This morning we went to the New Years fair, I guess you could call it. It was HUGE and SO CROWDED. I don't think I've ever been so crowded in my life, except maybe on a really crowded New York subway on certain days. Jon and I were literally carried by the crowd at times. It was actually really similar to American fairs, with food and overpriced games and toys for people to buy. They sold lots of the stuffed ox animals since it's the year of the ox. Hence, Happy 牛 (niu, which means cow and sounds like "new") Year. There were also lots of these weird, inflatable toys which looked literally like poop on sticks. Nobody has yet to correct me and tell me what they really are.
We also got these bizarre drinks that tasted like a mix between 果汁和汽水 (fruit juice and a carbonated drink - guo zhi he qi shui). They were in these long bags with straws out of the top and small holes towards the top of the bags that let out constant streams of hot air. There was also a weird little crystal nugget in the bottom of the juice in the bag, which caused little bubbles of air to rise and then come out of the sides of the holes in the bag. Jon thinks it was dry ice. It was really cool looking, and the juice was tasty.
Then, we went on the epic journey to make it to the Yonghegong (sp?) Lama Temple to pay proper respects on the most important Chinese holiday. Trying to find the entrance to the temple, forced us to walk through miles and miles of back alleyways, past small little stone homes and streetside vendors and people selling fireworks while their children played and ran through the narrow stone streets. We were walking for at least an hour to get to the line where hundreds of people were waiting to enter the temple. When we finally got there, we paid for entrance and went in to pray. Jon gave me two of his incense so that I could light them, and we both said our hopes and wishes and bowed and it was really beautiful and nice. I felt so special that we were persistent enough to follow through and go to the temple. Although we were exhausted and Jon was feeling sick, I think we were both feeling like we'd accomplished something really important to our culture and being in China on this day. It turns out, we were the only ones out of the group that made it to the temple that day.
This morning we went to the New Years fair, I guess you could call it. It was HUGE and SO CROWDED. I don't think I've ever been so crowded in my life, except maybe on a really crowded New York subway on certain days. Jon and I were literally carried by the crowd at times. It was actually really similar to American fairs, with food and overpriced games and toys for people to buy. They sold lots of the stuffed ox animals since it's the year of the ox. Hence, Happy 牛 (niu, which means cow and sounds like "new") Year. There were also lots of these weird, inflatable toys which looked literally like poop on sticks. Nobody has yet to correct me and tell me what they really are.
We also got these bizarre drinks that tasted like a mix between 果汁和汽水 (fruit juice and a carbonated drink - guo zhi he qi shui). They were in these long bags with straws out of the top and small holes towards the top of the bags that let out constant streams of hot air. There was also a weird little crystal nugget in the bottom of the juice in the bag, which caused little bubbles of air to rise and then come out of the sides of the holes in the bag. Jon thinks it was dry ice. It was really cool looking, and the juice was tasty.
Then, we went on the epic journey to make it to the Yonghegong (sp?) Lama Temple to pay proper respects on the most important Chinese holiday. Trying to find the entrance to the temple, forced us to walk through miles and miles of back alleyways, past small little stone homes and streetside vendors and people selling fireworks while their children played and ran through the narrow stone streets. We were walking for at least an hour to get to the line where hundreds of people were waiting to enter the temple. When we finally got there, we paid for entrance and went in to pray. Jon gave me two of his incense so that I could light them, and we both said our hopes and wishes and bowed and it was really beautiful and nice. I felt so special that we were persistent enough to follow through and go to the temple. Although we were exhausted and Jon was feeling sick, I think we were both feeling like we'd accomplished something really important to our culture and being in China on this day. It turns out, we were the only ones out of the group that made it to the temple that day.
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