Here’s the main holiday dates for China 2019 and the dates to join in on amazing festivals (or hide under the bed and avoid the crowds and transport chaos :)) Date English name Local name Pinyin Remarks January 1st New Year 元旦 Yuándàn New Years Day February 5th Spring…
China has been the built the most skyscrapers every year for over a decade now, and last year was no exception with 77 having been built in 36 different cities. 12 were built in Shenzhen alone last year. The business model is the same for all most all of them…
This extends on a question I recently answered on Quora, about alternative news in China. Included here is a huge list of news outlets, mostly in Chinese.
Whether living in China or just holidaying, you're probably going to turn a TV on at some time, so, here's the big list of local Chinese TV channels
Youtube’s Chinese equivalents were born on hosting ripped content from overseas, such as popular western TV series and movies, and grew from humble bootlegging websites into fully fledged internet companies. So popular in fact, from tapping into a massive Chinese netizen audience, that many listed on the stock markets of…
How much does it cost to go to China? Take a look on the travel forums and it’s one of the most common questions there is, so, let’s break it down. Just like anywhere, there’s a big difference between holidaying and living for extended periods so let’s tackle it in…
Going to China and exploring the well worn tourist trails is one thing, it’s another thing again to live in one of China’s major urban cities for a period of time, and it’s very much another thing again, to live outside those urban cities. It’s a journey that can push…
As CNY comes to close, families make their return to the cities with the bounty of home town produce… anyway they can.
The Spring Festival Travel Season, or Chunyun (春运), is well underway as people race home to chow down on dumplings and set the country ablaze with crackers and fireworks. Of course Spring Festival and Chinese New Year is much more than overeating and going deaf or possibly being blinded, but…
Carrying a few extra pounds, I’m bypassing the local dim-sum restaurant and went on the hunt for local solutions for weight loss and here’s what I come up with. Firstly, everyone agrees, you can’t put in more than you give out, meaning, you need to burn more calories than you…
In this documentary series, the two vloggers ride their hand built 125cc bikes from Huizhou in Guangdong Province to Kunming in Yunnan Province. Along the way they tackle the toughest roads, meet fascinating locals, try weird food and witness breathtaking landscapes; it’s China like you’ve never seen it before. According…
Here are the unconfirmed dates for public holidays in China, 2016. Holiday Name Statutory Days of Holiday 2016 Date 2016 Day of the Week 2016 Days Off (TBC) Summary New Year’s Day 1 day Jan. 1 Friday Jan. 1–3 The beginning of a new year based on the Gregorian calendar. Chinese…
If you have been in China more than a day, you probably have WeChat on your phone by now. But, it’s much more than a social sharing and messaging servicing, it can really simplify a lot of necessities in China daily life. for foreigners, WeChat Pay can simplify a lot…
Chinese Chess, Xiang Qi, is a quite a popular pastime with elderly Chinese folk. You may not find it so easily in the big cities, take a stroll through the quite streets of a smaller city and there they’ll be, gathered around the board.
Pic – Scooters parked up outside the supermarket on a Sunday in Qingyuan Guangdong. Electric and gas powered scooters are wildly popular, especially in smaller cities where there road use is not as restricted. Cities such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou have restriction on what roads they can use. Price? from…
Street hawkers are a common sight, a popup butchery makes me wonder. Perhaps he is a trusted local farmer known to the locals. Cantonese are not so keen on refrigerated meat, so no issue there for the locals…
Supermarkets in China can be an eye-opening experience, I remember going to buy some chicken when I first moved here and, lo and behold, there was live chickens, pulled from the cage, beheaded and plucked before your eyes, it. Talk about fresh. Walmart is fairly tame, in comparison to the…
Official Chinese public holidays for 2015: New Year’s Day January 1st to the 3rd off with weekend shifted, and work recommencing on the 4th (Sunday). Spring Festival/Chinese New Year: February 18th (Chinese New Year’s Eve) to the 24th off with weekend shifted. Tomb Sweeping Day: April 5th off, with day…
Respite from the heat.. Without many other options the metro station is a popular place to cool down and rest…
Taobao is China’s undisputed king of online shopping malls in China, and is the local equivalent of ebay in many ways. Traders can list their products online and reach out to a large audience who can easily locate and compare goods of just about any type. Whilst prices can be…
It’s that time again, when a whole country goes from ON… to OFF. The Spring Festival Travel Season, or Chunyun (春运), which goes for 40 days is well underway having started Jan 16 and will finish Feb 24. Many people wont finish work until tomorrow leaving them little time to…
Chinese philosophies, or if you like, doctrines, religions or cultural practices include Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Over thousands of years they have all played a major role in shaping Chinese culture, albeit sometimes falling in and out of favor with rulers over the centuries. Through an understanding of the different…
The Spring Festival is a fifteen day celebration where most Chinese people have at least seven days holiday, and within the festival is the beginning of the Chinese New Year. It’s a very special time for Chinese. For my first year in China, my first Spring Festival began in Shenzhen…
Without a doubt the most important date on the Chinese calender – the Lunar New Year and the beginning of the Spring Festival. This year it falls on February 3. Most all workers will get 7 days off work and head home for celebrations and reunion with family. More about…
Chinese love their bicycles, ranging from the standard push bike through to home made three wheelers, they are absolutely everywhere. China has the largest fleet of bicycles in the world but as history tells the story the Chinese where quite slow to catch on to this thing with ‘two wheels connected…
Chinese people love celebrating things, and not only there own traditional festivals but also western ones too, and Christmas especially. Here in Shenzhen all the retail shopping malls have grand decorations throughout including themed displays, large trees and big custom made models of Santa, reindeers and the like. Even smaller…