Chinese Holidays

Here are some of the Chinese holidays that you’ll experience during your time in China (and also in other countries around the world). I’ve written it in the order that you’ll likely experience it in China during study as it’s what many students are interested in.

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01

Qingming

Qingming, or Tomb-sweeping day is a day held for those relatives and friends that have passed away, whereby family and friends will spend the day cleaning the tomb of the deceased including paying respects to them too, often the deceased person’s favorite food and wine are taken to sacrifice to them, along with paper resembling money, this is all out of respect to the person.
You’ll often see many people light lanterns or fly kites during this time in the hope that it brings good luck to those that do. This day will be April the 2^nd to April the 4^th in 2017.

02

May Day

Simply a day off in the year, in respect of the international labor day, which in 2017 you’ll have April the 29^th to May the 1^st off due to the weekend.

03

Dragon Boat Festival

This festival is from 28^th of May to the 30^th of May and the specific day off is the 30^th of May, whereby originally it was used as a hygienic day where people will use herbs to dispel diseases and viruses. However nowadays the Chinese will spend this day eating Zongzi, which is a pyramid-shaped glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves and is an extremely fun thing to do yourself, or you can just buy them in the supermarket!

04

Mid-Autumn Festival

Usually experienced in September, but due to the Lunar activity this year in 2017, the Mid-Autumn Festival (one day off) will be celebrated during the National Day Holiday. This day falls on the 15^th day of the 8^th month according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, and is the 2^nd biggest festival after the Chinese New Year. Many people spend the day walking around the local parks, going to restaurants etc. and heading over to local tourist sites such as lakes and parks to eat moon-cakes and to see the moon at night, whereby this day is often called Moon Festival due to the moon being at its brightest and largest at this point. You can definitely take some really beautiful photos of the yellow moon.

05

National Day

This is the next celebrated festival whereby the majority of people will return to their hometowns depending on the layout of the off days (i.e. before a weekend for example). In 2017 National day includes 3 days off between October the 1^st to October the 8^th, as next year they’ll have an extra day due to the landing of the Mid-Autumn Festival day. On days that people don’t flock back to their hometowns they’ll spend the day with friends, family and strangers in their current location, for example people in Beijing often go to Tian’anmen square for the flag raising ceremony alongside viewing the vast amount of flower shows put on display in the area. Oh and just bear in mind that you’ll likely hear a lot of fireworks during this time, and everywhere will be extremely busy, no matter where you go.

06

New Year's Day

Everyone knows what this is and in China it’s still celebrated, so you’re likely to be having 1 day off on January the 1^st.

07

Chinese New Year Festival

The biggest and most important holiday in Chinese culture, whereby people from around the world will return to their families for this special family time. It’s often called the people’s migration, where in 2015, more than 9 million people LEFT Beijing to their hometowns and being their myself I can certainly say it was a ghost town, being the only person on the streets was an extremely strange feeling in such a large and normally busy city. Chinese New Year consists of around 3 days off where in 2017 the holiday’s days will be January 27 to February the 2^nd. The specific Chinese New Year Day in 2017 will be January the 28^th, where many foreigners will flock to large tourist areas to see fireworks and other entertainment displays held by the remaining locals.
Chinese New Year or Spring Festival starts off with the family cleaning the house and going shopping for festival shopping, especially food! They’ll likely put up spring couplets containing the Fu character and paste it around their home and outside their door for good wishing on their family and neighbors. A large tradition at this time is to eat, which can include eating dumplings at the early morning of the new year, handing red envelopes of money to those younger than you and not working, and also many families will have firework and cracker displays outside their home.
Some good gift ideas include Liquor, cigarettes, tea, fruits, health-care products, red envelopes etc. and bad gift ideas include clocks, umbrellas, shoes, pears, sharp objects etc.
This is a great opportunity for locals and foreigners to head to the local temple fairs (or fairs held at parks) and experience many traditional activities, games, food and wonderful entertainment during the holiday period, it’s definitely something that you need to try.

Not only this but in certain cities and provinces such as Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou etc. especially in areas south of China, locals will conduct Dragon Boat Racing, definitely something which is an experience to see with your own eyes.

Students tips on what to do and what not to do in China!

Students tips on what to do and what not to do in China!

1. If you’re given food by someone, DO try your best to finish it, it’s considered rude or hurtful if you don’t! So eat slowly, but a lot!

I once had 2 whole dishes in a restaurant, of which I’d ordered by mistake (quite often actually), and didn’t realize they were huge dishes, and the woman asked me why I didn’t finish it all, I told her I ordered it wrong but I was full, and she looked really disappointed!

2.   DON’T make it obvious that you’re putting your seat belt on in a taxi, because if the driver sees it, he/she will think that you think his/her driving will be bad!

A friend of mine came into the taxi with me, and with him being fairly new, he didn’t realize you weren’t supposed to put the seat belt on so the driver can see, the driver was turned around and he looked like my friend had insulted his whole family just from the click of the seat belt, the man looked distraught and drove away in silence.

3.   DON’T follow and speak to Chinese ‘English Teachers, English Students that have just come back from the UK’ or anyone that starts up conversation by asking where you’re from.

I had this experience going into and out of the Forbidden City, whereby this is a scam where they take you to a ‘random’ bar or tea house and can often leave you with a rather expensive bill, a true target for foreigners, especially guys.

4.   DO practice using chopsticks!

Just for a few minutes a day, find some videos on YouTube or online and practice getting the technique right for using chopsticks, as it’ll make your life by far much easier when you get here! And DON’T stick them upright in the bowl as this is considered extremely rude!

5.   DO join in with locals

No matter what it could be, you’ll enjoy your life more in China if you just jump in at the deep end and give things a go, even if the situation is kind of uncomfortable, you’ll thank yourself later for the stories that you can tell people, and the Chinese will love you having a go as a foreigner.

6.   DON’T get illegal taxis

Getting these illegal taxis, i.e. someone coming up you and asking if you want a taxi is a big no no, especially for foreigners, they’re extremely dangerous as they’re not authorized, and they’ll try and rip you off and could drop you off in any random location and demand even more money, the majority of the time even at airports, many people will come up to you, try to take your bags off you to take you to their taxi, and you need to set them aside and tell them no to avoid any trouble! So it’s always best to wait for the genuine distinct colored taxis.

7.   DO carry some tissues with you

Quite often when you’re travelling around China, the bathrooms won’t have toilet paper to hand, so to avoid any awkward moments, try to bring some tissues with you or toilet paper.

8.   DO BARGAIN!

This is such an important tip, that I tell every single person that comes to China, when you’re at a market at any of the cities such as the electrical, clothes, gift markets etc. unless the price is specifically stuck i.e. at H&M or Zara for example, you need to bargain at markets. Prices will usually start at around 80% more than the ‘normal’ price just for foreigners, so you need to be stern and strong and negotiate a price that is suitable. I once negotiated down a gift that started at ￥2,000 to ￥200, and that’s just from be being stubborn. You can try different tactics, like walking away, or giving them hope i.e. you’re sure then you’re unsure etc. or you could also tell them that you know the prices and cost prices etc. and that usually means a better price for you.

For more information, please check Study in China Program. 

How to Make Your Life Easier in China

Some handy tips and experiences from a student in Beijing

1. Get your student card as early as possible

Even if it means annoying the university, keep pushing them to give you your student card as soon as possible, because at most universities you can use this card in the school shops, canteens and also in the library, so it’ll make your life a lot easier if you had this sooner rather than later. I didn’t receive mine a few years ago until I’d already been in China for a month, the amount of I.O.Us I had was unbelievable! All joking aside you can always just use your friend’s card and give them the physical money, but it’s just handy to have your own, you can grab lunch or dinner really quickly instead of waiting at a local restaurant.

2. Get your subway card early and keep an eye on the credit!

Quite often I found myself trying to get onto the subway and being blocked by the gate due to not enough credit on my card, turning around and seeing at least 30 people in the queue at the ticket office and wanting to cry. So make sure that you top up your card at night, avoid rush hour, or try the smaller stations or exit booths, as less people will be wanting to top up their card there! And if you’re on a bus and don’t have enough, then you’ll have to pay with notes or coins, and if you don’t have any then you can’t get on!

3. Set up a Chinese Bank account at a foreign friendly area.

Even though you’ll be finding yourself waiting in a longer queue to be served, setting up a bank account at a foreign friendly branch is ideal because you won’t have any of that awkward pointing and looking at each other blankly trying to work out what the other person said. You can also ask them to set up everything for you, for example Bank of China allows you to have mobile banking, online banking and also physical banking, you don’t have to pay for the extra so just ask for it all!

4. Get a Chinese SIM card as soon as possible

Ask one of your friends, or go to a store that happily accepts foreigners, like unicom (for example the airport) and get a Chinese sim card, because you’ll find that in lots of areas like shopping malls or restaurants, the software to enable wifi will often ask for your mobile phone, and quite often it only works for Chinese numbers, you can also link this number to your Chinese bank account to set up other accounts like wechat pay, alipay, and even accounts on taobao, it’s so important that you do this to avoid a big hole in your bank!

For more information please check www.studyinchina.hzlearning.com

My Funny Experience When I Study in China

Here’s a story from one of our colleagues who studied in China for a year in Beijing, to give you an insight into what his experiences were!

Experiencing true Spring Festivities:

In February when it was absolutely freezing, the world celebrated Spring Festival had come around, and during this time in Beijing around 9 million people had left the city to go back to their hometowns to celebrate the festival with their families. I felt like I was the only person left in Beijing! You can’t imagine the difference in the city, the majority of places were closed, and as it was a kind of winter break, lots of the international students had also gone home, but I decided to stay and see China during this period. Beijing was like a ghost town, most restaurants, shops were kind of half open you could say, they opened for part of the day and also only after the first two days of the festival had passed. Walking the streets in Beijing and being the only person on the whole street was an extremely surreal feeling, there wasn’t even any cars on the road apart from the occasional taxi.

I’d done my research coming up to the Spring Festival, and found that the major parks in Beijing would be open as hosts to Temple Fairs, I wasn’t too sure as to what a Temple Fair was the parks that were considered the best (Like the Lama Temple Park, and Longtan Park) didn’t actually have a temple in them! I’d decided to head to the Lama Temple Park Temple Fair which was considered the biggest and best with one of my African friends who too had never seen or even heard of these festivities before. When we got there we couldn’t believe our eyes, it was like every single person in Beijing had decided to come to this temple fair, and if you’re there yourself you can see why.

It was a completely different feel than anything else I’ve ever experienced in China, everyone was happy, laughing, joking and the smell of cooking BBQ hit you as soon as you got into the park, oh and also the crowds. There were so many people! The festival had a variety of entertainment, like food stalls, arcades, traditional dances, traditional ceremonies (where they carry someone around in a kind of box), music, and they even had a game area which was full to the brim of items that you could win.

We were there for hours, and I’d definitely recommend going yourself, but just prepare some warm clothes and bring enough money for food, as they also have a huge amount of stalls where you can buy gifts that have been brought from around China, and this also includes the food. The food was absolutely amazing! You’ll definitely feel different about China after visiting these fairs and understand how important family and friends time is to the Chinese people. The vibe at the fair is something that I’ll never forget.