So, back in March it was “Spring Festival” or as it’s more commonly known in the west; “Chinese New Year.” It is no doubt the biggest and most important holiday on the Chinese calendar, a time of year when everyone heads home to undertake several traditions and be with the family they probably haven’t seen all year. It’s like Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving and your birthday all rolled into one. Long time readers will remember this from last year. Those with rusty memories can check out last years blog post; here. But, let’s get on with this year’s…


As a disclaimer of sorts; during the spring festival I don’t wanna come across as the foreigner with the camera who just takes photos all day. Often I’m doing my best to try fit in, learn the customs and try follow the conversation which is often a village-unique dialect or accent. A far cry from standardised Mandarin Chinese. As a result, there’s lots of interesting things that I miss and don’t have my camera for. Sorry.

This year was different to last. I actually got to go to Beryl’s house! It was the first time B had been to her “home” in two years. It’s a two storey building, but the second storey is currently undecorated and unused.

  
Some shots I took from the roof of Beryl’s house. The first photo is looking down into some of the fields where they crow crops. In the background you can see the river. Not a bad view. The middle photo is of Beryl’s grandma’s house… the very house where B was born.

She likes her super-fresh local veggies.

Every year there’s new babies to see that weren’t here last year. Unfortunately, this baby is no longer with us. She succumbed to some disease and passed away. A stark reminder that life in China’s countryside is vastly different to the city life I usually report on. Lets no forget, 50% of the population lives out in the sticks.

  
Left: B’s mum outside her home. Centre: One of the neighbours playing with some fireworks. Spring festival is ALL about the fireworks. Everyone plays with fireworks. No age limits. Which brings me onto a funny story about myself and one of Beryl’s younger cousins. One day I was using the outside toilet. It’s a big hole in the ground surrounded by corrugated steel walls. There I am, pants around ankles doing my number two when in flies a lit cherry bomb firework. B’s cousin knew I was in there and thought it would be hilarious. Anyway, there I am, pants around ankles, in the middle of doing my thing. I have a quick choice to make: 1) Try run away with pants around ankles and try not to fall over into the giant cesspool behind me in the process. 2) Try pick it up and throw it back, hoping it doesn’t go off in my hand. 3) Close eyes, cover ears and clench like I’ve never clenched. I chose option 3. The sound reverberating around the tiny 1mx2m room was deafening. I made sure to “play fight” with the cousin later.

They’re currently in the middle of constructing a new road running alongside the river, of which this bridge is a part of.

A shaggy dog.

A robin!

The Wang sisters back in the swing of their country life. Beryl cutting some wood for the fire, and Angelina cleaning her hair in the sink.

Some kind of bird. Not very good at birds.

Ah, this one I know. A woodpecker!

B with her grandma!

Lots of time spent around the fire.

  
Interesting paths and roads. The nearest store is about 3-4km away. But it’s 3-4km of this. We’d go down in the day and buy our supplies then carry them back. I tell you, the beer tastes a lot nicer when you’ve just sweated your *_&”*& off carrying it roads like that!

Looking over the river.

Lets go for a paddle.

Dunno what this thing does. Anybody know?

A pretty impressive bridge. This would be a major construction project in the UK, but bridges like this are dime a dozen in China.

Lots of time is spent with people playing mah-jong. Me and B couldn’t care less about it, so we find other ways to entertain ourselves.

Like eating!

Lots of photos to be taken. These people only see each other once a year.

One of the many traditions. Each year new signs are hung around the door to bring good luck and fortune for the coming year.

Me with B’s family in front of their house.

Another.

Me with two of B’s….*counts in head*… 10 aunties.

  
Aunts, Cousins and Uncles; oh my!

B with a cousin.

B with another cousin. This one was in last year’s blog. 🙂

ANOTHER two different aunties.

  
My cowboy hat proved popular.

Another of the cousin’s from last year’s blog post.

Cousins…Aunties…I can’t remember. It gets confusing. I think two of these girls were 2nd cousins.

More Mah-jong.

This is the baby that I photographed last year smoking the cigarette. Haha. This year he’s developed a phobia of me. Everytime he saw me, he cried.

More cousins. These are actually the same ‘generation’ as B. She’s one the oldest of her generation.

  
Bad-ass roads, bad-ass chickens, bad-ass pigs.

This grandparent’s house is where B grew up. She’s been sitting on this very rock over-looking the valley below for the past 25 years.

A panorama of the valley.

Another cousin.

Another aunt, another uncle.

Family outside *another* uncle’s home.

Beryl’s dad with his brothers.

Me with some of Beryl’s cousins. We became drinking buddies throughout. Drinking is a big part of Chinese culture. Especially with family. It’s also traditional to try out-drink each other, and try encourage each other to drink more. Beer was regularly for breakfast. Lots of the days were a little blurry. ^_^

B with YET ANOTHER two aunties. I think you’re starting to get the idea. “Can I remember there names?” I hear you ask. Well, this is where Chinese culture gets interesting. In China, you don’t call aunts and uncles by their names. You simply call them “Auntie” or “Uncle.” Easy, right? No. Wrong. There are about 4 basic words for Aunt and 4 basic words for uncle. (“Uncle” for example can be broken down into dad’s brother, mom’s brother, dad’s sister’s wife, and mom’s sister’s wife.) Then… for each of those if there’s more than one there’s a number based on who’s oldest. For example; dad’s sister’s husband one, dad’s sister’s husband two, etc. Maybe just learning their names *would* be easier.

A cousin. I gave this one an English name; Jerry.

Jerry’s Chinese name sounds like “Jerry”, so… there was only one name for his big brother. Yep. He’s “Tom”.

Another cousin.

Me with Beryl’s dad.

And that was that. Until next year.

As usual, more pics on flickr: here.

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