Blogs from Chaoyang district, Beijing, China, Asia - page 21

My nostrils tingle with the acrid smell of smoke. I have to squint my eyes against the blinding display of dazzling lights and colors. My ears ring with the monstrous explosions that echo against the buildings around me. I repeat my mantra to myself: this is not a warzone; this is the Chinese New Year! The official start of the New Year, according to the Chinese Lunar Calender, was Saturday, February 18. Traditionally, on New Year's Eve, families will gather around the television to watch a special program on CCTV, similar to the Dick Clark Rockin' New Year's Eve program that we enjoy in the United States. Although fireworks were invented in China, for the past 10 years, setting off any type of explosion was banned in Beijing-- until this year. The ban was lifted, although ... read more

As Chinese New Year approaches, I find myself feeling very conflicted. On the one hand, I feel that I have adjusted to living in China and feel every bit the Beijinger. On the other hand, this is the first Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival as it is known in Chinese, I will celebrate in China, and I find myself at a loss as to how to celebrate it. I've presented this dilemma to my students and they've been very helpful in giving me suggestions. Their ideas range from going to one of the seemingly thousands of temples around the cities to observe the ceremonies and try some local food apparently, during the Spring Festival, many temples host some type of food fair, and it's customary to go to a Buddhist temple to burn incense and ... read more

Well it feels a little more like Christmas. Last night Alaina, Ruth and I went to see Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol in English. It was actually pretty good. Where else would the ghost of Christmas future have such elaborate headpieces and little Tim be Chinese. Even all the way in China Marley is dead, dead as a doornail. I thought of you Dad. The real adventure began before hand. We left class together hailing a taxi and heading for the central business district at 5:00.The taxi driver appeared to be very confused and cannot read the map, which is in Chinese! We realized that we had passed our street made the decision to get out of the car and walk and try and find it ourselves. We come to a street that is of ... read more

I've unfortunately had to come back to this blog retrospectively, so I will do the best to recant what we did. This is also before the time of my digital camera and so photos have to be scanned, I will do my best to make this happen. As the title vaguely alludes, this blog will focus on Jennifer's visit in December of 2000 and January of 2001 to China when I was living in Beijing since September 2000, studying Mandarin at UIBE in Chaoyang District (among other things). This is the only time I was in Beijing that was not covered by the hundreds of pages I wrote in my paper journals during the six months that I was there, so I'd like to do my best to tell the story of a time that might ... read more