Where in China is the Spring Festival celebrated liveliest?

[Huang Jialuo]

Hi,

I'm currently planning a trip to Shanghai for Chunjie (spring festival), but I am having doubts about it for fear that it will get really crowded there. I know from other friends that Beijing Chunjie sucks... don't know why though.

Hence I am having second thoughts on Chunjie in Shanghai.

The things is... I want to celebrate Chunjie as it should: with the lion dance and the dragon dances, fireworks, lots of knots, less tourists and tourist-stalker salespeople. Like I say in my question: lively. I want to know if anyone here has a better experience of Chunjie like in another city or feel that Shanghai would be a good city to see all that.

Oh, I will not go to Hongkong though, cuz then I'd have a tough time getting back to Beijing: renewing visa and such.

Thanks, for the input.

Jialuo

[imron]

I want to celebrate Chunjie as it should: with the lion dance and the dragon dances, fireworks, lots of knots, less tourists and tourist-stalker salespeople.

Then don't celebrate it in China. Spring Festival here is like Christmas in the west in that almost everything shuts down and almost everyone goes home to spend it with their family. If you don't have Chinese friends/family to spend it with, you will probably find it decidedly unlively. Even then, you might find that sitting around watching the 春节晚会 and sending SMS messages to everyone you know isn't all that exciting either I'm now coming up to my 5th Spring Festival in China, and I intend to spend it with friends back in the town where I used to live in Hebei. My previous 4 were spent in Shanghai, Lijiang, Nandaihe and Zhangjiakou respectively, and besides lots of random fireworks (i.e. not big, organised fireworks displays), I've not seen any of the things you mention. You might be able to find someplace that has them, but it's definitely not common.

[Lu]

The reason Chunjie in Beijing sucks is because of what imron says, everybody goes back to their home town to celebrate it with family, so Beijing is deserted (and freezing). Celebrating Chunjie the way it should is spending it with a Chinese family, eating lots of delicious food, playing hours and hours of majiang, and watching tv shows you don't see the point of but all of China is watching.

Do they have New Year markets in China, or is that a Taiwan thing? Cause those are actually fun, very renao, and the one I went to yesterday even featured a short lion dance.

[liuzhou]

Hear hear, Imron!

The best place to spend Spring Festival is outside of China. That's why they put SE Asia next door.

Spring Festival consists of eating the same meal (probably hotpot) with the same people over and over again for 15 days. Watching television and shivering.

Get yourself to a Thai beach!

[Huang Jialuo]

that sucks... what about Chunjie when there was no television? Is it something that changed due to China's modernization?

So perhaps I should just celebrate it in Beijing and leave Shanghai for some other time...

Ai ya... so sad.. or then again I could go to Hong Kong as had been my last resort.. is it easy to get a visa renewed there?

[gougou]

What you could try is a 庙会, a temple fair. While they might not be exactly what you're looking for, they are one of the more public aspects of the festival.

[imron]

what about Chunjie when there was no television?

All of the above except without the TV?

[wushijiao]

Like Lu and others have mentioned, Beijing is a city with a high percentage of migrant workers who go home for Spring Festival, same with Shanghai. Your best bet is going to a rural place, if you want to see a lot of Spring Festival atmosphere and fireworks, I think.

[imron]

Your best bet is going to a rural place, if you want to see a lot of Spring Festival atmosphere and fireworks,

I'm not so sure about rural. I was in rural Zhangjiakou last year, and I think both the remoteness and the significantly lower incomes contributed to reducing both the availability and the total number of fireworks that people let off. In this respect, perhaps a 2nd or 3rd tier city would be a better bet.

Anyway, out of all the places I've spent Spring Festival, probably the most liveliest (in terms of the sheer number of fireworks going off and the general atmosphere) was Lijiang, in Yunnan. Yunan also has the added benefit of being nice and warm this time of year, and if you're currently in Beijing, it'll make a very pleasant change - especially if you go to Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan where you might not get lion-dancing, but as a consolation prize you should get sunshine, blue-skies and freshly squeezed fruit-juices.

[ajax]

I spent Chinese New Year in 2005 in Dali and Lijiang, and would agree that Lijiang is certainly renao. It was way too crowded for my taste, though. That year, at least, there were no fireworks allowed in the old town (wasn't there New Year's eve, though). Dali, on the other hand, was constant fireworks but a much more bearable crowd level. The weather in both places is definitely a plus if you're coming from the North.

But I agree with liuzhou and will be spending my 3rd Chinese New Year in SE Asia.

[imron]

When I was there, we were told that fireworks were completely banned in the old town due to being a fire hazard, hence the reason everyone went outside the gates.

[simonlaing]

I spent spring festival in lijian or perhaps Dali.

With this Japanese student who couldn't speak english or Chinese on the roof top watching the fire works.

Hong Kong seems to have good fire works you might think about going there.

I was in Hangzhou one Spring festival and there were lots of Fireworks. There is a big lake and a few rivers so people weren't so worried about fireworks.

It is hard to fine lion and dragon dances in the Mainland. I think Hong kong would be your best bet.

Good luck,

SImon:)