CHINESE NEW YEAR: 2008-2011
It’s the year of the Ox and the whole of China is on the move visiting friends and family and setting off a million fireworks. In fact, it’s the largest human migration - more interurban trips are taken in China during this period than there are total population in China.
Chinese New Year is a colorful holiday celebrated starting on the first day of the first lunar month. Many businesses will close for a few days up to 2 weeks during this period. Here are a few of the interesting traditions:
We’re going to brave the crowds and take a 4 hour train ride down to Hongzhou for a couple of days to visit a friend. We’ll let you know how our travel along with a couple of million Chinese goes... |
Photo Gallery: click on each to see a larger image.
VIDEOS - VERY SHORT
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The Dragon and Lion dances are traditions which will
- chase away negative energies with the sounding of drums and cymbals
- scare away evil spirits with the powerful dance and presence of a dragon or lion
- bring in auspiciousness as symbols of strength and good luck
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FIREWORKS! This short video clip is a sample of the fireworks set off over Chinese New Year - this goes on sporadically over a 2 week period with 3 intense nights like this. From sunset to midnight - continuous all over town. This clip is just what we saw out our back window - imagine this all around in full stereo all over the city, for hours and hours - in every city in China!