Autumn Welcome

It's officially autumn. Jia reminded me that the Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching and we should do something (my parents think we should go to Chinatown for a festival dinner). We mentioned this at dinner the other night and my brother mentioned he's never eaten a moon rock cake. The next day, Jia and I headed over to the Asian market for some supplies and found a large selection of moon cakes. I decided to be generous and buy a small box for the family.

I haven't kept it a secret that I don't like moon cakes--I think they're too sweet and feel like a brick in my stomach, but I'm willing to eat one every year. This box that we found was made in the US (I can't believe anything is made in the US anymore) and had three varieties: lotus, red bean, and date. Jia says that these moon cakes taste better than the ones we had in Shenzhen, and I have to agree (they don't feel like a brick in my stomach). I definitely think these are better because they're about half the size of the ones we usually got in China.

We still have a few left from the dinner and plan on saving them for the actually Mid-Autumn Festival.

Mid-Autumn Follow-up

We're back to work following the three-day weekend for Mid-Autumn Festival. I was given a moon cake in class today--it's sitting in my office, where it will probably stay until next Mid-Autumn Festival.

For great commentary on the moon cakes and their brick-like resemblance, you can check out this post at GwaiLoDown. Very amusing site.

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 such 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.

The 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.

Mid-Autumn Festival

According to the lunar calendar, today is the Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhong qiu jie), also known as the Moon Festival. Everyone tells me it's the second most important day on the Chinese calendar (the first being Spring Festival). My students offered an English greeting for today and were quite pleased to hear me respond with the Chinese version. I even received one moon cake from a student at the end of class. They all seemed a little disappointed to have classes today--they even said they wouldn't have time later in the day to celebrate with their friends and classmates because there's too much work to do (and I didn't assign any of it this week). I told them their homework was to call their parents tonight.

I was also informed that my office will give the staff some moon cake today (but they have to give it at the end of the day because it needs to be refrigerated). I'm really thinking that they're spoiling me here.

For those who don't know what moon cakes are, they are a kind of pastry that sits in your stomach for about a week while you try to digest it. OK, I'm exaggerating a bit. Most don't taste all that bad, but they really do make you slow after eating one.

Zhaoqing & Moon Festival

The vacation is too short. Of course, I had to work last Saturday before the start of the week vacation. Then it wasn't until after the start of the break that I was informed I must work the Sunday on the tail end. So nice of management to care enough to inform me. Perhaps I should've taken the extra day and come back with the complaint that I was not explicitely informed of the vacation days. Anyway, that's the gripe for the school at this time.
I did manage to get away for a few days in Zhaoqing, not far from Guangzhou. It's a nice little city with some scenery to admire. Of course, after seeing so much of China already, it was not impressive. Still, it's always good to get out of Shenzhen for sanity's sake.
If nothing else, it was interesting to see a different city. There are things in Zhaoqing that I haven't seen before--like motorcycle riders wearing helmets (except for children). I also had the experience of being lost in Chinese. I can do that on my own, but my girlfriend had difficulties. She kept claiming that the residents' Putonghua was terrible and she couldn't understand Cantonese. There were a few times I heard her ask the same question five or six times before someone else would come along and translate. I guess this is what I have to look forward to when I take her to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos (maybe not all of them, but at least Thailand).
As the final note, Happy Moon Festival to all. I returned just too late to witness the performances in the neighborhood. But I did enjoy the dinner, moon cake, mahjong, and beer.