• About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
FREE REPORT
BEST PLACES TO RETIRE
*No spam: We will NEVER give your email address to anyone else.
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Portugal
      • Panama
      • Belize
      • France
      • Colombia
      • Dominican Republic
      • Thailand
      • Mexico
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
Live and Invest Overseas
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Portugal
      • Panama
      • Belize
      • France
      • Colombia
      • Dominican Republic
      • Thailand
      • Mexico
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
No Result
View All Result

Celebrating The Chinese New Year In Kunming, China

Live And Invest Overseas by Live And Invest Overseas
Feb 23, 2015
in China, Retirement/Living
0
Chinese New Year In Kunming China
218
SHARES
3.1k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Feting The New Year Of The Sheep In Kunming, China

Paul and I are in China celebrating Chinese New Year in Kunming, China.

The first thing we noticed: No one showed up.

Not here, anyway, in center-city Kunming. Some 300 million Chinese packed onto trains, buses, and planes so they could celebrate with family. Many returned to villages. Center-city Kunming, rebuilt over the past decade, represents the future. For the holiday, Chinese cleared out rather than showed up.

Kunming started slowing down a couple of days before New Year’s. Small restaurants put signs on locked doors encouraging us to return in 10 days. By New Year’s Eve about half of the downtown district had shut down, while probably 90% of businesses, factories, and restaurants closed in the rest of Kunming. All will stay closed for 3 to 10 days.

Our hotel emptied out. The regular breakfast buffet, included in our room price, shut down during the official three-day holiday. The front desk provided a simple boxed breakfast instead. Before New Year’s Eve we shopped to make sure we had plenty of goodies on hand, but it turns out that supermarkets in our area stayed open even during the holidays.

Paul and I spent New Year’s Eve doing what most Chinese do, some 700 million or more around the world, based on last year’s figures. We watched TV. Every year since 1983, Chinese TV has presented a glitzy gala.

We started with a half-hour of world news on China’s English-language CCTV news station. We watch the news most days. The station presents timely news that matters, rather than simply news that happens to lead to the most dramatic video.

At 8 o’clock the gala got under way and continued nonstop until just after midnight. English-language CCTV offered a special edition of the gala. A host and two guests explained what was going on and related it to Chinese culture. English-language captions on the bottom of the screen translated the lyrics. The first series of songs reminded me of so many fortune cookies, with good fortune, happiness, prosperity, the usual stuff.

Later on, the songs told love stories, glorified China, honored family, and gently taught moral behavior. One online site said, “No other cultural event serves as such rich fodder for water cooler conversation after Chinese families return to the office after spring festival.”

Paul and I especially enjoyed the acrobatics. Cirque du Soleil must be watching the show to see the newest stunts. One young boy stood on one leg on a man’s head while wrapping his other leg around his own head. A 6-year-old girl did 40 flips in just a few seconds, every one perfect. Chinese have been selecting and training acrobats for 2,000 years, all focused on strength and balance.

The English program’s host explained that Chinese love noise, crowds, and bustle. We’ve noticed. It wears us down. Supermarkets hire what we call frenzy makers—girls who choke the aisles offering tastes of food, helping shoppers find what they want, and more generally, doing nothing other than keeping the place feeling buzzed. Grocery stores stayed unusually quiet during the official three days of the festival, with few frenzy makers anywhere. Those who work during the festival collect triple time, so perhaps frenzy makers became too expensive.

After two hours the English edition of the gala went off the air. We changed channels and watched both the show in Chinese and the fireworks outside our 17th-story window. Firecrackers, connected on long fuses that blast away for several minutes, started before the sun set. In the old days fireworks warded off evil spirits, but now it seems they show off disposable income.

On New Year’s Day Paul and I walked to Green Lake Park and discovered that all of Kunming seemed to congregate there. On our way home we bought dumplings, the traditional festival food. Along with a billion Chinese, we toasted the New Year and its heralding of peace and harmony.

Vicki Terhorst

Comments

Tags: chinese new yearexpats in kunmingfestivals in chinaPaul Terhorsttravel in chinatravel in KunmingVicki Terhorst
Share87Tweet55
Previous Post

Transportation In And Around Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic

Next Post

Panamanian Environmental Protections Signed Into Law

Live And Invest Overseas

Live And Invest Overseas

Live and Invest Overseas is the world's savviest source for top opportunities to live better, retire in style, invest for profit, do business, and own real estate overseas. Established in 2008, the Live and Invest Overseas' editors and correspondents have more experience researching and reporting on top opportunities for living well, investing for profit, doing business, and owning real estate around the world than anyone else you'll find.

Related Posts

Scenic sunset in Lisbon, Portugal.
Real Estate

How To Invest In Property 101: The Pitfalls You Should Avoid

by Lynn Mulvihill
January 18, 2021
0

Among the new trends we faced last summer in Ireland, a country home being snapped up by a foreign buyer...

Read more
Refreshing Cocktail at beach in Belize.

10 Reasons To Reinvent Your Life In Beautiful Belize And 9 Challenges

January 17, 2021
Beautiful tranquil beach sun rise in southern Belize.

Ask Yourself These Questions Before You Move To Belize

January 15, 2021
Beautiful Wooden pier view in Belize.

Living A Whole New Life In Belize

January 14, 2021
Perfect tropical paradise beach with palm trees and hammock 350x250

Most Frequently Asked (And Not So Crazy) Questions About Retiring Overseas

January 10, 2021
Family watching sunrise on beach.

Moving Overseas Will Affect Your Family But It Can Be For The Better

January 5, 2021
Senior couple walking on the beach.

The 2 Biggest Concerns Retirees Have Before Living Overseas

January 4, 2021
Next Post
Panamanian Environmental Protections Signed Into Law

Panamanian Environmental Protections Signed Into Law

A world full of fun, adventure, and profit awaits! Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we'll send you a FREE report on the 10 Best Places To Retire In Style Overseas Today.

Start Your New Life Today, Overseas

how to retire overseas

LIOS Resources


  • New To LIOS
  • Ask An Expert
  • Media Center
  • Contact Us
  • FAQs

Quick Links


  • Best Places To Live
  • Best Places To Retire
  • Finding A Job Overseas
  • Real Estate

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and get your FREE report: The 10 Best Places To Retire Overseas In 2021

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe

© 2008-2021 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Countries
  • Budgets
  • Archives
  • News
  • Events
  • Bookstore
  • Newsletters
  • About Us
  • Members Area
  • Contact Us

© 2008-2021 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

WANT TO RETIRE OVERSEAS?

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we’ll immediately send you a free report on the 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE in style overseas. Each day you’ll learn about the best opportunities for international living, retiring overseas, offshore diversification and asset protection, and investing in real estate around the world.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.