8 Customs Most People will Do for the Chinese New Year Celebration

Chinese New Year Celebration is the most important celebration of the year. Chinese people may celebrate the Chinese New Year in slightly different ways but their wishes are almost the same; they want their family members and friends to be healthy and lucky during next year.

Chinese New Year Celebration usually lasts for 15 days. Celebratory activities include Chinese New Feast, firecrackers, giving lucky money to children, the New Year bell ringing and Chinese New Year Greetings.

Custom 1: House Cleaning

To clean houses on the New Year Eve is a very old custom dating back to thousands of years ago. The dust is traditionally associated with “old” so cleaning their houses and sweeping the dust mean to bid farewell to the “old” and usher in the “new”. Days before the New Year, Chinese families clean their houses, sweeping the floor, washing daily things, cleaning the spider webs and dredging the ditches. People do all these things happily in the hope of a good coming year.


Custom 2: House Decoration

 One of the house decorations is to post couplets on doors. On the Spring Festival couplets, good wishes are expressed. New Year couplets are usually posted in pairs as even numbers are associated with good luck and auspiciousness in Chinese culture.

People in north China are used to posting paper-cut on their windows. When sticking the window decoration paper-cuts, people paste on the door large red Chinese character “fu”A red "fu"means good luck and fortune, so it is customary to post "fu"on doors or walls on auspicious occasions such as wedding, festivals.


Custom 3: Waiting for the First Bell Ringing of Chinese New Year

The first bell ringing is the symbol of Chinese New Year. Chinese people like to go to a large squares where there are huge bells are set up on New Year’s Eve. As the New Year approaches they count down and celebrate together. The people believe that the ringing of huge bell can drive all the bad luck away and bring the fortune to them. In recent years, some people have begun going to mountain temples to wait for the first ringing. Hanshan Temple in Suzhou, is very famous temple for its first ringing of the bell to herald Chinese New Year. Many foreigners now go to Hanshan Temple to celebrate Chinese New Year.


Custom 4: Staying up late ("Shousui")

Shousui means to stay up late or all night on New Year's Eve. After the great dinner, families sit together and chat happily to wait for the New Year’s arrival.


Custom 5: New Year Feast

Spring Festival is a time for family reunion. The New Year's Feast is "a must" banquet with all the family members getting together. The food eaten on the New Year Eve banquet varies according to regions. In south China, It is customary to eat "niangao" (New Year cake made of glutinous rice flour) because as a homophone, niangao means "higher and higher every year". In the north, a traditional dish for the feast is "Jiaozi" or dumplings shaped like a crescent moon.


Custom 6: Setting Firecrackers

Lighting Firecrackers used to be one of the most important customs in the Spring Festival celebration. However, concerning the danger and the negative noises that lighting firecrackers may bring, the government has banned this practice in many major cities. But people in small towns and rural areas still hold to this traditional celebration. Right as the clock strike 12 o'clock midnight of New Year's Eve, cities and towns are lit up with the glitter from fireworks, and the sound can be deafening. Families stay up for this joyful moment and kids with firecrackers in one hand and a lighter in another cheerfully light their happiness in this especial occasion, even though they plug their ears.


Custom 7: New Year Greetings (Bai Nian)

On the first day of the New Year or shortly thereafter, everybody wears new clothes and greets relatives and friends with bows and Gongxi (congratulations), wishing each other good luck, happiness during the new year. In Chinese villages, some villagers may have hundreds of relatives so they have to spend more than two weeks visiting their relatives.

On the first day of the new year, it’s customary for the younger generations to visit the elders, wishing them healthy and longevity.

Because visiting relatives and friends takes a lot of time, now, some busy people will send New Year cards to express their good wishes rather than pay a visit personally.

Custom 8: Lucky Money

It is the money given to kids from their parents and grandparents as New Year gift. The money is believed to bring good luck, ward off monsters; hence the name "lucky money". Parents and grandparents first put money in small, especially-made red envelopes and give the red envelopes to their kids after the New Year's Feast or when they come to visit them on the New Year. They choose to put the money in red envelopes because Chinese people think red is a lucky color. They want to give their children both lucky money and lucky color.



Most of Chinese people will stop the celebrating in their home on the 7th day of New Year because the national holiday usually ends around that day, however celebrations in public areas can last until the 15th day of New Year.

Happy New Year of The Dragon to All Chinese People in the World!

* Original address of this China gift post: 8 Customs Most People will do for the Chinese New Year Celebration2!

Happy New Year! Happy 2012!

Eat a piece of candy every day and tell yourself the day is sweet again.

Happy New Year! My Dear Friends, wish you own a sweet 2012 and a smile future...

* Original address of this China gift post: Happy New Year! Happy 2012!

Happy The Thanksgiving Day! - 8 Ways to Stay Thankful in Hard Times

Being thankful is especially valuable in challenging times. Gratitude is actually medically proven to lift our spirits and improve our health. Discover how a little gratitude can create a lot of happiness in our lives.

1. Find What You're Grateful for

The real uncertainty we face about our economic future can make us quite fearful and sad. Locating those things for which we can still be grateful, brings joy even in the face of those challenges without pretending they are not real.


2. Articulate it

Tell a friend or loved one a story about something for which you are grateful. Don’t be surprised to find yourself smiling by the end of that story.


3.There's Always More to be Grateful for

Consider the difference between wealth and value. While material wealth is important, it is not the only source of real value in our lives. We can all celebrate value, even when the material wealth in our lives is taking a beating.


4. Wealth Begins within

An ancient rabbinic teaching reminds us that we are wealthy when we are happy with what we possess.


5.Happiness and Satisfaction are Different

We can want more than we currently have and still be happy with what we've got. Wanting more does not have to get in the way of enjoying what we already have. If it does, we will never have enough.


6. It's All Relative

A person who lives in a $100,000 house in a neighborhood of $75,000 homes experiences living in a mansion. The same house in a neighborhood of $500,000 homes may feel like a hovel.


7. Help yourself by Helping Others

The holidays are a great time to reach out to other people in need. And helping others address their needs is one of the best ways to relieve the anxiety we may feel about our own.


8. We all have Something to Give

No matter how difficult our circumstances may be, we can all offer support to those around us. Whether it’s a penny, a dollar, or much more, the act of giving always makes us feel as if we have more than we thought we had.


ps: Dear All here, Happy The Thanksgiving Day!

* Original address of this China gift post: 8 Ways to Stay Thankful in Hard Times

Happy Halloween!

The Candy King


There was a king who loved Halloween


He waited each year for this scary scene.


He sneaked out to hang on his door


Black bats and witches and spooks galore.


The midnight hour was his favorite time


With monsters covering snakes with slime.


As twelve o'clock chimed through the stars


He opened up his snickers bars.

The Cats and The Bats


The cats scare me and so do the bats

And both of them wear funny hats.

The bats hang upside down at night

They are a silly crazy sight.


The cats all like to hiss and fight.

They sit on the steps in the bright moonlight.

My favorite creature is a ghost

Because he's so spooky on a post.




Happy Halloween all my dear friends!:)

* Original address of this China gift post: Happy Halloween!

A Healing Cuisine – The Eating Art in China

Chinese cuisine is widely known and enjoyed in all four corners of the world. Who could not confess to longing for a favorite Chinese dish? But there is one interesting concept concerning Chinese food which is almost unheard of in the West, and which is becoming increasingly ignored by the youth of the East—the ancient custom of "tonic food."

Tonic food is food which is consumed to improve one's well-being, or stave off sickness, particularly at times when one is more prone to illness. For instance, it was once the custom for new mothers to eat a sesame- oil hot pot every day for the first month after giving birth. It was believed that this dish would benefit the muscles, reduce pain, improve circulation, stimulate sweating, and warm the body.




In fact, these Chinese beliefs parallel some Western theories of health, although each takes a different path toward the very same goal. Western medicine actually recommends some of the exact same ingredients that make up the chicken hot pot dish. Sesame oil has been found to promote contraction of the womb while providing lots of calories, and chicken meat is particularly high in protein. Any Western doctor should be happy to suggest such a Chinese dish after childbirth.





The elderly, weak, and young can also benefit greatly from tonic foods, especially during the winter. Some foods, such as goat meat and spinach, are seen as "hot", while others, such as Chinese cabbage and radish, are seen as "cold".

One should be careful not to eat too much of either "hot" or "cold" food. However, how much "hot" or "cold" food one should eat depends on the time of the year, how the food is prepared and what it is prepared with, and the individual’s health.




"Warm" or "cool" tonic foods are strongly recommended. The choices for "warm" and "cool" foods range from simple sea cucumber to the delicacy of bird’s nest soup, depending on the individual’s economic circumstances.

The concept of tonic food is far from losing credibility, either with Westerners or practitioners of modern medicine. For example, up until two years ago, tonic foods were added to the meals served at a renowned hospital.





The custom of prescribing tonic foods for a healthier life also spills over into the catering industry. Although tonic foods themselves are losing popularity among the younger generation, Chinese herbal medicines, such as wolfberry fruit, can be found on many a restaurant menu, either added to fruit tea or as a beneficial addition to a dish. These herbs attract customers, such as over-worked office staff, in need of a modest pick-me-up.

So, whether you need to boost your masculinity with a large helping of bull penis, or increase your mental powers with a serving of pig's brain soup, you may find that this ancient Chinese custom could be just the tonic you were looking for.

* Original address of this China gift post: A Healing Cuisine – The Eating Art in China

Wish You Have a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival Travel in China

China's Mid-Autumn Festival is traditionally celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunisolar month (see Mid-Autumn Festival Dates), which is in September or October. The festival is the second most important festival after the Spring Festival to Chinese people. Every year, when the festival comes people go home from every corner of the country and the world to meet their family and have dinner with them.


China's Mid-Autumn Festival 2011

The festival is celebrated extensively across the country, and is one of the few reunion holidays for Chinese families. (see Chinese public holiday schedule 2011). On that day, Chinese family members stay together, admiring the full moon and eating mooncakes.

Recommended Places to Celebrate the Festival in China

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a family celebration and usually many outdoor activities are arranged especially for the event. On the evening of a Mid-Autumn Festival, families stay up late and get together eating moon cakes and gazing at the moon. If you want to take part, invite a few friends and check out places to celebrate the festival in the following cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hangzhou, to celebrate the festival. China Highlights' Mid-Autumn Festival tours allow you to have an authentic Chinese festival as the Chinese people do.

Places to Celebrate the Festival in Beijing



1. Lugou Bridge

Temple fairs are held at Wanping Town east of Lugou Bridge each year to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.

2. Beihai Park

Beihai Park was chosen by generations of Chinese emperors and high officials to watch the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival

3. Dajue Temple

During the Mid-Autumn Festival visitors can enjoy themselves with good food and sweet tea in Dajue Temple under the full moon.

4. Yangtaishan

Yangtaishan is well-known for its full moon during Mid-Autumn Festival evening. Friends and family can walk along the trees-lined path and enjoy the fresh air.

Places to Celebrate the Festival in Shanghai



1. Oriental Pearl TV Tower

The tower is 468 m high, the highest in Asia and the third highest in the world. On almost any level above the base of the tower, one can get a fabulous view of the city as it stretches out toward the horizon.

2. The Bund

The Bund is probably the most popular place to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, partly due to its relatively tranquil atmosphere, and partly due to the many restaurants and tea houses along it.

3. Sheshan

Locals like to enjoy a fun day time at Happy Valley, stay at the Le Royal Meridien Shanghai, and watch the moon at the lakeside at night. In addition, there is an observatory at the top of the mountain for astronomy lovers to have a closer and clearer look at the moon.

4. Zhujiajiao

The town is lit by lanterns hanging by old houses on Mid-Autumn Festival nights. Spend a quiet Mid-Autumn Festival by sipping tea at one of the small riverside tea houses with family or friends.

Places to Celebrate the Festival in Hong Kong



1. Victoria Peak

Victoria Peak is the highest peak on Hong Kong Island with an altitude of 554 meter. On festival night, viewed from the peak, the island becomes a fairyland with the spectacular lights of its immense towers setting a stage for the rising moon.

2. Avenue of Stars

Avenue of Stars is a good alternative, if you do not want to ascend Victoria Peak. It is a wonderful place to view the night scenery of Hong Kong Island.

3. Repulse Bay

It is considered as one of the most romantic places in Hong Kong by young people because of the young Chinese writer, Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang).

4. Lantau Island

Lantau Island is a sparsely populated island of mainly theme parks, tourist sites, parks and natural areas. It has become a refreshing destination for local Hong Kongers who come here for a weekend's rest.

* Original address of this China gift post: China Gift and Fine Arts & Crafts in China