Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

This is another post I wrote a little while ago and haven’t posted until now.

China’s Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu) occurs on 5th May on the Lunar calendar. This year, that equates to 8th June.

As the name of the Festival indicates, it’s famous for Dragon Boat racing! People also eat zongzi (glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves) and drink baijiu (Chinese wine) during this holiday. (more…)

Image Source: Red roseLicense

I’ve never been a big fan of Valentine’s Day and not just because I couldn’t find anyone to share it with! I’ve always seen it as a fabricated ‘commercial’ celebration - more about making money than about lovers.

Living here in China, I should be able to escape such Western customs, right? Wrong! Valentine’s Day is big here in China, especially amongst the youngsters, who seem to soak up anything Western. (more…)

Image Source: Blackpool Fireworks 2006 (China)License

Spring Festival, or Chunjie as it is called here, has begun! Tonight is Chinese New Year’s Eve. I thought I’d write a little bit about what happens in China during the Spring Festival. (more…)

Image Source: Match smokeLicense

This is follow up to my previous post on smoking in China. I just want to highlight a related experience we just had.

Two days after my previous post, a stranger visited our house to look at something we were selling. No sooner than he’d walked in, did he produce a cigarette packet and offer me one. I refused automatically, using wo bu chou this time. He nodded and said something like “oh, bu chou, bu chou, okay” and proceeded to light up. (more…)

Image Source: A smoke after..License

There have been lots of news stories about smoking in China lately. That’s not surprising because smoking plays a very large part in Chinese life. (more…)