Month: February 2011
Special: Happy (Chinese) New Year!
I hope you all had a good night’s sleep, for I certainly didn’t. Custom has it that around midnight (after the TV show has finished) everyone comes out and the fire-cracking/fireworks goes berserk for at least another hour. And then everyone has to get up really early the next morning, around 5 am, to wish their family members health and good luck for the new year, receive their presents (usually a red paper envelope with money that will be spent on clothes) and eat dumplings. All this is necessary to keep good luck for the new year. Anyways, right after that – also for good luck – everyone starts to fire up a new round of fire crackers. So, this morning, at 6 am sharp I woke up to a big whomm!!! that took place right in front of my window, and ever since then the constant whomm whomm has continued and probably will go on for the next couple of days – at any given hour. Well, at least last night I was in …
Spring Festival
The most important holiday in China without question is Spring Festival – the Chinese New Year. It begins on the first day of the Chinese traditional calendar – which is usually some time between the end of January and the middle of February – and concludes on the 15th day with the Lantern Festival. Origin Many myths and traditions revolve around this holiday, the most prominent legends claiming that Spring Festival originated in the fight against a mythical beast that would come about this time of the year to devour whatever was in its way. In order to protect themselves, people offered food to the beast, until later they discovered that using the color red would frighten off the creature, as well as the noise of fire crackers. Hence, now, every year at Spring Festival, people paste red paper strips on their door posts, containing phrases of blessing and luck, and all throughout the season of the new year, fire crackers can be heard everywhere. Traditions Some of the most common traditions centered around the …
Inspire Me: GSO Blog
Every first Wednesday of the month I’m trying to show you something that may help your mojo or will inspire you in your scrapping routine; and what better inspiration can you get than from layouts that already inspired others? I’m talking about the Gallery Standouts blog. To be honest with you, I need constant inspiration to make my pages worth looking at, and the GSO blog recently has become a welcome and useful resource for me. Basically, it’s a group of ladies who scour the galleries in search of some amazing, outstanding scrapbook pages. Admitted, not everything there is to my liking, as there are different tastes, but it is a great source of inspiration to look at all those awesome layouts, all concentrated in one place. The blog gets updated daily and you can search the archives for even more inspiration. Sadly, though, they recently updated their website, and while on their old blog they had previews to the selected standouts all collected in one place for an easy overview, I haven’t found that …
Special: New Year’s Eve
It’s here! The last day of the year. At least in these parts of the world. I can tell, because when I wanted to go for breakfast this morning, I found the door to my building locked – did I ever tell you that for Spring Festival everything shuts down in this country? Well, it happens. I mean, literally! Of course, I’m glad for the people, because for a large percentage of the Chinese the New Year’s holidays are the only time of the year they ever get off work for a couple of days. Some are not even that fortunate – as I discovered on my search for someone with a key this morning so I could go get my breakfast. Anyways, today is the big day, marking the official beginning of the New Year’s festivities. They will last about two weeks and will end at the 15th (Lunar calendar) with the Lantern festival. This means: more than two weeks of hearing fire crackers and fireworks going off all day long while someone out …
Spring Festival
February 2: Eve of the Chinese New Year February 3: First day of the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival begins); most stores will be closed for two days. February 3-17: Chinese New Year’s festivities February 17: Lantern Festival (Spring Festival ends with great fireworks)
Best of January 2011
February News
It’s the first of the month again, and that means: lots of news. SSD Portfolio Have you saved your spot already in the new February Portfolio over at SSD? If not you can do so HERE to make sure you get your sweet rewards next month. New Digi Files Also, the new Digi Files are out this month, and if you haven’t subscribed to get them automatically, you should make sure to check them out as they are revealed throughout the month. New Month at OTS … and that means a whole new set of kits and element packs is available. So, make sure you don’t miss out on what’s going on over there.
Nan Wan Lake (Xinyang)
Places to Go: Nan Wan Lake (Xinyang)
West of the city of Xinyang, the Nan Wan Reservoir spreads about 20 miles wide and 50 miles long – a beautiful nature retreat. Surrounded by mountains and woods, and strewn with countless little islands, Nan Wan has much to offer to the visitor – cruises on the lake, cultural insights into the traditions of tea drinking – after all, Xinyang is famous for its tea – and for those who love to get out into nature, the lake is a perfect escape. The most popular pastime for visitors is the cruise to different islands: the bird island, monkey island and the tea island. Each island in itself has its own attractions. The bird island is spanned with a large canopy holding quite a variety of birds, local and foreign. The monkey island hosts dozens of “wild” monkeys, and the tea island with its beautifully landscaped gardens, tea plantations and pagodas has its own charms. Visitors can stroll all over the island and watch tea drinking ceremonies performed in one of the exhibition centers.