By Celine Chen
Spring Festival is the China's most important festival, equivalent to Christmas in the West. Not only is it the longest official public holiday of the year, it's also the one time in the year when all the family gets together.
Before the holiday, I asked a few of my foreign friends to write stories about how they spent Spring Festival. But one, who had not been in China long, asked me, "What should I do? Will there be any parades?" So I decided to put together a more organized activity to help foreigners in Beijing to get a better understanding of the festival.
We advertised online for seven Chinese people and seven foreigners living in Beijing and divided them into seven teams. We sent each team to places Beijingers typically visit over the holiday. They were told they could interview people, talk to each other, or just sit back and observe. What we really wanted was their personal feelings about the festival atmosphere.
The seven teams visited the Temple Fair, Houhai Lake, a typical Siheyuan (courtyard house), the Temple of Heaven, Capital Museum, a traditional party, and Happy Valley. Some of the activities we planned were very traditional, such as Temple Fairs, but we also included up to date experiences such as the Happy Valley theme park.
There were some surprises. Elyse Ribbons, an American girl who has been living in China for five years, went to the Ditan Temple Fair with Jessica Du, a Chinese girl. Jessica called me the other day and said, "I did a lot of homework, but it was my first temple fair and I have to admit that Elyse was my guide, because she goes to temple fairs every year." We call people like Elyse eggs – white on the outside and yellow on the inside.
It was the first time I had organized such an activity so I put in a lot of work on preparation – asking district tourism administrations and park public relations departments for advice and help. I visited most places in advance to check out how to get there, and the best times of day to go.
But some things didn't work out as expected. We couldn't find a proper New Year party and in the end had to give it up. We were hoping to join a family gathering in a traditional courtyard to make dumplings and chat, but it turned out to be far too commercial. Four or five tour groups turned up in the space of two hours and the family members were so busy selling tickets that they paid no attention to us. So we just left.
After the holiday I collected everybody's stories and video clips. I hope you enjoy reading and watching. Maybe you'll even learn a bit about how Chinese people spend their spring festival.
(China.org.cn February 4, 2009)