Monday, September 15, 2008

Moon Cake Break

It's Mid-Autumn/Full Moon Festival in China. Last year the government implemented a public holiday change to give workers the day off for OCTEastTeasuch traditional holidays. Of course, it fell on a Sunday, but I still get today off from work. I have only eaten one moon cake this year, which my office gave me--it was small and didn't feel like a brick when it hit my stomach, so it was pretty good.

Yesterday, we went to OCT East in Yantian district, near Dameisha, with Shenzhen Daily and a group of foreigners (and a few Chinese). We even got our picture in the paper today. The event was meant to bring some interest in the park, and we were given a tour of mostly the tea village--in part because it's hosting a tea festival.

OCT East is definitely not as cheesy as Splendid China, but it does have its moments. It contains a reproduction of the town of Interlacken, Switzerland, with Chinese characteristics (in other words, with Chinese writing and restaurants). There's also a wetland park, a bamboo forest, spa, and tea gardens. I think there's also a golf course.The grounds at OCT East are quite beautiful, providing a pleasant and peaceful day for visitors to walk around. Unfortunately for us, it was unbearably hot and humid, which made it difficult to walk around for extended periods.

OCTEastInterlakenThe Shenzhen Daily tour gave us a really nice lunch in the park, a little tea production demonstration that wasn't all that interesting, and a tea performance. Parts of the performance were really nice. Other parts included tea pots performing Riverdance and some aliens. I'm not sure what aliens have to do with Chinese tea culture and history.

It was still nice to get out of the house and see something different in Shenzhen.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

中秋节快乐。

Last Saturday I had my first mooncake experience. I only ate half and washed it down with plenty of Oolong tea. But even still, I can fully understand the brick reference.

Needless to say I had to publish a blog entry on the experience.

CountLubinstein said...

Moon Cake? Sitting like a brick? Clearly this isn't like the moon pie that I'm thinking of...

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