Are you bored of your comfort zone, want to stop your current routine for something totally new and different? Then a gap year in China is the perfect match for you! I am currently doing a gap year in Shanghai and it is, for now, the best experience I ever had in my life. [...]
What is Spring Festival? Time to put on your red socks! Bunches of red socks are being wrapped as New Year gifts and Chinese migrant workers are already queuing up to buy train tickets to return back home for one short week at the end of January. During this week all manufacturing and business stops in the [...]
The Dragon Boat Festival or Duanwujie is upon us! This traditional holiday that commemorates the famous Chinese Scholar Qu Yuan, known as China's first poet, takes places on the fifth day of the fifth month of the traditional Chinese lunar calendar. This date is also the source of the alternative name used to refer to [...]
Studying Chinese in Shanghai or Beijing for a couple of months offers the perfect opportunity to do some traveling to the top places to visit in Mainland China. Whether you’re taking Intensive Chinese Classes or doing an internship in one of these two cities, the travel possibilities for a fun weekend are endless! Mount [...]
Qing Ming Jie (also called Pure Brightness Festival or Tomb-Sweeping Day), a traditional Chinese festival that remembers past ancestors, is upon us! On the 4th of April, everything will revolve around cleaning and sweeping the graves of passed loved ones and remembering ancestors, but it's also a time for celebrating new life. Lao Guo has written an [...]
The year of the fire monkey kicked off with neither bang nor spark. No fireworks were set off in Shanghai for the year of the monkey due to the strict instructions of the government. Pollution levels being what they are, throwing more soot and smoke into the sky is not considered a good idea. On New [...]
Spring in China has now officially sprung. To mark the occasion Hutong fixture and Beijing local Lao Guo has written an article about what to eat and how to stay healthy during this time of year. See below for the original article in Chinese, and an English summary. 立春 今年立春是在2016年2月4日星期四 17时48分。 立春不仅是农历二十四节气中的第一个节气，立春是从天文上来划分的，而在自然界、在人们的心目中，春意味着风和日暖，鸟语花香；春也意味着万物生长。 立春期间，气温、日照、降雨，开始趋于上升、增多。但这一切对全国大多数地方来说仅仅是春天的前奏。 立春后气温回升，但在强冷空气影响的间隙期，偏南风频数增加，并伴有明显的气温回升过程。 立春是一个时间点，也可以是一个时间段。说的是东风送暖，大地开始解冻。 立春的传统饮食： [...]
During winter there are lots of festivals in China, some all over the country (like New Year) and some in different cities.
Yaaay, holidays! Actually, that could be all that matters: all of us currently staying in China will have an extra week of holidays around October 1. But why? For all those who want to know about the background of their free time, we got some information here!
The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival (端午节 - Duānwǔ jié) is one of the oldest holidays in China. It is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. Duanwu Festival’s highlight is marked by boats designed to look like dragons which race on the provinces’ important rivers. But as always in China, there is more to this festival than just dragons and boat races, it is an authentic celebration with a lot of tradition and customs!
