I spent the New Year holiday in Nanjing with June and Bret from Hefei, their son Paul visiting from the States, and Francesca, an Italian exchange student who is placed in Hefei for the year. On this 'golden' holiday the city buzzes with people and energy as everyone, save retail and restaurant workers, has the first of January off. It's on occasions like this when China's 1.3 billion population really comes to life. Streets and shopping areas become a sea of people.
One of the highlights of this trip was our visit to Jiming Temple. This colorful temple complex is an active Buddhist monastery and the first where I've seen female monks. Maybe they're not called monks if they're female...I haven't figured that one out yet.
We wanted to visit the Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre, but that will not be open to the public again until December of 2007; plan accordingly. We wondered why the taxi driver laughed the whole while he was driving us out there. Being a tourist is such fun.
January 19 was my last day teaching for the first semester. I've managed a few short trips so far to Shanghai, Hefei and Harbin. I had a blast hanging out with Courtney and folks from her school while in Shanghai and Harbin. In Hefei, June and Bret prepared home cooked meals and showed me around their school and city. I'm lucky to have found great company to visit.
On Sunday I'll meet my sister and Sarah at the train station in Shanghai. After we spend about five days in Shanghai and Suzhou we're heading south to warmer weather and the beach...Hong Kong and Thailand. I'm so excited!
School will come to a close for students at the end of next week. Exams ended today, but most students stick around for a week of 'Winter Camp'. These are short classes where students do work to prepare them for next term or do remediation work for their exams and classes. Needless to say, everyone's looking forward to the holiday ahead of them.
Spring Festival officially begins on February 17. It's the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar and is set according to the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar. Typically Chinese people get a week to three weeks off to spend time with family, eat lots of dumplings and other good food, give children money, and set off loads of fireworks. Train travel will be made close to impossible, if not very unpleasant, as millions of people make their way around the country to reunite with family.
I'm looking forward to being among the throngs of people moving about over the next few weeks. I can only hope I don't miss any of my departures because getting a ticket anywhere these days is like winning the lottery!
