Red Lantern

Some of my Chinese friends celebrated Tomb Sweeping day with their families before the actual day. I would have loved to join, but the weather was unstable and I didn't want to take the risk of having to travel in torrential rain or even fog. Some of my friends who drove in sunny weather on Saturday morning to nearby towns, had difficulties coming back either on Saturday (storms) or Sunday (fog) evening.
Today it was sunny and warm and we hit the park. Qianlin Park to be precise. It's the nearest to my house and the largest inner-city park of Guiyang. It has a big lake, some mountains with monkeys and a massive temple. There used to be a zoo, but it's been closed down.
There were many people there, since it is a public holiday and the last of the three-day festival.
There's an entrance fee of 50p to be paid, but then you can walk in the park all day. And you need all day to see it all. There are some extra fees for the temple, the cable car, etc.

Me and my monkey, as Robbie Williams sings. It's Monkey year in China and everything is decorated with monkeys. This one came up to me and offered to be photographed with me. After the two selfies, he took out a paper he was wearing around his neck, on which it was something written in Mandarin and the number 20. So I gathered that he wanted 20 Yuan from me (a bit over 2 pounds). My Chinese friends saw it and got angry, grabbed me by the arm and took me away. The monkey man followed a few yards, waving with his paper, but I told him that he should have said it before and not afterwards. Sorry mate, no money from me.
Happy Monkey Year!

The entrance of the park.

Around the entrance

In the park

Old men playing Chinese chess

OAPs playing cards and Chinese chess

Waterfall

Where is the safety inspector? Such a bridge wouldn't be approved by the authorities, but you see them everywhere in this country.

A traditional game to keep away the bad spirits

Where are they all going? hmm... let's follow the crowd.

Tunnel of love (by Dire Straits)

WWII Memorial. They're are waiting in line to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers.

Part of the lake in the background

The lake. Notice how all are wearing life jackets.

Not quite Ponte Vecchio in Florence, but still a bridge.

A great place to have a nap.

The Austrian actor Peter Weck married a family in the German series 'Ich heirate eine Familie' in the 1980s. This is my Chinese family :)

Monkey King.

Temple of love (by Sisters of Mercy)

Floating coins. Quite tricky and difficult to make them float and not sink. The coins are old copper coins from the 1980s and are not in use anymore. They are featherlight and can therefore float on the water. There's a lady next to this well, who exchanges your 1 Yuan note into ten copper coins.

Do you see the pots in the water? The trick is to make the coins fall into the pots. You make a wish, send your coins one after another into an underwater journey, and if it falls into the pots, your wish will come true. Eight out of ten of my coins landed in a pot, one landed on the edge and one floated away into the abyss of the well. Oh well! I'll let you know if my wish comes true.

Burning sensation

Smoke on the water (by Deep Purple).

Gallery of Deities

The monks say that you choose one of them and start counting deities. You stop at the number of your age. How old are you? 42? (The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything else. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams) Start counting and stop at the 42nd deity. Call a monk to tell you something about him and you. Because the deity represents you. This is mine. He and I are honest and steady personalities.

The monks give you a card of your deity with a description at the back.

Having fun making soap bubbles

Cute little Sherlock

A Video with the old man playing the traditional keeping the bad spirits away game. (It won't show and play on iPhones and iPads).

If you would like to read more by me, here are my novel and my diary from Ar'ar, in the northern Saudi desert. Both available on Amazon as soft and hard copy.

Qingming "Tomb Sweeping" Festival

Qingming Festival is a traditional Chinese festival and an important day of sacrifice for most people (including the Han Chinese and China's 55 other ethnic minorities) to go and sweep tombs and commemorate their ancestors. On this day, tomb sweeping is one of the most important and popular activities to show respect to ancestors. On May 20, 2006, the festival was listed as one of the first national intangible cultural heritage events.

How Do Chinese Celebrate the Qingming Festival?

There are various activities for Qingming Festival. The most popular ones, including tomb sweeping, spring outings, and kite flying, and putting willow branches on gates, have been an important part of this festival since the beginning. People often participate in a sport to ward off the cold and in anticipation of the arrival of spring. The festival integrates both reverence and fun through its customs.

Tomb Sweeping — the Most Important Custom of Qingming Festival

In Qingming Festival, people usually worship their ancestors by burning incense and 'paper money' in their ancestors' grave sites. People commemorate and show respect to their ancestors by visiting their graves, and offering food, tea, wine, incense, joss paper (representing money), etc. They sweep the tombs, removing weeds, and adding fresh soil to the graves, stick willow branches on the tomb, and burn incense and 'paper money'. They pray before their ancestors' graves and beseech them to bless their families. However, the custom has been greatly simplified today, especially in cities, where only flowers are presented to the dead relatives.

Putting Willow Branches on Gates

During Qingming Festival, people wear soft willow branches and place the branches on gates and front doors. People believe that this custom will ward off wandering evil spirits during Qingming.

That willows are considered magical is mainly a Buddhist influence. Traditional pictures of the Goddess of Mercy Guanyin often show her seated on a rock with a willow branch in a vase of water at her side. The goddess used this mysterious water and branch to scare away demons.

According to historical records there is an old saying, "Put willow branches up on gates; drive ghosts away from houses."

Spring Outing

Qingming Festival is a good time to feel the breath of spring.

Qingming is also called Taqing Festival. Taqing (踏青 /taa-ching/ 'tread green') means a spring outing, when people get out and enjoy the spring blossoms. The festival usually falls on a day not long before everything turns green in the north, and well into the spring flower season in the south. It marks the beginning of the season when people spend more time outside as the weather warms up.

Kite Flying

Flying kites is also an important custom enjoyed by many people, young and old, during the Qingming Festival. The uniqueness of kite flying during the Qingming Festival lies in that kites are not only flown during the day but also in the evening.

Little coloured lanterns are tied to the kites or to the strings that hold the kites. When kites fly in the evening, the lanterns look like twinkling stars.

In the past, people cut the string to let the kite fly freely. People believe that this custom can bring good luck and eliminate diseases.

Kite flying is popular throughout all of China and you will see people doing it on big squares or in parks throughout the entire country.

Foods for Qingming Festival

Sweet Green Rice Balls is one of the most traditional Qingming foods.

The day before Tomb Sweeping Day was the traditional Chinese Cold Food Day. As time passed, the two festivals were gradually combined into one. On the cold food festival day, people used no fire and only ate cold food. Now people in some places still have the custom of eating cold food on Qingming Festival.

Different places have different foods for Qingming Festival. The traditional Qingming festival foods include sweet green rice balls, peach blossom porridge, crispy cakes, Qingming snails, and eggs. These foods are usually cooked one or two days before the arrival of the Qingming Festival.

Sweet Green Rice Balls

Sweet Green Rice Balls (青团 qīngtuán /ching-twann/ 'green dumpling(s)') are a popular Qingming food, which are made of a mixture of glutinous rice powder and green vegetable juice, and stuffed with sweetened bean paste. Sweet green rice balls are jade-green in color, glutinous in taste, and sweet in aroma.

Qingming Cakes

Qingming cakes are called sazi (撒子sāzi /saa-dzuh/ [phonetic]) or hanju (寒具 hánjù /han-jyoo/ 'cold tools'). They are a crispy fried food, made of wheat flour or glutinous rice flour, eggs, sesame, onion, salt, and other ingredients.

Among some Chinese ethnic minorities, such as the Uyghur in Xinjiang, the Dongxiang in Gansu, the Naxi in Yunnan, and the Hui in Ningxia, sazi is very famous for its great varieties and various flavours.

Other Qingming Foods

Peach blossom porridge is a kind of porridge cooked with fresh peach blossom and rice.

Qingming snails is a dish cooked with snails, onions, ginger, soy sauce, cooking wine, and sugar.

When Did the Qingming Festival Begin?

The Qingming Festival started from the Zhou Dynasty, and has a history of over 2,500 years.

It originated from the extravagant and ostentatiously expensive ceremonies that many ancient emperors and wealthy officials held in honour of their ancestors. They offered sacrifices to their ancestors and beseeched them to bless the country with prosperity, peace, and good harvests.

In the year 732, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, declared that respect could only be paid formally at ancestors' graves on the first day of the Qingming solar term. From then on, sweeping tombs on the first of Qingming gradually became popular with both royal and common families, and has lasted over a millennium.