It’s all about Christmas

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“It’s the most wonderful time of the year, there’ll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for roasting and carolling out on the lawn..” Yes we love Christmas! And we love singing Christmas songs at this time of the year. Even though Michael has an annoying habit of changing some of the words to stir up the girls (and me) sometimes. To be honest with you, we had been a little worried since moving over here to China that we would have a difficult time getting into the Christmas spirit and being able to celebrate and enjoy it the way we usually do, and Michael and I especially wanted to make this first Christmas away from home as happy as possible for the girls. We had no idea what to expect here in China, but our expectations were low. We had read that they do not celebrate Christmas, so we were quietly resigned to ‘simple and uneventful’. How wrong we were.
Through the second half of November Christmas trees and decorations started popping up all over Beijing and in every store, large or small. On every trip through the city we would see an ever increasing amount of large scale Christmas scenes, and Christmas lighting everywhere. Every shopping mall and store was playing Christmas carols – sometimes the one song on endless repeat. Yes Virginia, they do celebrate Christmas in China.
We found some great things to do … At Solana in Chaoyang District there is an annual Christmas Light Festival, with the most amazing lights you could ever hope to see. We visited there several times leading up to Christmas, not just for the lights, as there are several nice restaurants there, a good coffee shop, and a market with a few western foods. This is also where our favourite indoor ice skating rink is. Yes it was freezing cold, -12 on some nights, but definitely worth it. The pictures here with the blog do not do it justice. Put it on your list if ever you are here at Christmas time, along with some fur lined underwear and ear muffs. Another highlight of the Christmas light viewing was finding a fantastic Arabian Nights restaurant, complete with a Belly Dancer. Naturally she was Chinese, and definitely was built more like a gymnast than a belly dancer but she had all the moves, and the Mojitos and kebabs were great.
To give ourselves the best opportunities we booked in to the Novotel for 3 nights from December 23rd to put ourselves in the heart of the city amongst all the Christmas celebration.
Now importantly, FYI (get a pen as you may want to write this down for future reference), every Hotel in Beijing hosts a Christmas Eve Dinner, some even have multiple Christmas dinners and events happening concurrently … why you may ask? Simple answer, and the same as back home, because Christmas is huge commercial event. Everyone, not just the Europeans and westerners living in Beijing, wants to celebrate and party. The Chinese do give each other a gift of an apple on Christmas Eve as this is a sign of peace for the next year. We enjoyed looking at a vast variety of beautiful gift wrapped apples you could purchase on the lead up to Christmas Eve. We were given some beautiful apples by staff at GG (I will include a photo). Beijing has definitely embraced Christmas. The nice thing about it is that there were lots of Nativity scenes on display too, so it isn’t just about Santa and presents, there is a message happening too.
Our highlights were the Christmas Eve Party at the Novotel, where we were the only westerners there , and had an entertaining time. I confess we did spend a lot of the time laughing (politely to ourselves) at how different it all was and the ‘unique’ approach to the celebration surrounding us. The lucky door prizes were another highlight, where we had repeated fun trying to translate whether our number was being called. Most of the restaurant staff got involved checking our numbers for us, and eventually, after 3 rounds and about 30 draws, our number was called. The staff had become so engaged by this time that they were more excited than we were when one of our numbers came up. We cheered and high fived one another and all the people in the restaurant cheered as well. We won a very fancy portable phone. Tylah and Parris had their heart set on the iPad, which was the major prize, but the thrill of winning rushed through our veins and we cherished that little phone like it was family. Soon after, when the woman finally won the iPad, it was almost a non-event in terms of crowd response, as I think we ‘westerners’ had already stolen her thunder. The food was traditional, with roasted turkey, chicken, pork and what we hoped was beef leading the way, and the biggest dessert table you could imagine. I should mention there was some strange looking seafood that was advertised as ‘Australian crab’, which Michael tried, but only to be patriotic, as it looked like the crab had crawled/swum all the way to China, and was a bit depleted by the effort. Lastly I must acknowledge the entertainers who thoroughly lived up to their title. There were singers, musicians, opera stars, a comedy act, acrobats, and jugglers, and a great night was had by all.
Christmas day was an early rise at 6am for presents and Skypeing family. That afternoon we went to the Teddy Bears High Tea at the Ritz-Carlton which was awesome and great fun. The girls got Teddy Lions as gifts and the Sorbet bar was a big hit for the girls. We all agreed we would definitely recommend the event highly. After this we caught a taxi to Hou Hai to scout the ice skating scene for the next day. We got there just before sunset and were amazed at all the activity on the frozen lake. The whole scene took our breath away. There were skaters, ice sleds and ice bicycles everywhere, and people were having a great time. Various places provided skate/sled hire around the lake so Michael checked them all out in preparation for next day. Preparation is the key over here as some places (particularly department stores) don’t take cash directly. You have to get a transaction card (like a credit card), pre pay cash onto it, and then you can use this at the venue to buy the services. (Just to digress, and confuse you a little more, sometimes in a store they will give you a purchase card, which you must take to a cashier, who is in another part of the store, to pay, then you must go back with your card and dockets to the original sales assistant, who then takes your proof of purchase and wraps your item for you, then, finally, you can take it away. Michael thinks it is a clever system to help keep customers fit and moving about the store. My thinking is that cash handlers must be hard to find, or they cannot afford more than one cash register per store. This system was initially very confusing, especially when you have no clue what is being said to you, they take the item off you that took you hours to find, then there is lots of finger pointing in the opposite direction, away from them and item you want to purchase. It did take us some time to work the system out. Buyer beware! )
Anyway, back on story, the Hou Hai area is now famous for restaurants and karaoke bars, and is surrounded by neon lights,food,Rickshaws and souvenir vendors. Michael had been here before (when he was here for interviews) during the summer - when the lake was actually… liquid - and knew his way around, so took us to the Night Markets adjacent to the lake precinct. These are traditional old stores along narrow cobbled alley ways dating back to the Qing Dynasty, in an area that once serviced the Forbidden City nearby. I love it here and could spend hours just soaking up the ambience. They are a charming contrast to the modern bars and restaurants nearby, and you can find nearly every imaginable traditional craft on sale, along with modern clothes, jewellery, bags, shoes and most of the other things you can find at the tourist markets like the Pearl Market or Silk Market across the other side of the city. My favourite shop was a tanner who makes and sells amazing journals, of all sizes, which are bound in aged leather around recycled paper leaves. They look like they are 100 years old. I am the proud owner of one and am so in love with it that it sits by my bed and I have been too afraid to write in it. I simply don’t want to spoil it. Hou Hai is easily our favourite place in Beijing, and we have been back many times since Christmas, with bike sledding now the girl’s favourite activity.
New Year’s Eve was a quiet event for us which we spent in the warmth of our apartment, as the celebrations for the Chinese New Year do not commence here until next month. We did toast (Ganbei) all our loved ones back home, and especially enjoyed our New Year toasts on Skype with Nannie Darling and Grampsie Do dah.
I will post another blog shortly about our Disneyland Hong Kong trip which we did in early December, along with more photos.
Happy New Year everyone x

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Comments

[rubotical]

YEAHHHHHHHhhhhh that all sounds so delicious!!!! Glad to know that i true tradition you all celebrated Christmas in style. loved reading all that you got up too. how exciting xx

[Lance]

Hou Hai
You certainly can write a fantastic blog and we can't wait to get back to Beijing and see the familiar sites plus all those gems that you have uncovered.

[Warren]

hi
Merry Christmas and happy new year.