Excellent start to the Amazing Race with the All-Star teams flying into China. Wow, Guangzhou as the first city and it is a busy/crowded city good thing they took the subway because taxi are slow with all the traffic. This is the only reality show I watch on TV because it is about travel and anything to promote international travel is a good thing. My wife was watching the show and wanted to see an eating contest because Guangzhou area consume a lot of adventurous things but maybe next week.
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Wow, check this link out China has some great ideas. I love the street sweeper but just as dusty as the sweepers in the US. China has always been creating new products and they make use of all materials. My father in-law lives in a village and they use all scrap material to repair items or sell it for scrap. For example, when we upgraded our exterior door in our apartment he took our old door and used it in his house for a new entryway. Another example is thin cardboard is folded into temporary ashtrays then used to start fires in stoves. Obviously there is a lot of pollution from coal burning but China recycles more than the US and I will cover this into more detail in another blog. But for now enjoy the link. http://news.yahoo.com/photos/unique-inventions-and-self-made-projects-from-china-1393142163-slideshow/ Well the Chinese New Year is finally over for the in-laws which they hosted their last banquet fest for all the older cousins on my wife’s fathers side. Again my in-laws have a large family born earlier than the one child policy so the Chinese New Year lasts a little longer for them. Father in-law is back to work and mother is back playing Mah Jong. In several years we will go back again during this time which we target every 3-4 years for Chinese New Year but we visit China every year. Good Luck to everyone this year and hope everyone is successful in their own way. Valentine’s Day in China has become more and more popular especially with the younger crowd and the link below compares Lantern Festival to Valentine’s Day in China. I remember visiting China in 2004 and 2005 to see my wife to be and there was not a lot of Westerner holidays celebrated but now my wife knows the dates better than me. It is now a big business just like in the US flowers, cards, chocolate and all sorts of gifts need to be purchased for Valentine’s Day but I hope it never really replaces the Lantern Festival. http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/14/travel/lantern-festival-china/index.html?hpt=travel_hp_blogroll Who needs a dressing room when you need to catch your bus? To follow up with my blog with the US ramping up to cater to Chinese tourist we have a funny story. Today we were shopping at the Nike Factory Store and it is a stop for a tour bus full of Chinese tourists. An older couple wanted to try on several clothes and I as well and could not find an employee to unlock the dressing rooms. The couple was Chinese and my wife translated and said to him I was getting someone to help them. They could not wait so the lady took off her pants and tried on clothes right there, it was funny. An employee got the key but it was too late and my wife translated if they had different sizes. I told the employee they should hire my wife to translate since it was a tour shopping stop. We let them check out in front of us because they and another couple had to get to their bus and they were buying many Nike shoes and clothes. I thought it was a funny situation for my blog the other day and another topic about China which I will blog is the Chinese Just Do It like the Nike catch phrase…
Chinese New Year is all about family and most of the people have returned to their work locations. But my in-laws are still going strong with the celebration. My wife’s mother and father have a large family with 4 siblings on mother’s side and 6 siblings on father’s side. They were all born from 1940’s to the mid 1950’s well before the one child policy in 1979. Most Chinese celebrate from 7-10 days but my in-laws must visit each family member for a day. They typically celebrate for 14 plus days with the first 2 days with immediate family then visit each member which is 10 days then host 2 extra days for older cousins. It is funny to see all the news with travelers going back to their work locations and my in-laws are still having a great time. Times are changing with smaller families and I hope it will never become like our Christmas with only 2 days. The younger and more influent generation is traveling abroad and with the one child policy with fewer siblings. I just hope it does not become less meaning full to get back to visit family during this time because one of my enjoyments is seeing all the smiling faces when they are excited to go back home for the holiday. Happy Chinese New Year! There are so many businesses in Las Vegas that are catering to the Chinese traveler and this article supports this target market. My Chinese wife had several interviews for retail jobs because they want Mandarin speaking employees and it was funny when I was with her and an employee (non-Chinese) said Ni Hao (Hello) to us as we entered the store. This article all the amenity but one major item to include is free breakfast because in most Chinese hotels in China offer free breakfast and it is always packed. This is one of the reasons when we travel to China we prefer Chinese hotel they offer free breakfast. The western chains typically charge you for breakfast but Chinese brands usually have free breakfast. Also Chinese rather spend less money for a hotel and much more on shopping and eating. It is not just a manner of employing Mandarin speaking employees but employees who understand the culture. Part of training should be a trip to China, if so I am in! http://skift.com/2014/02/10/u-s-hotels-and-destinations-work-to-make-themselves-china-ready/ The attached link reviews the Chinese New Year experience and it very similar to my experiences. This article is not absolute but a window into the culture during this time but I will say I have experienced the exact situations. It is a time to spend with your family and that’s why there is a massive migration of people heading home. During my 3 visits during this time is about eating, drinking, gambling, and resolving family disputes. My schedule is like this and happens in most of this area in China, Nanjing. The morning starts with dumplings, and then we will journey to our location for the day (each day will be at a different relatives house rotating from mother side to father side). Then we will be offered sugar water and snacks for all guests arriving. We will give gifts of cigarettes, alcohol, fruit, snacks, and soy milk. At lunch time we will eat lots of great fresh food and drink lots of Baijui but NOT too much because we will be gambling after lunch. The males will sit at one table and the females/kids at a separate table. My wife sits at our table because she needs to translate for me. After lunch the ladies will clean the tables so fast and efficient it is amazing. With the tables cleaned the gambling starts and we play cards. We drink tea and eat more snacks. At dinner there is usually more food and lots more alcohol and it is a game to make sure everyone drinking drinks the same amount. After our amazing meal we will gamble more and others will come and go to different places to gamble. It is a great time just walking around the villages and seeing groups of people gambling and having a great time for the holiday everyone has a smile on their face. We repeat at a different relative’s house each day for 10 days straight. Again it is all about family and when there are family arguments during the year it is a time to resolve family disputes. Inviting family for a fest during this time is a sign of great respect and I am glad to see my wife’s father and uncle talking again, Happy New Year! http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/29/travel/cny-baijiu/index.html?hpt=travel_hp_blogroll We celebrated our New Year Eve Dinner with the in-laws via Skype, we from our house in Las Vegas to their village in China. It is funny how most houses in the villages do not have hot water or heat/AC but everyone has a cell phone and or a computer with internet connection. We kept our dinner fairly light with pork ribs with Arrowhead (vegetable), lotus root, Soy beans, pork belly with leek and my spring rolls. We tried to get some fish but Chinatown supermarkets were mostly sold out. The funny story about the spring rolls, when I first visited my wife’s family in the village it was hard for me at the time to eat a lot of the food mainly due to texture until I got used to it. Back to the spring rolls story, they wanted to make something I would eat especially drinking all the Baijui which is rice wine 45-56% by volume so I need something to absorb the alcohol each family made sure there were spring rolls. No one would eat the spring rolls because of the texture for them but now after 9 years of visiting them they all eat the spring rolls especially the young kids. They cannot keep them on the table long enough. We had a 3 hour dinner with the in-laws the other night drinking, eating and talking with them. It was great to have a celebration with them on the computer and we like to go back every 3-4 years for the New Year celebration. Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! |
AuthorPassionate for everything related to China travel. Archives
September 2019
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