, just some pieces of clothes.
The train was great as our destination was the only stop. The only downfall was that we were on the half of the train that went backwards. As soon as we got off the train, Phil, our city guide, was there to pick us up. We talked about Chongqing and he asked us if we had any hot pot experiences. We told him about our failed attempt the night before so he called and arranged a very nice one for us. It was all you could eat and drink. He showed us how to properly prepare our food in the hot pot and…
You are not a man of courage if you don’t climb the Great Wall, as a Chinese saying goes. Last week I did really become a brave girl to climb the Great Wall. The choice of climbing the Great Wall was really a kind of challenge for me. I never thought I could be this brave. The experience of Great Wall adventure told me that I can do much more than I imagine, if I can be brave enough.
All our China adventures are on our blog — http://ChinaHopeLive.net — which is basically just a coping mechanism thats masquerading as a digital scrapbook, giving you a window into our experiences as a Canadian-American couple trying to live into and love and some days just survive China.