As I mentioned above, not only wordpress.com, but many other websites are blocked in China because of the censorship of the government. Jan 21st, 2010, Hillary made a speech about “Internet Freedom” in which she called for a public, open and accessible internet.

For this blog, exploring China, just wishes to introducing more things about China. All about its culture, history, sight-seeings etc. Easily accessing the internet is pretty cool for me now.

Just a few complaints.

Tourists pose for photographs at the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, northeast China’s Heilongjiang province December 24, 2009. [Xinhua]

People visit an ice sculpture for the upcoming 26th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival at a park in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, December 24, 2009. The 26th Ice and Snow Festival will kick off on January 5, 2010. [Xinhua]

Tourists visit the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, northeast China’s Heilongjiang province December 24, 2009. [Xinhua]

Tourists play at the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, northeast China’s Heilongjiang province December 24, 2009. [Xinhua]

Delicate cloisonné decorations have long been part of China’s accessorizing history: bracelets, rings, earrings… and now Christmas trees. Popular in China for hundreds of years, savvy craftsmen know an opportunity when they see it, and now butterfl ies, angels (below), Santa Clauses, snow fl akes and snowmen are relatively easyto- find ornaments in Beijing’s markets.

“As an international city, Beijing is becoming more open toward festivals like Christmas,” Liu Hui, a consultant in a foreign investment company said. She has several cloisonné decorations in Christmas patterns.

The legend of cloisonné

Cloisonné (jingtailan) was named for the painting color, which was mainly blue. This traditional Chinese craftwork fi rst emerged 600 years ago, during the Yuan Dynasty. Originally, gold, silver and copper were combined in up to 10 di. erent processes to make decorations and jewellery. Procedures include fi ligreeing, soldering, polishing, bluing and gold plating, all of which must be done manually. The craft allegedly has its origins among ordinary people.

One night, a part of the imperial palace burst into flames, demolishing the Jin Luan Dian, where royal treasures were restored. The emperor asked that people gather the treasures that survived, and was surprised to be delivered an elegant, multicolored vase. Never had the emperor seen anything like it, and it caught his fancy, so he ordered the best craftsmen in the city to attempt to reproduce the pattern in three days or face punishment. After receiving the order, the craftsmen bustled around trying to replicate the vase, without a single clue as to where to begin.

Here’s where it gets funky. One old craftsman was staring at an ordinary vase, desperately trying to fi gure out a technique, when suddenly a bright, colorful light came out of the vase and turned into a beautiful goddess. She exclaimed a poem before disappearing into the air. Following her words, the craftsman understood the process of making the vase and saved himself and the others from punishment. From there, the technique spread to all men.

Somewhat more realistically, history also holds that during the Ming Dynasty, craftsmen discovered a dark blue glaze that they felt made crafts look more elegant and noble; this is the glaze we now know as cloisonné blue. Cloisonné combines traditional techniques in crafting bronzes and pottery. The value of each piece depends upon the color and the technician’s skill, and the resulting piece is considered a symbol of Chinese tradition, so cloisonné Christmas ornaments are relatively strange to locals. Ding Shanxing, an employee at a local cloisonné store, said that most of his seasonal decorations are for export, as the Chinese still have reservations about spending money on celebrating Christmas. But as more cloisonné is introduced to the market, Christmas in Beijing can’t help but adopt such artful Chinese characteristics.

Wan Tong Shopping Center, A Building

Address: 2nd Floor, A Building, Wan Tong Shopping Center, Fu Cheng Men North Main Street, Xi Cheng District, Beijing Tel: 68588145

Beijing Hong Qiao Pearl Market – Christmas cloisonné

Address: Stall 308, Floor 3, No. 46 Tian Tan East Road, Chong Wen District, Beijing Tel: 6711-7499

Source: Global Times

Xiang E Qing Restaurant (湘鄂情) has introduced more than 10 dishes for the winter season. Its cuisine comes from Hubei and Hunan, two provinces known for their freshwater seafood, dry pot dishes, and marinated spicy sauces.

Sheldrake from Hong Lake (洪湖野鸭香锅), for example, is cooked with dried bamboo shoot in a heated hot pot style. The duck is paired with soybean sauce and a long list of seasoning materials to make it spicy. Another popular dish is chicken giblet (干锅鸡杂), which is fried with sour turnips, pepper and garlic.

Braised venison (酱烧梅花鹿) is processed with yellow rice wine to degrease it, and with soybean sauce to make it reddish-brown. Venison is believed to greatly replenish qi in Chinese culture. House-made bean curd (老豆腐蘸酱) is white boiled and served in a black clay pot. You can either eat it in its original flavor, or dip it in three sauces: leek flower, mashed garlic, or Guilin spicy sauce.

Xiang E Qing Restaurant has more than 10 chains in Beijing. It is known as a middle- to high-end restaurant offering quality food and better-than-average service. The company has recently registered on the Shenzhen stock market, and is one of very few Chinese restaurants that have listed successfully on the mainland stock market.

The average bill at the Chaoyangmen branch is 250 yuan per person, and at North Fourth Ring Road branch ,150 yuan per person.

Chaoyangmen branch: 16 Wangjiayuan Hutong, Dongcheng district, southeast of Swissotel. 6554-8777. 朝阳门店：东城区王家园胡同16号(港澳中心东南)

North Fourth Ring Road branch: Bldg 8, A16 Ganyangshu, North Fourth Ring Road, Chaoyang district. 6496-9866. 北四环店： 朝阳区北四环路干杨树甲16号8号楼(华堂商场斜对面)

Source: China Holidays

This Christmas, delve deep into the hutong to find some of Beijing’s most hidden churches. Some are in use to on Monday, while others have fallen into disrepair, but each is an architectural gem in a city much overtaken by gray concrete.

Xizhimen Catholic Church

Exit Xinjiekou subway station, walk toward Xizhimennei Street, and keep your eyes peeled. “People can only find the church because there’s a white sign outside the gate. The yard is really small and inconspicuous,” said Chen Shu, a guard from Xinjiekou Neighborhood Committee. The church building and yard are small, sandwiched between the committee on one side and an array of restaurants on the other. At street level it’s nearly unnoticeable, but raise your eyes to see the soaring architecture, topped by a cross.

Xizhimen Catholic Church, known as Xitang (West Church) to locals, is one of the six Catholic churches constructed in downtown Beijing. The other five are Wangfujing Church (Dongtang), Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Nantang), Xishiku Cathedral (Beitang), St. Michael’s Church (Dongjiaominxiang Church) and St. Teresa of Lisieux Church (Nangangzi Church). Established in 1723 by the Italian Lazarist missionary Teodorico Pedrini, Xitang was the first non-Jesuit church in Beijing. After Pedrini’s death, the church was run by Carmelites, then Augustinians, until it was destroyed in 1811 during a purge of Catholics and missionaries from the city. Rebuilt in 1867, it was again destroyed on June 15, 1900, during the Boxer Rebel-lion. Twenty years later, it was pieced back together a third time at the original location. Shi Hongxi, Secretary General of the Beijing Catholic Patriotic Association said, “In 1958, Xitang was given up as a church and used as a button-making factory, then as an electric fan facto

ry and later as a warehouse for Tongrentang pharmacy; during that time the three-story bell tower was torn down. Xitang officially reopened in 1994, and the bell tower was repaired in 2007.”

The church’s green Corinthian pillars give it an air of magnificence in spite of the lack of other elaborate decorations. Kneeler cushions line each bench, and light tiles lead to the alter.

Christmas mass:

7 pm and 11 pm on December 24.

7 am and 8 am on December 25.

Address: No. 130 Xizhimennei Street, Xicheng District

北京市西城区西直门内大街130号

St. Michael’s Church

Located in Beijing’s longest hutong, Dongjiaominxiang, the well-preserved St. Michael’s church is “small but exquisite,” according to Sun Hongtao, who has been a priest managing daily matters there for five years.

St. Michael’s can hold about 400 visitors – significantly smaller than Beijing’s other Catholic churches – and has remained remarkably free from serious damage since its construction in 1901. A young woman called Miya, who was taking pictures of the gate outside said, “A friend told me I would be impressed with the delicate St. Michael’s statue here. It is said that the believers take him as a guardian angel.”

“During the Cultural Revolution, St. Michael’s Church was shut down, but unlike other churches that were torn down, this church was put under Taijichang Elementary School,” said Chen Jing, an editor of Tianguang, magazine of Beijing diocese. “The unchanged structure of the church was used as an assembly hall. Repair work in 1986 and 2000 was just to take care of small things, like painting and mending.”

In 1901, the church property belonged to the French embassy, and when it opened in 1904, St. Michael’s was managed by the French Church. The church is decorated with colorful tiles, and bright stained glass windows fill the east and west walls. “The windows were originally specially made in France, but they were broken when the church was used as an elementary school. The current windows are replacements,” an anonymous employee from the archives of the Beijing Catholic diocese said.

St. Michael’s is unusual in that it incorporates some Chinese architectural styles into its supplementary structures, like the two-story rectory and the 10-room church offices. It also sits facing north-to-south instead of east-to-west, which is unusual, according to Shi Hongxi.

Christmas mass:

5 pm and 11:30 pm on December 24.

7 am and 8 am on December 25.

Address: A13, Dongjiaominxiang, Dongcheng District

北京市东城区东交民巷甲13号

Kuanjie Church

A white cross looms in Jixiang Hutong off of Ping’an Street, just east of Dianmen. It’s more noticeable these days, as much of the area surrounding it lies in ruins due to construction for subway lines 6 and 8. The church, at least, is spared, already having been moved once on August 12, 2000, from Kuanjie, displaced for the construction of Ping’an Street.

Protected by a large iron gate, many people don’t even notice the church. Xiu Yang, who owns a clothes store across the street, said, “It’s really quiet and isolated here. Only on Sunday there are many people gathering here.”

Kuanjie Church is one of the eight opened by the United Methodist Church in Beijing. Unlike the city’s Catholic churches, Kuanjie is “really simple and more modern,” according to Minister Meng Maoru. Former US President George W. Bush once visited in 2008. Teacher Tian, who manages the church camp, said, “President Bush felt this church was familiar and reminded him of home. And in this home, from the small details like the door signs to big things like the door and windows, all were chosen and installed by our staff themselves. People traveled far to procure the building materials, but everyone wanted to contribute to the church, and that makes it more like home.”

Address: No.10, Jixiang Hutong, Dianmen East Street, Dongcheng District

东城区地安门东大街吉祥胡同10号

Source:  Global Times

For residents of Wenzhou, a city in East China’s Zhejiang province with the highest number of overseas Chinese, discussions about the hottest holiday trip at the moment is not about a romantic sojourn through Europe or a relaxing stay at a tropical island, but a weekend trip to cities in neighboring Fujian province, like Fuzhou.

Despite their well-known desire to explore the world outside their hometown, few Wenzhou residents have visited Fuzhou, although they may have traveled to Europe, Africa or Australia.

Separated by walls of high mountains, residents of the two cities have long lived like they belong to two different continents, despite their geographical proximity. Travel by air was too costly, by bus too tedious and by train, too long.

As a Fujian native, I remember that it took me nearly 14 hours in 1997 to go from my hometown to Zheijiang by the fastest train. But a newly opened express railway line has shortened the travel time between Fuzhou and Wenzhou to just 90 minutes.

I chanced on this information by sheer luck. I was visiting Wenzhou two weeks ago for an interview. When I mentioned my hometown, people responded excitedly saying, “then you might as well go visit your hometown. It is now just 90 minutes away by train!”

While overjoyed to hear this, I could not shake off a lingering doubt.

My last memory of train travel in China was a tedious, long, crowded and sleepless 27-hour journey in a stuffy compartment from Shanghai to Xiamen, on the fastest train available between the two cities in 1997.

While I had heard much about the continuous upgrading of the country’s nationwide railway system, I didn’t have the desire or interest to check it out until that day in Wenzhou. Ultimately, the temptation of being able to see my parents was too much to resist.

The journey has completely altered my perception of train travel. My ears throbbed with the changes in air pressure as the train raced through one tunnel after another. But in general, the train was clean and comfortable and the service, good. I set out at about 7 pm and by 8:30 pm, I was with my childhood classmate, waiting at the station at Fuzhou.

Her mother was more eager to hear about my trip. With three children settled in three different cities, namely Fuzhou, Quanzhou and Xiamen, her delight at the possibility of visiting any of them after an hour-long train trip, was palpable.

When I mentioned my past memories of train travel, she brushed me off impatiently. “Don’t even mention it, that experience belongs to the last century.”

Source: China.org.cn

Kunqu and Peking Opera maestro Mei Lanfang (1894-1961) gave a famous performance at Shanghai’s Majestic Theater in 1946. Among the audience of celebrities and officials were the Kuomintang general Bai Chongxi (Pai Chung-hsi) and his family, including 9-year-old son Kenneth Pai Hsien-yong. That night, Mei and artist Yu Zhenfei enacted a scene from The Peony Pavilion (牡丹亭) called The Interrupted Dream (游园惊梦). It was a memorable night.

“I think it was fate. I did not know what it was. I did not understand it. But it haunted me,” says 72-year-old Kenneth Pai, in his hotel room near Peking University. When Pai recalls his first encounter with Kunqu Opera there is excitement in his big, expressive eyes, even though 63 years have passed.

It was the beginning of a love affair with old opera and especially The Peony Pavilion, which turned out to be an “interrupted dream” throughout his life.

Pai’s childhood in Shanghai ended in 1949 when the Kuomintang Party was defeated and the family settled in Taiwan, where he studied English literature at Taipei University and became an author.

At university he came across the scripts of The Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu (1550-1616) and he returned to the story many times as a writer. Inspired by the opera, he wrote a short story titled The Interrupted Dream in 1966. In 1982, he adapted this into a stage play. A year later, he produced two acts of the original opera, The Interrupted Dream, in Taipei.

“But it was not until 1987 when I returned to the mainland for the first time in 38 years to see a Kunqu Opera in Shanghai that my passion for the opera was lit again,” Pai says.

As a guest professor, he was invited to Shanghai Fudan University to give classes for three months. On the day before leaving, he got a ticket to see The Palace of Eternal Youth () performed by the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Company.

“I was overwhelmed,” he says, “jumping and clapping even after the rest of the audience had left. In Taiwan I heard that Kunqu Opera was forbidden during the ‘cultural revolution’ (1966-76) and it was dying in the mainland. But that night, I saw a wonderful performance by the leading artists, Cai Zhengren and Hua Wenyi. I saw the art revived, with my own eyes.”

After the show, Pai went backstage to meet the performers and they invited him to join the after-show dinner.

Then fate played another trick. When Pai arrived at the restaurant, at No 150 Fenyang Street, he found it was where his family had lived in Shanghai, before they left in 1949.

“How incredible! Life is a drama! All the memories of my boyhood in Shanghai flashed back and I felt it was indeed a ‘dream interrupted’,” he says, his eyes sparkling.

The actors told him how they had struggled to revive Kunqu Opera. Pai decided: “If they can do this, I must help them. If this art form could survive the ‘cultural revolution’, it must go on.”

After returning to Taiwan, Pai resumed his dream of staging his own large-scale Kunqu Opera production. In 1992 he produced a three-hour show in Taipei, but felt it was “not that good”.

“I want to do a more beautiful production, a production that caters for young audiences in the 21st century,” says Pai, who says the opera is facing two main problems.

First, the maestros are aging and no longer fit enough to play the roles of young men and women in the various Kunqu Opera love stories; while the young actors just get a few supporting roles. The second main problem is that the audience comprises usually old people.

He also points out that Taiwan and the mainland have different problems. Taiwan has a wide audience base who appreciate Kunqu Opera, but less well-trained performers. The mainland, on the other hand, has the best performers but a shrinking audience and low income for the performers.

A breakthrough came in 2002, Pai was invited to give lectures about Kunqu Opera to middle school students in Hong Kong.

“It was the biggest challenge of my teaching career: How to attract some 1,500 teenagers who speak Cantonese and have probably never heard old opera to concentrate for two hours. I asked the organizer to get some performers to give a demonstration at my lecture,” says Pai.

Yu Jiulin, in his early 20s, from Suzhou Kunqu Opera Company, performed a scene from The Peony Pavilion and convinced Pai he was the perfect Liu Mengmei, the leading male role in the play.

“Everybody in the lecture hall watched his performance carefully. Nobody walked out, nobody used their cell phone and nobody talked during the demonstration. I thought since these kids speak Cantonese and can appreciate it, why not those in Jiangsu, Shanghai or Beijing?”

Soon after, Pai went to Suzhou Kunqu Opera Company where he discovered Shen Fengying, “a young girl with charming eyes that bespoke shyness, tenderness and love”. In Pai’s eyes, she was the perfect Du Liniang, a leading female role in The Peony Pavilion.

Then Pai collaborated with Suzhou Kunqu Opera Company, getting two Kunqu maestros Wang Shiyu and Zhang Jiqing to work with Yu and Shen to create what he calls the “Young Lovers’ Edition” of The Peony Pavilion, a lightly modernized production.

Since its premiere in 2004, the nine-hour, three-night show has been performed over 180 times in the mainland, Taiwan, United States and Europe, to great acclaim. The main reason for this success is the blending of tradition with innovation, thus giving Kunqu Opera aesthetics a new direction.

“What challenges us most is how to combine tradition and modern aesthetics, how to revive the 600-year-old art on the 21st century stage,” Pai says.

“My practice is to follow tradition. But it is not limited by tradition and has a correct modern interpretation. It is like you cannot add or change any stroke in a piece of ancient calligraphy, but you can mount it in a nice frame to hang on the wall in the right light. With Kunqu, we use modern lighting, costumes and settings but the acting, narrative and singing retains a traditional style.”

Pai’s second “Young Lovers’ Edition” Kunqu Opera play The Jade Hairpin (玉簪记), also performed by Yu and Shen, premiered last night at Peking University Hall and again demonstrates his concept of modernized Kuqnu Opera.

To Pai, The Peony Pavilion is an epic love story while The Jade Hairpin is more exquisite and a typical play between the sheng (male role) and dan (female role).

Based on a well-known Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) story, The Jade Hairpin by Gao Lian (1527-1609) is a passionate love story between the young scholar Pan Bizheng and the Taoist priestess Chen Miaochang. It is one of the earliest romantic plays that deals with sexuality. The young lovers defy the conventions of puritanical Confucianism and religious abstinence to unite in secret.

Director Weng Guosheng from Zhejiang Kunqu Opera Company takes another big step toward simplicity and freedom in expression. The linear beauty of Chinese calligraphy occupies a central place on stage. Dong Yang-Tzi’s calligraphy, and Hsi Sung’s paintings create an “ink-wash” world on stage. The costumes designed by Wang Tong have an understated elegance. This production endeavors to raise the aesthetics of Kunqu Opera to an even higher level of poetic expression.

The Jade Hairpin is on tonight and The Peony Pavilion will run from Dec 18 to 20 at Peking University Hall. The performances are part of Kunqu Opera Culture Week, co-launched by Pai and Peking University. Aside from the performances, Pai is also giving lectures at Peking University, Peking Normal University, Tsinghua University and China Europe International Business School Beijing Campus.

The on-going Kunqu Opera Culture Week at Peking University kicks off a five-year project on Kunqu Opera, co-launched by Peking University, Suzhou Kunqu Opera Company, Kenneth Pai Hisen-Yong – and sponsored by Coca-Cola China.

In the next five years, Peking University will regularly hold international symposiums and seminars about Kunqu Opera; establish a digital database to record, collect and preserve Kunqu Opera performances; open classes on appreciating the opera; collaborate with opera schools to train young performers; and set up a foundation to finance student Kunqu Opera societies and communities. During the annual culture week, leading companies will perform new productions of classic repertoires and renowned artists will give lectures at campuses.

Source: Global Times

Christmas is just around the corner and many foreigners in Beijing are anxiously preparing for the long flight home in order to spend Christmas with their families. Still, there are many more that will spend yet another Beijing-style Christmas here with friends.

For expatriates living in Beijing, perhaps it was employment ambition, curiosity, or even a crazy impulse that drove them to uproot their lives and move half way around the world to an unfamiliar place.

Inescapably, living abroad is difficult around the holidays as many come to a sudden realization that the world at home does go on without them. Relatives do grow older every year, nieces and cousins get taller every visit, and babies are born.

Unfortunately for many, flying across the globe is both too far and too expensive, so staying in Beijing is the only option.

Therefore, for those only get to see their families once or twice a year, China gives December 25 a new meaning.

For many Westerners, the idea of Christmas awakens childhood memories of a glowing Christmas tree with delicately strung twinkling lights, tinsel and ornaments hovering over brightly wrapped presents in crisp paper.

Everywhere, children typically wake up at the crack of dawn to excitedly thrash their parents out of bed and rush downstairs to see what gifts Santa has left under the tree.

We asked some Beijing expats what their family traditions at Christmas entail in their countries.

“I usually have a big dinner at my dad’s on Christmas Eve, then we go to midnight mass, go home, have a drink or two with the family around the Christmas tree, open presents, visit family,” explains David Pimentel, an English textbook author.

Olivier Jacques, remembers his Christmases in Quebec City’s winter beauty.

“I think it’s one of the best cities,” he says “because I always remember the nights that I would spend in Quebec City when it was dark and it was snowing a little bit and there are lights everywhere because they make it very special for Christmas.”

For Eugene Panchenko, a Vertu Mobile Phone customer service representative, the Russian Orthodox Calendar affects the timing of their holiday.

“In Russia, we don’t have Christmas in December, we celebrate it in January,” he clarifies.

The build up and count down for Christmas for many children is usually marked by an advent calendar bearing candies or tiny ornaments for the tree. Some families designate specific evenings for decorating the tree or hanging holly and stockings by the fireplace.

“My favorite part of Christmas was always making cookies with my family; this is what I liked the most,” says Filis Jovesic, remembering her childhood in Germany.

In the eyes of a child, sometimes there is nothing better than collective effort of baking cookies to leave Santa on Christmas Eve, or smearing thick, white icing onto the delicate roof of a gingerbread house and tiling it with little colored gumdrops.

Phil Pearson, whose family is from both Japan and the UK explains that like many British families, Christmas is the only time of year when his family goes to church to sing carols.

“In Mexico, Christmas is a really important celebration for family, all my family gathers together, we go to church around ten pm and then we go home and we have all have dinner together,” says Luis Euan Itza, a China Representative for Amatar DMC Mexico Travel Service.

One commonality all the families seem to share on Christmas is the inevitable tendency to overindulge with the food.

However, tradition dictates what kind of food to indulge in more than the family’s country of residence.

In the United States, the diverse heritage assures that there is not one set Christmas meal. Some families eat roast beef while others prepare Cornish hens or a baked ham.

Mr. David Pimentel’s Christmas dinner in America is influenced by his Portuguese father, who prefers seafood and rice paella on Christmas, while local Kro’s Nest employee Kara Elise Brouillette’s family from Louisiana only serves Cajun food.

Roasted turkey with potatoes is a family tradition that curiously transcends borders and according to many, is a hearty Christmas favorite reaching all the way to Peru and Mexico, the UK, Germany and France, and up to Canada.

However, each country adds its own unique twist to the standard oven basted and baked bird.

The Germans add red cabbage, the Peruvians add apple sauce and the Mexicans add in some spicy chilies and “nopales,” a kind of prickly pear cactus.

Still, many French families prelude their turkey or guinea foul by complimenting it with a side of “foie grois,” made from duck or goose liver and sipped with a glass of fizzy champagne.

In Mexico, Mr. Euan Itza says the turkey must be complimented with “romeritos.”

“Romeritos are little dumplings stuffed with vegetables and some kind of meat,” he explains “they are special because we just make them for Christmas.”

Nonetheless, despite all the delectable edibles, foreigners do admit that no family gathering is perfect, and many say that petty disputes or annoyances are inevitable this time of year.

Many say discrepancies arise over board games or cooking responsibilities and the general stress of everyone striving to create the perfect day.

In addition, every family has its own Christmas oddities that can seem comical to other families.

Cindy Pi from Long Island explains that in her family, a professional film crew follows them around the house throughout the day. The video is then made into what Cindy describes as “a really badly edited techno music video” delivered a week after the festivities.

For Olivier Jacques, his family has one crazy winter activity that’s a bit out of the ordinary.

“We have one specific tradition, all the guests that are at the party take off their socks and their shoes, and they are asked to go run around the house, barefoot,” he cringes “but in Quebec, there’s a lot of snow and it’s quite cold outside, and if it’s a bad year it means close to one meter of snow, it’s no fun.”

Christmas time can evoke nostalgia and a twinge of sadness for many who feel far from home; so, many foreigners try to recreate the traditions of both their families and their cultures.

The typical Beijing Christmas party includes an excess of food and drinks along with perhaps the added suspense of a “Secret Santa” gift exchange. Names are drawn anonymously in advance and gifts purchased for the unsuspecting recipients.

Many foreigners opt for hosting a meal at home in a “pot luck” fashion in which everyone contributes one dish or brings something to drink.

Naturally, because of cultural diversity in Beijing, it’s not unlikely to see the Christmas meal include items like potato salad, nachos, fried rice and curry. Surprisingly, this is all washed down with beer, sake, tequila or perhaps Chilean wine.

Peruvian native Gabriel Villalobos points out that in order to embrace the Christmas spirit, he must have a sweet and fruity Peruvian cake dipped in chocolate sauce, or as they say, “paneton con chocolate,” but he will settle for Italian panetone from Carrefour.

Some expats believe that no amount of recreating or substitutes will ever suffice, despite their valiantly festive efforts.

Others like Mr. Pimentel view it as a new experience in China.

“This is going to be my first Christmas away from home, so I’m actually kind of excited about trying to recreate the whole thing, and I figure as long as you have good friends and all the things that make Christmas, you can really have a fun time,” he says hopefully.

Eugene Panchenko is also welcoming the change from his standard Christmas at home.

“This year is very special for me, because I spend it in China, in Beijing, so it’s going to be really different. I’m going to meet all my friends from different countries and have a really good night out with them.”

Regardless of individual cultures or tradition, many expats emphasize that Christmas in China isn’t about wreaths or Santa and it’s not about what they eat and or where. Simply put, it’s about being with the people they care about.

Source:  By Andrea Hunt, from CRI