Category: Chinese Culture

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The Lantern Festival – Spectacular Display at Wenyu River Park!

The final day of Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival (Yuánxiāo jié 元宵节) falls this year on February 24th, the fifteenth day of the celebrations. Although it’s not a public holiday, it is still widely celebrated, especially in southern China and among the diaspora.

This year, we visited two locations in Beijing to see lanterns: Shichahai to see an amazingly long dragon and Wenyu River Park, to see one of the biggest lantern displays there’s ever been in Beijing! Read on to find out more about the origins of Lantern Festival and the lantern displays.

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Taste Testing Starbucks’ Chinese New Year Cakes!

To celebrate Chinese New Year (aka Spring Festival), Starbucks released two new cakes inspired by traditional Spring Festival foods. We love seeing modern interpretations of traditional customs, so on a recent visit to Tianjin, we (AJ and Nic) decided to try them both.

Read on to find out what we  thought and to see the video! (And no, this post wasn’t sponsored by Starbucks!)

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Visiting Two Beijing Temple Fairs Over Spring Festival!

After four years of very quiet Spring Festivals, thing finally returned to normal this year, and the temple fairs were back! We visited two of Beijing’s temple fairs at Tongzhou Grand Canal Park and Dongyue Temple and made a video to show you what they were like.

Read on to find out more about the temple fairs and see the video!

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The (Many!) Days of Spring Festival

Lunar or Chinese New Year, known as Spring Festival (春节) in Chinese, is much more than just New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day! Starting from New Year’s Day, the entire festival actually lasts 15 days! Read on to find out more information about some of the most important days of the festival and the history and traditions to be aware of, as well as exactly which date they fall on! 

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