Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Utah

Lofoten 2018

Spring Festival

The Spring Festival is the most important traditional holiday in China. Outside of Asia it's known by many as the Chinese New Year and happens once a year (doh!) either in late January or early February. Unlike the Western new year, it's not a single event but stretches out for a couple of weeks. Most people have one week off from work and many escape the big cities to visit their families in the country side. Out of the 20 million or so Beijingers, roughly half hop on a train, catch a bus or just fly out.

Birds Nest

Temple of Confucius

The ones who decide to leave spend a lot of the week outside seeing the local sights. All the temples and parks are even more crowded than usual while the business districts a bit further away from the city center are totally lifeless and you could easily spend an hour trying to find a nice restaurant that's even open. It's the same with the subway as some lines are so empty that you can easily find a place to sit down while others are just jam-packed.

I thought a bit about going to e.g. Shanghai for a few days but decided to stay here instead for the whole week. With less traffic and buildings that needed heating, the air was pretty clear for most of the time. Before long I didn't even set any destination but just got off from the subway at some random station and then continued walking until I saw something interesting. A week is plenty of time to see not just the more famous buildings but also some hidden gems.

Temple of Heaven

Eerie

CCTV Headquarters, or like the locals call it, big underpants

According to news reports, to help with the air quality issues, people had been advised not to use as many fireworks as before. Even with the estimated 30% reduction, the noise in the streets was deafening and the light show all around you pretty spectacular. The purpose of the noise is to ward off evil spirits and if that didn't scare them off, I'm not sure what will. It's also worth noting that this lasts for days and days and is not all just concentrated to one evening.

Beijing Ancient Observatory

CCTV Tower

Dish of the day: hot pot. You get a pot of water that sits on a heater which keeps it boiling hot. Then just add veggies, meat and whatever else there until you feel they are ripe enough. Omnomnom.