There are a wide variety of celebrations that take place during the Chinese New Year, and multiple customs that are also observed along with it. Children are given hongbao (红包), little red bags with a small bit of money in them. Red represents fire, which is supposed to chase away bad luck (White is unlucky because it represents death in Chinese culture). Often, the character 福 (fu) is hung upside down on the doors of houses; this is related to 福倒了 (fu dao le), which means, in effect, "luck returns". However, this version of "dao" also means reverse or upside-down; so it's... kind of a pun, admittedly; may your luck be upside down/return this year. You avoid saying the number 4, which sounds like the word for death; you do not use knives, scissors or brooms, and do not wash your hair, as all of these could take away the luck of the new year.

One of the primary festivities is the Lantern Festival, held on the final day of the Chinese New Years celebration (a celebration that last fifteen days from beginning to end!). On the day of the Lantern Festival, there are a plethora of lanterns hung from every available surface, and children carry with them their own lanterns - either self-made or purchased fairly cheaply. Multiple dances are held all throughout the cities, and at night, firework displays are common and serve to accent the full moon in the sky.

On February 7, 2008, the Chinese New Year will be celebrated. It will be the year 4705 according to the Chinese calendar.

The Chinese calender is called a lunar calender. This means that the Chinese calendar relies on the phases of the moon to count the months, instead of assigning a certain number of days and nights to each month as our solar calender does. One problem this calendar has, from the Western point of view, is that it does not follow the seasons accurately; as the years go on, the day on which the New Year is celebrated would slowly get later and later in the year, eventually beginning in summer or even fall! To keep it constant, on some years an additional lunar month is added for the same reasons we add a leap day, so that the Chinese New Year is always in winter.

There is a larger cycle within which the Chinese calendar operates; each year is assigned a property (wood, fire, earth, metal/gold, water) and an animal (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep/goat, monkey, dog, rooster, pig/boar). February 7, 2008 will be the beginning of the Earth Rat year. This year was the year of the Fire Pig. I was born in the year of the Wood Dragon (1988). It actually somewhat helps to know this if you're traveling China; many people, instead of asking your age directly, will instead ask what sign you were born under. Stating your age directly can get you some odd looks (fortunately, the Chinese also use our calendar, so it's not too confusing to state your age that way).

The order behind the animals has a story; one day, as the Chinese calendar was being created, there was a race to see which animal would get which year in the cycle. The story says that Rat tricked Cat by telling him the wrong time for the race, and then both Tiger and Rat hopped onto Ox as it ran. As the Ox was crossing the river right before the finish line, Rat pushed Tiger into the water, hopped off Ox and ran across himself. This is why he is the first year in the cycle, and Ox the second. Tiger quickly swam to shore and claimed the third year. Cat quickly figured out what had happened and ran to catch up; however, he was too late to claim a spot, as twelve animals had already finished the race. Cat always held a grudge against Rat for the trick. This is the reason cats always chase rats nowadays, according to the Chinese.

Rabbit was next; instead of swimming across the river, he jumped across on floating logs and rocks. After him came Dragon, Snake and Horse. Goat, Monkey and Rooster came in together on a boat, having worked together to get across the river on a raft. Dog came in eleventh, and the Boar came in last.

Next time, I'll talk about what actually goes on during the Chinese New Year Festival!

Some words:

nian (pronounced nyen) 年 - year

you (pronounced yo) 有 - have

mei (pronounced may) 没 - not; (negation)

lingqian (pronounced lee-ng chi-en) 零钱 - (money) change

ni you meiyou lingqian? (nee yo may yo lee-ng chi-en) 你有没有零钱？ - "Do you have any change?"

Zaijian!

-Tom

Hello!

Sorry for the lack of posting, I've had some very large computer problems over the last week or so. That's over now, though, so now that I've got the chance...

There's actually a lot to do in China in your free time, if you're so inclined. Shopping is big here - there's tons of stores with clothes, food, books, electronics, and almost everything you might want. If you're looking for video games or reliable computer software, however, that is something this place does not have in abundance. Malls and small stores are everywhere, and you can bargain for larger purchases fairly easily, if you can speak just a little Chinese; enough to say prices. There are very few places that you cannot bargain; supermarkets are one such place. This being said, the supermarkets are also usually cheaper than you can bargain a lot of places down to, if not by much. They are also harder to get to; it's a thirty-five minute walk to the nearest one from my dorm room, which, compared to the little places around the dorm room, almost make it not worth going to sometimes.

You can almost always find a basketball game to jump into within about three blocks of where you are. There are two kinds of parks - one that pretty much only has basic workout/stretching equipment (treadmills made of rollers are actually fairly cool to watch), and places for basketball/other sports. The second type is rarer, and usually within the confines of a set of buildings. The basketball courts are constantly in use, even after it gets dark out. Soccer is the other big sport here, but it's much harder to jump into a game here - usually the field is being used by the official school team.

Then there is the ever-present TV. Dramas and news are on almost constantly, and there's English, Korean and Japanese channels here as well. In addition, there are tons of movies for very cheap. They're sold everywhere and cost very little.

And then there's just the sights around town; huge buildings, construction for the Olympics, the local schools, from elementary school to graduate schools, locals flying kites, practising any of the myriad of martial arts they've learned or doing an impromptu showing of Beijing Opera. If you're at all motivated, it's really hard to get bored here, except perhaps late at night where there's not much of this going on.

Some new words!

电视剧: Dianshiju (pronounced Dee-en shee ju). Dianshi is "television, and "ju" is drama.

块钱：kuai qian (pronounced kwai chee-en). The effective shorthand for RMB. It's used differently, however; a bit hard to explain in this regard.

篮球：lanqiu (pronounced lahn cheeou). Basketball.

商店：shangdian (pronounced shahng dee-en). General store.

Zaijian!

-Tom

October 29, 2007

Today's update is a small one, due to some time constraints and a few things I needed to work through over here. Today's topic is on one of the major holidays: the Mid-Autumn Festival.

This festival was on the 25th of September this year, but you can still see the primary food used to celebrate this holiday (mooncakes, called yuebing (uehbeeng, 月饼 in Chinese) ) sold here for low prices. The mooncakes all have a Chinese character written on them, signifying a hope for the coming months.

The most famous legend concerning the Mid-Autumn Festival is of Hou Yi (houh yee), a legendary archer, and his wife, Chang E (Chahng Uh). In the variant of the story I read, there were originally ten suns; only one was ever in the sky at any one time, however. One day, the suns got impatient, and all ten crossed the sky at the same time! This made the world unbearably hot, and so the Emperor asked Hou Yi to scare off the suns. Hou Yi aimed and fired, shooting down nine of the suns. The Emperor, although he was impressed, was also furious, and forced Hou Yi and his wife out of his land. However, the Empress gave a pill of immortality to Hou Yi, so he could live forever.

However, Hou Yi did not want to part from his wife, so he never used the pill. One day, when Hou Yi was away and Chang E was at home, a bandit named Peng Meng (Puhng Muhng) came in and demanded the pill! Knowing she would be killed if she tried to fight him, Chang E did the only thing she could to defy him; she turned and grabbed the pill, then swallowed it. Immediately, she floated up to the moon as punishment for taking the medicine, though it wasn't hers. Peng Meng escaped.

Hou Yi returned to find the pill and Chang E missing. In utter dismay, he rushed outside and looked around; then, he saw a shadow on the moon that looked like Chang E! He gave pursuit, but could never reach it; still, he kept trying to get back to Chang E, as she looked down upon him, unable to do anything. In honor of their love for each other, the Chinese celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival!

Zaijian!

-Tom

Use your back button to go from picture back to blog

WARNING: This will be a mostly picture-based update. However, since I can't test for myself what sort of imagelinking works, I'm just going to provide the links to my Photobucket account, with the pictures in there. Also, all the pictures are quite large; my laptop doesn't have much in the way of resizing capability, either. Sorry I can't make this any more convenient.

A (very brief) background on Yiheyuan, also called the Summer Palace: built during the Jin dynasty (1115-1234), it was the summer residence of the Imperial family during the Qing dynasty, primarily made into the wonder it is today by the Empress Dowager Ci Xi (who, admittedly, embezzeled money from the nation's navy to do so, thus causing many problems for China later).

Words barely begin to describe this place, so I'll let the pictures I took do it instead:

1) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2067.jpg

This is the primary section of Yiheyuan, as seen from partway across the lake. This part of the Summer Palace is called Foxiang Ge, or "The Tower Of Buddhist Incense".

2) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2016.jpg

Here's a shot of that main tower, from decently close.

3) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2024-1.jpg

And even closer!

4) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2026-1.jpg

5) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2025-1.jpg

Two shots from around the inside courtyard of the tower.

6) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2027-1.jpg

I should say at this point that there's a lot more tourists than it looks - the area in this spot is under renovation, and thus not viewable by tourists. That plus my tendency to aim away from tourists may make Yiheyuan look rather deserted, but I had my back against the wall most of the time. This shot is back in the direction of picture 2, but a bit further down.

7) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2030.jpg

The sign on the wall of Foxiang Ge (again, visible from 1)

8) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2031.jpg

The wall. It's a bit dramatic. Fortunately, I got to go down the stairs; I didn't have to climb up them.

9) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2034.jpg

This was the kindest set of stairs there. I think you get the idea of why I'm glad I didn't have to climb up them.

10) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2033.jpg

11) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2032.jpg

Two shots of other parts of Foxiang Ge not available to tourists.

12) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2010.jpg

And a shot from Foxiang Ge to two of the other main parts of the Summer Palace, the 17 Arch Bridge and Penglai, the island in the middle of the lake Yiheyuan sits on. The lake's name is Beihai.

On the way there, some of the things I saw...

13) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2015.jpg Another shot of Beiha

Another shot of Beihai.

14) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2037.jpg

15) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2039.jpg

Statue of a dragon and a ... bird of some sort. Feng Huang? Unsure. In wire mesh since people kept wearing them down by touching them.

16) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2040.jpg A building near Foxiang Ge - one of the satellite buildings.

17) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2020.jpg A tower in the distance. I didn't have time that visit to go out to it. I plan to next time - I missed a few places, most notably Suzhou Market.

18) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2021.jpg

19) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2023.jpg

A building closer to the top of the hill that Foxiang Ge's on. I wanted to take pictures of the inside, but there's a lot of no-picture zones here. Mainly because they're trying to raise money by selling their own photos, which I didn't want to buy.

20) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2046.jpg

21) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2045.jpg

22) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2043.jpg

Shots of the Dragon Boat. They've got three of these for tourists. I didn't bring enough money to ride one, they're kinda expensive. Besides, seeing it was enough.

23) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2048.jpg

The Marble Boat. Used to be open to tourism, isn't any longer. Got this picture of it, though.

24) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2050.jpg

I don't know what this is, honestly, other than a monument on the north end of Beihai.

25) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2052.jpg

Another building around there.

26) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2018.jpg

27) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2006.jpg

28) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2004.jpg

Three other buildings. These were closer to the top of the hill, but I walked past all three of them twice so it fits well here.

29) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2009.jpg

30) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2008.jpg

31) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2007.jpg

And three sections of Beijing from the top of the hill.

32) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2063.jpg

Chang Lang, the Long Corridor. This thing was so crowded I didn't even bother trying to go into it. I just took a picture above the crowd and made a note to come back later.

33) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2068.jpg

Finally, at that bridge. Oddly enough, the island itself wasn't too impressive, though a large part was under construction; I plan on going back and rewalking it later.

34) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2073.jpg

35) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2072.jpg

Two shots of the pavillion right next to the bridge.

36) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2071.jpg

One of the 500-odd lions apparently on the bridge, according to the tourist notes lying around. All of them are rather cool, but I liked this guy the most.

37) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2061.jpg

38) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2060.jpg

39) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2059.jpg

Three places I don't remember the location of. I believe 37 and 38 were on the island, while 39 was somewhere else.

And thus ends the sloppily organized tour! There's one other thing of note...

40) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2074.jpg

This was a decoration off one of the roads leading away from the bridge. No, I don't get it either.

If you want to see a more organized tour (but with smaller pictures), a great site's here: http://www.kinabaloo.com/summer_palace.html

Five new words!

ge (pronounced guh) 阁 - Tower.

bei (pronounced bay) 北 - North.

nan (pronounced nahn) 南 - South.

dong (pronounced dong) 东 - East.

xi (pronounces cshee) 西 - West.

东西南北 - East West South North. This is how the Chinese refer to the four cardinal directions. Southeast is 南东 , while Northwest is 西北。

再见！

-Tom .

Hello again! Sorry this new update is so late, but I've been quite busy here with the start of classes! Each day at a Chinese college, there's about two to four hours of homework every day - but at most, there are four hours of classes a day, so while it's busy, it's not a terribly large amount of work.

After class, I usually go to the school cafeteria to pick up some food. Two traditional staple foods in China are rice and noodles. Rice is very common down south, while noodles are more common up north. Beijing has moderate weather (much like Michigan or the Northeastern United States); hot in summer, cold in winter, so I often eat both rice and noodles.

Other common, cheap foods are baozi - dumplings! It's dough wrapped around a central filling, be it beef, pork, or vegetables (chicken does not seem popular as a baozi filling). They're very tasty and quite cheap. For a little bit more money, you can buy a noodle or a rice dish. One of my favorites is chicken with vegetables and soy sauce.

The Chinese love sauces and spices. One of the most common is soy sauce, a sauce with a rather unusual flavor to many Westerners. It's quite good, however; I bought some for use when I make my own rice!

Another popular spice is Five Spice, so named because it is supposed to have all five of the traditional Chinese flavors mixed in; "hot", bitter, sour, sweet, and salty. The first one, "hot", also translates to spicy, pungent, and a few other terms. Personally, I find it tastes like strong black pepper.

Juice isn't popular here, except for some fruit juices (I see peach juice a lot). What is popular is ice tea; sold in bottles, it's quite convenient. The problem for me is that I really don't like cold tea; I have to drink it warm or not have it at all. Still, water bottles are also cheap, so that's what I buy more often than not.

Six more words for those of you still keeping up (shouldn't be too hard, I've given you about a month!)

yaoshi 钥匙 (pronounced yow-shee) It means key.

kan 看 (pronounced kahn) See, look, read.

ting 听 (pronounced ting) Listen.

chi 吃 (pronounced chee) Eat.

fan 饭 (pronounced fan) Meal (as in dinner meal).

ma 吗 (pronounced ma) Indicates the sentence is a question.

le 了(pronounced luh) Indicates, among other things, that an event occured in the past.

你吃饭了吗？

我吃饭了。

Ni chi fan le ma? Have you eaten yet?

Wo chi fan le. I've eaten.

This is also commonly used as a greeting in China; it's quite useful!

再见！

-Tom

Ni hao！I’ve finally arrived in Beijing and been able to get this posted!

Beijing is a busy town! There’s almost constant traffic on every street, if not by car, then by foot or bike. Every store is almost always busy, and at their busiest, you can have over two hundred people crammed into one store or restaurant.

One of the interesting parts of being in Beijing is walking past all the street vendors. I’ve seen Olympic merchandise, books in English and Chinese, jewelry, fruits, vegetables, nuts and even some toy cars.

Another thing is that there are very few actual swinging doors in China; most stores either have sliding doors or heavy plastic curtains to keep the air-conditioning in. Oddly enough, at least in this part of Beijing, there are very few bugs; only ants, mosquitoes and butterflies.

However, there is one bad thing about Beijing that’s noticeable from the start; the smog. While it usually doesn’t impede breathing directly, the visibility across town is quite reduced. Beijing is working on cleaning up in time for the 2008 Summer Olympics; I hope they succeed, as being able to see across Beijing from the top of Beijing Language and Culture University’s administration building would be quite nice!

Five Chinese words/phrases for you:

1) 好久不见！Hao jiu bu jian! (pronounced How jeu boo jen) Literally translated, it means “Long time no see”. Recognize that? America got the saying from China!

2) 自行车。Zixing che (pronounced zee-hsing chuh) Bicycle.

3) 走。Zou. (pronounced zoh) Walk.

4) 汽车。Qiche (This one’s rather tough as well; it sounds like a cross between a q and a ch. The best pronunciation spelling I can think of is qhi-che.) Car.

5) 中国。Zhongguo (pronounced Zzhong-gwo) Translated literally, it means “Middle Kingdom”. It’s the Chinese name for their own country.

Until next time,

再见！

-Tom Brown

Initial Post - 5-20-2007

I'm setting this up simply as a place for me to keep in touch with others while I'm in Beijing, as well as to make general notes or commentary. This may be daily, may be weekly, won't be any less than weekly or else multiple of you have threatened to come over there and find me. Since I'd like to save you airfare, I'll make sure to keep this updated.