We didn't miss CNY after all...

For those of you who were concerned that we would miss Chinese New Year celebrations because we spent (part of) the holiday in Cambodia/Thailand (where many also partook in plenty of firework and parade and boozie celebrations as well)...

This is my French-Canadian colleague, Line,

and one of our secretaries, Shirley,

with 4th grade students as backup dancers.

They are singing in the style of Beijing Opera,

and were actually asked to share the performance

at the community's Lantern Festival, 

but Line was unavailable at that time, regrettably.

The general public would have ADORED a foreigner singing so well!

Well, in addition to the festivities pre-CNY break at AIAN (our school), we also got to participate in some of the closing festivities of post-CNY. You see, the CNY holiday typically lasts about 15 days prior to and 15 days after the lunar new year. Many Chinese nationals take up to a month off from work (sometimes even more, depending on their jobs). Chinese New Year fell on February 10 this year. We were in Cambodia. Even though we may have missed mega-celebrations, entailing fireworks that ceased to explode for an entire weekend straight, as well as some decorations and loud music, we didn't miss out on the closed businesses and shops (because the majority of Chinese nationals choose to travel and spend the time with their families). And we were welcomed home on February 16 to a fair share of fireworks... (see video below)

This weekend supposedly "concludes" Chinese New Year festivities. It is the Lantern Festival, as can be observed on Google (and described on Wikipedia). We were enthusiastically encouraged by surrounding neighborhood communities (Yulan, LiRen, etc.) to participate in the grand lantern parade and festivities last night. The celebrations consisted of: 

• Dragon Dancing, Lion Dancing, Snake Dancing, Lantern Parade: The Parade Route walked through entailed--
• Yu Lan Community, which is about two blocks away from our Li Ren apartment complex
• TangWan Ren Jia, which is the area in between Yu Lan and our apartment complex, crossing the Xin Da Lu ("Sheenda" Road) intersection and blocking traffic along Minshan Lu as we walked and danced slowly. (This was the point where we decided that Jett had had been on stimulation overload long enough; he can handle fireworks, but not banging drums, cymbals, loud music, scary costumes, screaming kids, AND fireworks all at once! I took him home. At least he got out again!)
• Li Ren Garden (our apartment complex)
• Sports Park, which are the basketball fields on the other side of the river that borders our apartment complex (the fireworks that were filmed in the above video clip with Jett sleeping were set off from that very Sports Park, as the basketball players were completely unfazed and carried on their game, while bombs were bursting all around them)

• Performance: The Yu Lan community had a stage (really, a red carpet) laid out in Sports Park for a performance of:
• singing (from both old and young, talented and, um, NOT. Off-key!)
• the Zumba-esque dancers who practice nearly every night in their jingling little skirts, withstanding the winter's cold and wind

• dancing crustaceans, fish, and a snake of course (since this lunar year is a Year of the Snake; last year was the Dragon)

• guards singing (I have a video of it, but it is too long or large or not in the correct format to post directly up here, I'm afraid)

• Floating River-Lanterns: Yu Lan Community prepared River Lanterns, passed around to each guest, to write hopes/dreams on papers to put in them, then the security guards floated them along the river (so that children and many hundreds of guests attending the event will not be in danger of falling into the river, as it is slippery after all the rain we received this week)

Setting lanterns afloat, down along the banks of the river

It was beautiful, clear scenery, with no breeze, which made the night air not nearly as frigid as Kari remembers the celebrations last year. (We had our cocoa spiked with Baileys, as well as hand-warmers to keep us warm as well!) The lack of breeze seemed to cause issues in the end, when, guards began to set the lotus/lily flower lanterns afloat on the river that borders our apartment complex in LiRen Gardens; I think it's called the Zhong He River? You see, without a breeze, the water is stagnant, and the lanterns didn't really float... away. They just stuck to the shore. The first guard to set a lantern adrift actually slipped and fell into the river! (Which is NASTY!) 

Even amongst the colorful plum tree blossoms,
Kari's red head still stands out! ;)

Today, Sunday, February 24, with two Chinese friends named Lisa and Fan (who are ladies who work part-time jobs at Cup o' Joe in order to practice and improve their English skills), we engaged ourselves in rigorous hiking of the Jiu Feng Mountain (pronounced like "Jew-Fung")... as did hundreds, if not thousands, of Chinese nationals as well. This weekend marks the end of the Chinese New Year month-long celebrations, so the Chinese jam-pack as many holidays and festivals into this interval of time that begins the onslaught of "Spring Festival" (which has a "Golden Week" of its own when the Tomb-Sweeping Festivals happen, during the first week in April this year). 

Honey purchases at the Jiu Feng beehive shack!

This weekend, in addition to the Lantern Festival, the Plum Tree Festival is being celebrated at Jiu Feng Mountain, thus drawing even larger mass-hoards of people to picnic, hike the mountain (at an elevation of 1630 ft), and enjoy the fruits of the scenery (many waterfalls, fruit trees, and beehives). I purchased some fresh honey from the beekeepers there (side story: in early winter (November/December?), Kari and I had biked the 20-minute ride from home up to the beekeepers at the base of Jiu Feng Mountain, but we were told that they were closed for the winter, and the shop was only open during the mornings of weekdays. So we were out of luck on getting honey any time soon, with our work schedules). I was very glad to get not only my fresh honey this time, but also a taste test of all the varieties of honey they had, as well as a translated education from my Chinese friends who had accompanied me!

View of Beilun from the top of Jiu Feng Mountain

Waterfalls galore

Though we knew it was going to be busy, we nevertheless decided to take Jett along with us, for the exercise (even after our two-hour long bike ride up to a nearby dam/reservoir, Xinlu'ao Reservoir, yesterday morning). But we also thought it would be good exposure within the context of a more hectic atmosphere; he needs to overcome the point of sensory-overload and learn to stay focused on the leash, our commands, and not freak out in noisy crowds. Though he only barks and would never bite (even around other dogs he's afraid of), he does get quite afraid and backs away or tries to jump into our arms for protection, even though he's far to large now to be carried for any distance. 

We didn't even know the three Chinese
people on the whole left half of the photo

We hiked for about two hours to get up the mountain, took lovely panoramic photos with our friends (as well as had the typical laowai "foreigner photos" taken OF or with us). Then we headed back down the mountain (whew--jelly legs from all the steep stair steps up and down!). Per usual, I received comments and many photos for being a laowai (I do believe that Kari and I were the only foreigners I saw the whole morning-excursion!), but all the more because we had Jett on harness-lead. It was great exercise and training for him, but he received his fair share of pats (Chinese-style, which involve a scared-sort-of touch-and-run on the top of his head; again, Chinese don't really quite understand the idea of domesticated dogs as pets yet). Jett was called (in Chinese and limited, broken English), "cute," "beautiful," "strange," "scary," and evoked many screams and skittish skirting around him on the pathways, from those unaccustomed to dogs (though there were several other dogs on the trails as well).

All in all, it was a lovely hike and good exercise, even with the crowds of humanity, getting to know more Chinese friends, learning more Mandarin, and having the opportunity for a good training sesh for Jett and us as his on-lead handlers, reacting to his behavior amongst a crowd... so it was a beneficial experience for all, I'd say!