02.28.10 

Celebrating the Lunar New Year 
            
(春节和元宵节)

Spring Festival is a two week long celebration for the lunar new year.  It is also a time when Chinese people travel back to their hometowns to be with their families.  By far, it is the biggest holiday of the year.  This year it was on February 14th.  The city was rampant with ongoing fireworks for weeks.  A concluding celebration occurred on fifteenth day after the Lunar New Year since it was the first full moon of the new year.  There were no yelping wolves, but many tigers (for the year of the tiger) to bring in the new year.




02.24.10

Yunnan Province

I got to visit a Pu'er tea plantation while on a program development trip in Yunnan province.  Let's just say I'm a fan of Pu'er tea and of Yunnan, and I am happy to announce this place as my new home for 2010-2011!  








2.18.10

Fenghuang-Phoenix Town

Over Spring Festival I had the opportunity to visit a few of my students' homes.  One of my students is from Mayang, an Autonomous Region in Hunan, which is home to the Miao minority group.  Mayang is known nationwide as the town of longevity.  They have forty seniors over the age of 100, and one is a 104 year old woman who can still climb trees.  The people of Mayang claim two things as the reason people live so long in their town: oranges and fresh air. Next to Mayang is the famous historic town Fenghuang (in the picture to the left).