Spring Festival – Distant Drumlin

28 Photos Later: Day 19 in China

Thursday 19 February 2015Saturday 14 March 2015Posted in China, Expat, Festivals and Holidays, PhotographyTagged balloon, car license places, China, Chinese New Year, Chun Jie, Gong Xi Fa Cai, New Year greetings, Shanghai, Spring Festival8 Comments

Welcome to Day 19 of “28 Photos Later”.

It’s Chinese New Year. So my “19” is hidden in the Shanghai car number plate above. You can tell it’s from Shanghai because the 沪 character denotes the region.

And today’s photo is “Gong Xi Fa Cai”. This balloon adorned my apartment in Shanghai for one Spring Festival. The characters offer a traditional New Year greeting and wish for prosperity – “Gong Xi Fa Cai!”

In my half-hearted attempts to continue studying just a little bit of Chinese, I sometimes read John Pasden’s Sinosplice blog. This week John gave us a link to “Spring Festival Wishes from Around China”. There are 15 audio clips of Chinese people wishing each other a Happy New Year. The Beijing clip has an audible “r”; the Shanghai Chongming Island clip honestly sounds like someone I know in Shanghai; but the best one is the super-enthusiastic man from Luzhou, Sichuan. Click on the link and enjoy, even if you don’t know a word of Chinese.

“Spring Festival Wishes from Around China”

28 Photos Later: Day 18 in China

Wednesday 18 February 2015Saturday 21 February 2015Posted in China, Expat, Festivals and Holidays, PhotographyTagged China, Chinese characters, Chinese New Year, Chun Jie, doors, Fu, Shanghai, Spring Festival3 Comments

Welcome to Day 18 of “28 Photos Later”, which is another day of build-up to the Chinese New Year.

One thing I remember from living in China was that I should hang our red “fu” 福 signs upside down to bring good luck, by using a play on words between “good fortune is upside down” and “good fortune has arrived”. Here is an example from a door in Tongli (the town that I described yesterday).