Xīn Nián Kuài Lè

History Lesson: Spring Festival is the most important holiday celebrated in all of South/East Asia. Although it is commonly called Chinese New Year, it actually marks the beginning of a new lunar year. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself century’s old and gained significance because of several myths and traditions. Today, the holiday is celebrated for fifteen days beginning on the first of the lunar month and commences with the Lantern Festival. During that time, families celebrate by gathering and eating a TON of food, exchanging gifts, and lighting off fireworks to protect against evil spirits and wish for happiness, wealth and longevity. The holiday traditions are comparable to the way American’s celebrate Christmas and New Years.

I arrived here in China in the middle of Chinese New Year and I was fortunate enough to have a week of work to travel. The Courtneys and I decided to travel to Nanjing to enjoy some of the festivities and the night life. We spent weeks planning our trip, talking to the Chinese teachers and researching Wikipedia trying to decide the best place to stay and the best places to visit. We left Wednesday morning bright and early and boarded a train headed two hours northwest to Nanjing. We drove through a lot of interesting looking villages, country side and mountains before we made it to the city.

We left the train station and got right in a taxi headed toward our hotel… the famous Motel 168! Ok, so it is not famous, per say, but they are everywhere so naturally, it was our first choice. The hotel was fine; nothing fabulous, but a pretty standard motel – one small room with a full size bed (that the three of us were going to be sharing) and a small bathroom. We stayed in the room only long enough to drop off our bags and freshen up before we set out to explore the city.

Nanjing was a beautiful city and very industrialized. The streets were lined with shops, restaurants, boutiques, and cafes. There were a lot of tall sky rise buildings and a ton of decorations for the holiday. Our first goal was lunch, so we wondered around looking for a delicious local restaurant to try. However, to our dismay, we found the majority of local restaurants were closed for the holiday. It is true that in American many businesses close for the Christmas holiday, but it is usually just a day… maybe two. Here, when I say they were closed for the holiday, I mean they were closed for five to twenty days. It was ridiculous, and since we arrived on New Year’s Eve, next to nothing was open. We finally ended up at a Burger King, because the fast food chains were the only things open L

We spent the rest of the day shopping and touring the city. Nanjing is home to one of the biggest shopping districts in China called Fashion Lady – a huge underground mall. The mall was really neat. The ceiling was lined with rows of bright, flashing lights so it almost felt as if I was walking through a pin ball machine instead of a mall. Half of the mall was mall shopping and the other half was market shopping (where all the bargaining takes place and the best kind of shopping).

Interesting side note: it is really strange how the local people react to the Americans. Sometimes they make me feel like I am an alien because they stare at me awkwardly (and don’t look away when I catch them), and other times they make me feel like a celebrity and they want to take pictures with me. As we walk down the street, or through a store, we would catch people taking our pictures. The best part is that they are never discrete or inconspicuous about it, they just do it. At one point, L was taking a picture of H and me, and a Chinese man walked up beside L and also took our picture… like we were posing for him. Heaven forbid we ask someone to take a picture for us because they will take a picture with our camera, then take a picture with their own camera, then they will ask us to take a picture with them, their friend or their child. We never turn them down, but it is always so funny. It is also really funny when random people approach us on the street and ask to take a picture with us. I am still trying to decide if they want to take pictures with us because they think we are awesome or if they want our picture the way we take pictures of the weird people at Wal-mart – to laugh at them later.

That night, we got ready for the big night out… New Year’s Eve. It was our first new years, but we had heard nothing but good things about the celebrations and the nightlife in Nanjing, so we were pumped. Everyone told us that we had to go to 1912 – a pedestrian walk full of bars and restaurants – but man, what a BUST! It was supposed to be the happening place, full of young expats and expat bars, but once we got there, again we found that almost everything was closed for the New Year. We finally found an expat restaurant/bar that we settled on for dinner at the Blue Marlin. The food was good, but the drinks and service was terrible. After dinner, we wondered to other bars but the whole area was very Chinese (remember that term… all Chinese and no Expats) and we ended up back at the Blue Marlin. The bar was lame, the food was lame, and the crowd was pretty old.

We were really frustrated that we had come so far to be really disappointed by the night. So there we were, three girls, dressed to impress on New Year’s Eve just before midnight in Nanjing, China, and bored out of our minds. Fed up, we decided to leave and start heading home. This was when all the fun began…

Now believe me when I tell you that Chinese people enjoy blowing up fireworks more than anything else in the world. Since the day I arrived in China, I have seen and heard fireworks nonstop throughout the day. With Spring Festival, we knew there would be an increase in the amount of fireworks being blow up, but we really did not understand the full magnitude of it. After arriving in Nanjing, we had asked several people where we could go to see fireworks, but people just laughed at us and said anywhere. Fireworks stands were set up on every corner, and people where literally just buying them and lighting them off everywhere.

After leaving the bar, we found ourselves on a busy street intersection in the middle of the city. Looking around, we could see and hear fireworks in all directions, so we stopped and watched. All of the sudden, some guys start piling boxes of fireworks in the middle of the intersection and lighting them off. It was absolutely INSANE! Please do not be fooled, when I say boxes of fireworks, I mean boxes, and not just the little Michigan bought bottle rockets fireworks. I am talking about hardcore, Chinese made, Fourth of July finale fireworks. They were huge and beautiful colors and different styles and designs and they were right above our heads – so close that we could feel the explosion in our chest and we ducked as the colors ignited the sky.

The craziest part was that while these incredible fireworks were going off in the street, traffic did not even pause. Cars continued to drive feet away from the boxes as if they were not explosives and nearly ran over the people that were standing in the road to watch. It was so dangerous but we were on such a high as we watched box after box of fireworks for nearly an hour. It was exactly what we had wanted to see, and exactly the kind of eventful New Year’s Eve celebration that we were looking for. Once the fireworks finished, we bought a bottle of 17 Yuan Dynasty Wine, opened it right in the liquor store and began drinking it as we headed back in the direction of our hotel by foot (about three miles).

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè – Happy New Year  J