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Hectic Spring Festival leaves many breathless
Ringing out the old and bringing in the new over Spring Festival has a fundamental meaning in today's booming China. The celebration, known also as Lunar New Year, is a 3,000-year-old holiday undergoing sweeping changes. The festival remains an important occasion for family reunions accompanied by the biggest population move in the world every year. But in modern times the old ways of celebrating often get in the way of work and other commitments. For some, the time off is a time to party, travel and meet up with friends. And for others, the hectic schedule of meeting family and friends and travel mean they are under more pressure than when at work. Having dinner with family members on New Year's Eve is often regarded as the most important event. But Zhang Chen, who works for an IT company in Beijing, had dinner with three friends from college. They couldn't make it back to their home towns because of work. Others like Li Qian, a magazine editor, are using the time off to travel. "My friends and I are going to walk alongside the Yellow River, then go to the countryside of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province to celebrate the New Year," said Li last week. "I feel that I can only have a truly traditional New Year celebration in the countryside," said Li. He added: "Everything there is very traditional, just like how people celebrated the New Year in old times. The farmers are very down-to-earth and they have kept all the traditions." Zhang Jian, who works for an interior design company in Beijing, also likes to spend the New Year outside the city. Zhang and four of his colleagues drove to Yunmengxia Canyon in the suburbs of Beijing on New Year's Eve. "We wanted to experience something different from the usual drinking, eating and sitting on the couch watching TV," Zhang said, who was setting off with three packs of instant noodles, a bottle of salt, an army knife, two lighters and a coat. Zhang said he wanted "to suffer" in the cold night in the mountain, so he "would better appreciate his life." Migrant worker Hua Yun, 28, from Yingshang County, East China's Anhui Province, chose to celebrate the holiday in bustling Shanghai, where she has worked for eight years. Hua said in the community where she lives, there are another 1,500 residents who are also migrant workers. Half of them chose to spend the Spring Festival in Shanghai rather than going back home. In Haikou, the capital of south China's Hainan Province, the government opened its library during Spring Festival for migrant workers, offering free admission. Luo Qiping, from Southwest China's Guizhou Province, who works at a construction site in Shanghai, spent the holiday reading in the hushed surroundings. Zhang Yunbo, a 26-year-old man who travelled more than 2,000 kilometres from a coastal city in South China back to his hometown in the North, said he had a tighter schedule during the festival than work days. "My holiday is crammed with various kinds of gatherings with my family, relatives and friends. I am kept on the run around the clock," said Zhang. He said he had three gatherings planned for one day and in the evening he was again on the train heading back to work.
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