Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Happy Holidays

The nice thing about celebrating Christmas in China is that everything is open.

Still, even as the country doesn't officially celebrate the holiday, the Christmas spirit is in the air. These past two days I've gotten half a dozen text messages from my old college students in Xi'an saying: "Merry Christmas!" I was touched that they still remember me. Many of the foreign students have also been pretty festive; last night I overheard my Korean neighbors sing "Jingle Bells" in their own language.

In this past weeks I've also learned that many Chinese people, especially the younger generation, celebrate the holiday. Yet for them it's not a time to get together with family, but with friends. (Family gatherings are reserved for more official holidays like Chinese New Year, said one student I talked too. But when Christmas comes along, China's college students are still all studying away at their schools, with their classmates the only people they can celebrate with. At the same time, businesses and their Christmas promotions certainly amp up the holiday atmosphere.)

Since I'm away from my family at the moment, I guess I ended up celebrating Christmas the Chinese way. Tonight my classmates and I got together, catching a movie after class and then eating at a Japanese buffet. Things were a little busy, since it was also a Friday night. At rush hour, the subway was packed, masses of people siphoning through one entrance to the next.

My classmates and I then had to cram ourselves into the tube. The subway, while cheap, is not exactly convenient. Since Beijing is so big, it can take an hour to get from one place to the next. I don't know if you can do much better in a taxi, since traffic is so bad here. The city has 4 million cars.

We ended the night at another jazz club, drinking wine and beer, while eating cake to celebrate a couple of birthdays. Time moves so fast; the semester is already almost over, with only a month left. In that time I've made lots of new friends, who have all been incredibly nice. Yep, Christmas in Beijing has been good. Happy Holidays!