By Sheng Liqun
This year as part of China.org.cn`s Spring Festival activity I spent the first day of the year of the Ox at Happy Valley with my partner, Puerto Rican William Den-Chao. It was an awesome beginning to the year.
It is my first Spring Festival in Beijing, and William's first Spring Festival in China. It turned out that many things happened to us for the first time during our day at Happy Valley.
Happy Valley chose a traditional theme for this New Year, holding an event reminiscent of Beijing's many temple fairs. Folk performers put on a variety of amazing stunts such as lion dances, a stilt dance, a fire dragon performance – even a reconstruction of an ancient Beijing street scene.
The most amazing performance was the Dao Shan Huo Hai（Knife Mountain Fire Sea）show, in which a man climbed up 24 tiers of knives in his bare feet, then took of his shirt and balanced on the point of a sword. We were amazed there are still people around who can do this sort of thing. I had only seen stuff like this on TV or read about it in Kungfu books by Jin Yong. The guy was twenty feet up in the air. In fact it was a little bit frightening but like all good Kungfu legends he played his part fearlessly.
The stilt dance was another great hit with us. It's very popular in my hometown and I love the beating of the drums and the raucous sound of the suona (a Chinese wind instrument). The swirling dresses, make up, the strange stilts and the gestures of the fans make it all so joyful. And the performers at Happy Valley were the best I have ever seen. They hopped on one stilt through obstacles as if they weren't there. It was more like an acrobatic performance than a dance.
Then we joined in the parade of Happy Valley Ants Fairies. They were so cute with big twinkling eyes that I could not resist kissing them. We even won a Happy Valley Ant in a competition. We put it in the hood of William's coat and it looked like his baby ha! As for the real babies, there were lots of kids in the park, wrapped up in against the cold in such thick clothing they looked like colorful balls rolling around. It reminded me of Spring Festival when I was little, when everything was just super delightful.
William's father is from Guangdong, so Spring Festival is also very important for him. He told me that back home Chinese community organizations organize the Spring Festival celebrations and everybody gets a red envelope to symbolize luck and prosperity. I was supposed to be his guide, but as he had been to Happy Valley before and can speak Chinese, he ended up guiding me. We spent a long time waiting for the start of the fire dragon performance checking out the regular Happy Valley attractions that must be really exciting in summer. There were loads of teenagers on the roller coaster screaming their heads off.
Finally it got dark and the fire dragon came out. The hot steel sparked like fireworks and soon it seemed there like an ocean of fire. The dragon dance started in the fire, in a scene like an ancient ceremony. Then there were fireworks and cheering and we really felt spring was on its way.
Sheng Liqun is a Chinese girl working for a theater company in Beijing.