walking in Wuhan

Walking in Wuhan with Babes during Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year!

Welcome to the Year of the snake!
Some fireworks as seen from our bedroom window:

Walking in Wuhan, run up to Chinese New Year edition

As the year of the snake approaches, the stores have been awash in a sea of red, and crowded, oh so crowded.  Chinese people are busy shopping, spring cleaning, and smoking meat as they prepare for the arrival of relatives and friends.  

Dragon Dance Competition (picture heavy)

This past weekend we (the consulate community) were invited to a day of activities sponsored by the Pujiang government.  The whole day of events was 14 hours, but our clever Community Liason Officer finagled a way for a few of us to just go for a three hour section of dragon dance competition and tangerine picking.  The whole day looked like it was chock full of fun, but I'm glad we were only there for three hours.  The crowd was enormous!  We entered the city, and it looked like a ghost town, there were a few stores open here and there, but the wide streets and storefronts were virtually deserted.  We couldn't figure out where any of the people were....until they stopped the bus.  As we left our buses and were hurried towards the VIP seating area for the competition we walked through a corridor of Chinese at least ten people deep and elbow to elbow  for at least 100 hundred yards (and that was just a small section on the crowd I think the buses plowed through half the crowd to get us as close as possible) it was like walking down the sidelines of a packed football stadium. Oh yeah, and there was a line of police holding the crowds back too.  The performances (once they finished ALL of the speeches) were pretty interesting and creative too.  Many of them put together to depict scenes from famous Chinese folk tales (well famous to the Chinese, I have no idea why there were tons of bulls being pushed around by a fat guy fighting soldiers).  Anyway, here are some pictures to enjoy!

 

Temple fair pt 2 -what to eat (picture heavy)

One of the main things that Chinese people like to do is eat.  I think that might be one of the reasons that I like China so much. They take food and eating seriously and there are so many different types of Chinese food that you can eat for a week on nothing but Chinese food and still not eat the same thing twice.  Temple fairs are just an extension of this love.  The street food available at a temple fair is wide and varied.  There are bugs and sea creatures on a stick, sugar juice, rice balls that are thrown at a peanut powder, fried things, noodles, meat on a stick, and so on....And while I did not sample a great variety of things while I was there, I did take lots of pictures....  Enjoy!

At the Temple Fair pt 1 (picture heavy)

Chinese New Year, is the biggest holiday in China.  Despite communism and all the years of suppressing Chinese culture, Chinese New Year is still celebrated in a big way.  It's one of the few days of the year when you will actually see people in a temple in China burning incense, and giving offerings.  The cities themselves empty out as everyone goes home to visit family.  For at least the first two days of the NY almost everything is closed.  From the big foreign chain stores, to the tiny mom and pop shops on the corner.  You can almost walk down the center of the streets because there is no one out.  Not only is it traditional to celebrate with family, it is also traditional to celebrate with fireworks.  And while this year was subdued compared with last year, the displays were impressive.  (I have video, but I can't post it here) The back yard fireworks displays (or middle of the street firework displays) could rival those of any US city's fourth of July celebrations.  And that is just any one display, and there are hundreds.  From about 11:30pm-1 or 2 in the morning each firework display is like the grand finale at a 4th of July display.  It's a solid wall of explosion like sound.  Our poor dog.  

One of the other things that people do is go to a temple fair.  A temple fair is, well a fair outside a temple.  There are vendors selling food, drinks, clothes, trinkets... well almost everything.  A picture is worth a thousand words, and while I could describe to you the chaos of a temple fair, I will let you peruse these pictures so that you can get a feel for it.