Where to go for Christmas in China?

[mcgau]

It's been the second time I'm going to make my Christmas in China, and as usual, it means no Christmas.

I'm going to make some changes. I asked the owners of my most visited cafe to play Christmas songs, put up some Christmas lights there, and bought a few santa's hats for their staff but things don't look so good. It seems to be Halloween in December.

Except Hong Kong, is Christmas popular in any other China cities?

[roddy]

I asked the owners of my most visited cafe to play Christmas songs, put up some Christmas lights there, and bought a few santa's hats for their staff but things don't look so good.

Where are you? Here in Beijing they're all doing that already* (and probably will be up until Easter). Some places - bars, shopping centers - will have decorations up, and there will be plenty of (pricey) Christmas meals available.

*Wish they wouldn't, personally. Bah, humbug.

[abcdefg]

Christmas Eve is a big deal in Kunming. Street parties and so on. Christmas Day is pretty much business as usual.

[Meng Lelan]

Wish they wouldn't, personally. Bah, humbug.

But you must be in the Christmas spirit, after all you're the one who started that silly Santa avatar contest.

[skylee]

I am going to spend Christmas in Taipei. I did the same like two years ago and there was almost no celebration/decoration IIRC, except some young people burning mini fireworks at 信義區 on Christmas eve ...

[Daan]

Hardly any decoration here in Taipei this year, either. Some churches, and some bus drivers wearing Santa Claus suits, but that's it, sadly. Kind of makes for a miserable Christmas. At least it's cold.

[adrianlondon]

I spent Christmas in Beijing in 2006. It was odd. It was like they took all the commercial aspects of it (i.e. selling christmassy stuff, crazy decorations some saying "Merry Christmas 2002!!!", lights and even trees in the posh places) and then totally ignored it.

I had class on Christmas day. I turned up just for the novelty of it and was greeted by (a) only one othe rstudent stupid enough to turn up and (B) a teacher who wasn't interested in my rehearsed chat about Christmas in the UK and instead ignored the fact 13 students were missing and carried on with the next chapter in her book.

I felt fed up, but then went to Da Dong with some friends and had roast duck and pretended it was a Christmas dinner. In fact, it was much better than the usual roast turkey.

And then I noticed that most of the small places kept their christmas decorations up into February when I left Beijing. And then, looking back at some photos I took the previous October, there they were in one small shop that I'd overlooked before ... Christmas decorations. Must have been there since 2002.

[taylor04]

Yea we had class at Zhejiang University during Christmas too. I hear only the North Koreans showed up:D But they are supposed to cover new material. They don't give us Christmas off because it would be unfair to all the other Chinese students.

[Xiwang]

Here at Fudan University in Shanghai, we get the week after Christmas off. I understand that the Chinese students still have to go to class. The Shanghai Jiaotong students also get the week off.

Last year at Peking University, Christmas was just another class day. However, one teacher said that he wouldn't count it against us if we skipped that day. I showed up anyway but the classroom was pretty empty.

[animal world]

One of the many charms that attract me to China is the fact that, on the whole, they don't do much about Christmas. Please, China, keep it that way!

[four more days of having to put up with mostly slimy Christmas songs and the frenzied hoopla surrounding this seasonal commercialization aka Christmas]

[Meng Lelan]

One of the many charms that attract me to China is the fact that, on the whole, they don't do much about Christmas. Please, China, keep it that way!

[four more days of having to put up with mostly slimy Christmas songs and the frenzied hoopla surrounding this seasonal commercialization aka Christmas]

I'm with you on this one, animal world, I'm with you! Though the frenzied hoopla this year isn't very frenzied here in the US due to the recession.

Edited December 20, 2009 at 07:33 PM by Meng Lelan

[xianhua]

four more days of having to put up with mostly slimy Christmas songs

You should come to the UK, where we get bands like Rage Against the Machine taking the Christmas Number One slot.

We're all anarchists at heart over here.

[mcgau]

oh, 3 days left and my recent premature retired lifestyle makes me wake up in 3pm, too late to do anything in the whole days.

the only choice available to me is Chengdu. Hope to have some fun. (And i can buy a pack of Zolpidem [ambien] to my sleeping disorder too. )

Merry christmas to all!