Here is an an al-acarte of stories and posts related to Christmas in China. And as we say in Chinese, Shengdan Kuai le (圣诞快乐), which means, well Merry Christmas. The Chinese word for Christmas is Shengdan Jie (圣诞节), which literally translated means Holy Birth Festival. From The Economist: Oh What Fun: Christmas with Chinese Characteristics Cities across […]
A Ten-Year Visa!
This afternoon the good folks at FEDEX delivered a small package to my house, and it wasn’t even a Christmas present. In fact, it was something better — my passport, with a brand-spanking-new TEN-YEAR, MULTIPLE ENTRY TOURIST VISA to China. I first got wind of this new visa from a report in the Wall Street […]
Escaping the Cities
In the 1960’s and 1970’s the Chinese government sent millions of city dwellers “down to the countryside,” many of them students and intellectuals. The purpose was ostensibly to have them learn about hard work and revolutionary fervor from the peasants. It was also a way to get them out of the cities so they wouldn’t […]
Beijing Time-lapse
I just ran across this amazing time-lapse video of Beijing, and it is making me seriously homesick. I think I can recognize and have been to every spot in the film. And I of course have to remind myself that the sky doesn’t look like that every day! If you haven’t been to Beijing, maybe […]
Happy Constitution Day! Don’t Mention the Constitution!
China just celebrated a brand new holiday: Constitution Day (December 4). The government has put forth this holiday as a way to signal it’s commitment to “rule of law,” something that Chinese President Xi Jinping has been promoting with much gusto as of late. Here’s what the Global Times had to say about the holiday: […]
