This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

But having him here meant waking up early, going out shopping with him everyday, accompanying him to whatever places he want to visit (not the tourist sites, he has been here before), looking for places where there might be the stuff he’s looking for, calling and messaging friends to help, trying to figure out what restaurants are decent enough to take him there, get him tickets for metro, bus, train (he spent a couple of days in a town near BJ)… Lots of enegy spent. Well spent I should say, since I am such a lazy guy.

But his departure was a bit at a bad moment. I didn’t manage to watch Liverpool win against Chelsea as I was at the airport seeing him off, then last night I was too tired to stay awake to see Man Utd get beaten (I had only about 2hrs sleep the previous night)…. Hope there will be nothing special for the Champions League Final later this month.

The weather’s gone warm, in a week or two it will be too hot to walk outside, so better enjoy the weather now. I’m going out to feel the sun on me, and read a book at the park near where I live.

Anyway, tomorrow is Lantern Festival, just wanted to write a few words on that. Will try and remember the events that happened during the spring festival later, and hopefully will write something after my visa stuffs are all sorted out.

Lantern Festival

Date: The Lantern Festival or Yuanxiao Jie, marks the end of the Spring Festival and falls on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar.

Myth: During the Han Dynasty and reign of Emperor Wu Di , a pretty palace maid named Yuanxiao was sad and homesick. However, she won the sympathy of a minister named Dongfang Shuo, who, in turn, told the Emperor that the city of Chang’an would be set on fire by the gods on the 16th day of the first month of the lunar year. The only remedy, he suggested, was to let fireworks off and hang red lanterns all over the city. The emperor, consorts and palace maids all came out for the lantern show. The emperor was also told that the gods were partial to the pretty young maid’s stuffed dumplings. And so it was. Yuanxiao was allowed home to visit her family and friends. The following year, the emperor again ordered the hanging of the lanterns and making of dumplings, and each year ever after.

Custom: The festival is all about Chinese red lanterns. Some have poems and verse on them, while some have pictures. It is customary during the Lantern Festival for people to enjoy various kinds of lanterns and lots of outdoor fun. Eating yuanxiao or sweet dumplings is another custom. They have many flavors such as sugar, walnuts, sesame, peanuts, beans, chocolate or fruit.

Those with great Chinese language skills can read about it on 中国传统节日介绍——元宵节

Those who prefer reading French can go to this blog to read about this festival. Olivier’s blog

Well, it looks like my friends like to let me know about festivities. Today is apparently 立春 (li chun), or the beginning of spring. It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 315° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 330°. It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 315°. In Gregorian calendar, it usually begins around February 4 and ends around February 18 (February 19 East Asia time).

Lichun signifies the beginning of spring in East Asian cultures. Chinese New Year is celebrated around the time. Farmers often celebrate the beginning of Lichun with special village events, worships and offerings to gods and ceremonies for a blissful and prosperous new year. In Northern China, people eat chūnbǐng (春餅 spring pancake/ spring roll) on this day.

Here’s a link to making the 春饼. Even though it is in Chinese, you just need to see the series of pictures to understand what’s going on. (Aadil, I know you don’t like food pictures in blogs, too bad for u :D)

Pictures taken from eat.sina.com.cn

Last Friday, one of my friends asked me if I had 腊八粥 (Laba porridge). I had no idea what she was talking about, and she then explained to me that it was a Buddhist festival. So here’s the lowdown about the festival:

Laba is celebrated on the eighth day of the last lunar month, referring to the traditional start of celebrations for the Chinese New Year. “La” in Chinese means the 12th lunar month and “ba” means eight.

Legends about the origin of this festivity abound.
L1: Over 3,000 years ago sacrificial rites called “La “(腊) were held in the twelfth lunar month when people offered their preys to the gods of heaven and earth. The Chinese characters for prey (猎物) and the twelfth month (腊) were interchangeable then, and ever since “La” has been used to refer to both.

Since the festival was held on the eighth day of the Last month, people later appended the number eight (”ba” in Chinese), giving us the current Laba .

Laba rice porridge was first introduced to China in the Song Dynasty about 900 years ago.
—–

L2: Buddhism was well accepted in the areas inhabited by the Han Chinese, who believed that Sakyamuni（释迦牟尼）, the first Buddha and founder of the religion, attained enlightenment on the eighth day of the twelfth month. Sutras were chanted in the temples and rice porridge with beans, nuts and dried fruit was prepared for the Buddha. With the passing of time the custom extended, especially in rural areas where peasants would pray for a plentiful harvest in this way.

There is, however, another touching story: When Sakyamuni was on his way into the high mountains in his quest for understanding and enlightenment, he grew tired and hungry. Exhausted from days of walking, he fainted away by a river in India. A shepherdess found him there and fed him her lunch — porridge made with beans and rice. Sakyamuni was thus able to continue his journey.

After six years of strict discipline, he finally realized his dream of full enlightenment on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Ever since, monks have prepared rice porridge on the eve and held a ceremony the following day, during which they chant sutras and offer porridge to Buddha. Thus, the tradition of eating Laba porridge was based in religion, though with the passing of time the food itself became a popular winter dish especially in cold northern China.

According to written records, large Buddhist temples would offer Laba rice porridge to the poor to show their faith to Buddha. In the Ming Dynasty about 500 years ago, it became such a holy food that emperors would offer it to their officials during festivals. As it gained favor in the feudal upper class, it also quickly became popular throughout the country.
—–

The majority Han Chinese have long followed the tradition of eating Laba rice porridge on the Laba Festival.

Laba rice porridge contains glutinous rice, red beans, millet, Chinese sorghum, peas, dried lotus seeds, red beans and some other ingredients, such as dried dates, chestnut meat, walnut meat, almond, peanut, etc. Actually eight ingredients are used, cooked with sugar to make the porridge tasty.

Northerners prefer to use glutinous rice, red beans, dates, lotus seeds, dried pulp, walnuts, pine nuts and other dried fruits in their porridge; southerners like a salty porridge prepared with rice, soybeans, peanuts, broad beans, taro, water chestnuts, walnuts, vegetables and diced meat. In the north, it is a dessert with sugar added; in the south, salt is put in. Some people like to add cinnamon and other condiments to add flavor.

Laba porridge is not only easy to prepare, but also a nutritious winter food because it contains amino acids, protein, vitamins and other nutrition people need. Cooked nuts and dried fruit are good for soothing nerves, nourishing one’s heart and vitality, and strengthening the spleen. Perhaps that is why it is also called babao (Eight Treasure 八宝) porridge.

As previously mentioned, I went to Houhai Zoo again last Saturday for a friend’s birthday. It was a bit of a let down as many people didn’t show up in the end. Had the usual drinks and met some more people. I later learnt (yesterday actually) that one of them is a millionaire, having made her fortune by selling a dating website she created for millions.

As I said, I went along with the 2 friends and when we got there there was only half a dozen people there. Quiet crowd if you do not consider the loud music. However, as the evening went on, more and more people came in and the noise and atmosphere became more of a small party. Good one.

I met a few of A’s students. The first two I got to meet were really charming and good looking. Unfortunately they were there only for a short while, and didn’t get the chance to really know them. And they didn’t look their age either. I gathered afterwards that one is 27 and the other 30 (she just turned 30 the next day), but you would have given them early 20s. Even C said they looked younger than their age. Anyway, A’s having his birthday party this coming weekend. I am apparently invited and will get to meet several beautiful girls. Hopefully I will be able to exchange numbers and keep in touch.

As the evening wore on, we were chatting with 3 more of A’s students as well as another English teacher, B. It was real fun. One of the students, Leo, had never been to a pub before. We all made sure he had beers, cocktails and some shots during the night. No need to say he was drunk at the end. :D

The party finished around 2.30. We were the last to leave. And after the teachers had left, the 3 students and I went to an internet bar just beside Houhai, where we spent the remaining hours till daylight. They said they lived far, and furthermore didn’t want to disturb their roommates by coming back so late. It cost us each about 10rmb to use the computers till 6.15am.

After that, I waited till the students got on their buses safely before going back home and slept the morning away. It was already well after 7.30am when I finally got to bed.

Today I bought yet again the 1-kuai ‘fish’ snack that’s on sales between the West gate of BLCU and Xijiao Hotel. The seller was (according to local legend) the first in China/Beijing to figure out how to cook the pastry into fish shape . It is of waffle texture, and inside you have milk, chocolate, ‘taosi’ or other fillings. The ones I bought were of chocolate (the lighter one) and milk filling. It’s really nice when eaten hot. You’ll note that he now has a personal design paper bag to carry home. The characters above are Korean characters, surely because of the heavy population of Korean students here. He must be doing well.

Also, I took a picture of the Wudaokou theatre hall. It may be the only cinema in Wudaokou but nearby there should be others nearby. There was quite a reasonable amount of people going to watch the movies today and yesterday. Most of them were going to see ‘The Banquet’ (夜宴).

Although it’s not visible, just on the right side, by the building with the ‘Wudaokou Hotel’ sign, you have another area where people can buy food and eat during summer. However, I found it closed when I walked there everytime. Maybe it’s been closed for good. I remember during the World cup, the stalls were open and they would project the match live on the wall. Lots of people would be having late night snacks and drinking beer while rooting for their favourite teams. Nice memories.

I am back at Wudaokou in Beijing. Wudaokou is well known in Beijing as being a students’ district. That’s because Wudaokou is in the Haidian district, which contains Beijing Language Culture University, BLCU (aka Beiyu, the most well known Chinese learning uni), Beijing University (aka Beida, arguably the No1 University in China), Tsinghua University (arguably the 2nd best University in China), People’s Univeristy (aka Renmin University), and Beijing Foreign Studies University (aka Beiwai) among others. Of course, there are also myriads of small, private schools such as Global Village (aka Diqiucun), PRCStudy, etc…

Tonight I am putting some pictures of people eating outdoor near the Wudaokou light railway station (轻轨站）as well as the train passageway just beside the light railway station. These were taken from my mobile phone, so the quality is quite bad. The people are eating some barbecued meat, jiaozi (dumplings), or having ‘ma la tang’ (like steamboat in hot and numbing sauce), and drinking beer.

Top picture = people eating outside, the lighted building is the Wudaokou light railway station
Middle picture = train passing in front of the light railway station, everyone (people and cars) waiting at the junction.
Bottom picture = same thing, but train not yet there

Update: View of railway crossroad at night from the Wudaokou station

Tomorrow the Golden Week starts. It’s the National Day 国庆节 tomorrow and on this occasion it’s one week off for most people. During this period, huge quantity of people travel from city to city, to see relatives or to relax and visit some other areas of China. No need to say that it’s really hard to find travel tickets (air/train/coach) and hotel rooms….

This year, the mid-autumn festival 中秋节 falls during the golden week. It’s the 6th of October. So an additional reason for the Chinese to go and have fun, or better still, to be with relatives.

A friend of mine gave me some food to eat as I was taking the train to Beijing. On examining the contents, I found it was the type of cakes we ate during the mid-autumn festival back home. Will try and post a picture of them later. No moon cake though.

Update: Pictures of the snacks received.