It is just another Chinese new year - Spring Festival. No matter where you are, please take the faithful bless from our Chinese people :)
Happy Niu Year !! (to know more about the phrase Happy Niu Year)
Some days before, I went to Beijing zoo with my family. Here are some interesting photos and videos to share with you:
Some photos:
The Panda and me :)
A shy panda:
Two golden monkey, enjoy their sleeping together!
A lynx maybe, I don't remember its English name…
Mother and child (just the monkeys in the video above)：
Japanese-style moustache…
White tiger：
rhinoceros, enjoy his dinner lonely…
A penguin from Peru：
penguins waiting for the dinner in a queue :)
An elephant, very huge!
He must be hungry …
Zebra, white on black or black on white? That is a question :)
Star tortoise from India:
Gecko – the name is very cool, isn't it? :)
Snake：
Another snake：
It' a very important time for our Chinese people, especially those working/studying far away from their hometown like me.
We call it "Spring Festival Transport", aka 春(Spring)运(Transport) in Chinese.
I don't know whether there's something similar in the western world, but in China, spring festival means time for home. Millions of people will travel across the big country for home. No eariler, no later, just within about one week, only once each year!
As you may imagine, the traffic system will hit a very high load. Tickets are sold out in a very short time every day. Just to get a piece of train ticket, thousands of people have to wait in a queue 24 hours beforehand, in spite of cold winter rains! And for the unchecked scalpers over the country, some people may have to pay 2,3 times higher than the original price for his ticket. I am sure many of the ifgogo.com writers have the experience of buying higher tickets in China.
If you are traveling by train, then there's something even worse! Getting a ticket is not the final rescue! Mostly, you may have to stay in a very crowded carriage, jostle each other tightly. Keep in a same pose for hours and no toilet available! That's like true nightmares, especially for female passengers. And that's why I suggest my friend to travel on air, no matter how rich the air ticket is.
The worst thing is, after a tired-through struggling and finally arrive at home, you only got two or three days to stay. After then, you have to struggle back to work/school again!
Anyway, to stay with family during spring festival is such a important custom for us. No one dares to disobey it or even to discuss about an alternative way. Though we all know it's a very low-efficiency family gathering, we all have to go with it. Personally, I will leave for Guangzhou on Jan 25 to meet my father and get back to Beijing later in Feb, that would be a very tiring trip
(Guangzhou station, photo from Chinanews)
(Photo by namelz52 – you may take a look at this blog, though all in Chinese, you may also read the photos)
If there is no choice, we may feel anxious and upset.
If there are many choices, we may feel confused and hesitated.
Life is like a tree map, every one has to make decision when he faces crossroad. And sometimes, for those crucial issues, we may only have one chance to make a choice which will lead to different results of our lives.
I will graduate in July this year, so recently I am trying to find a job. Since I will get a master’s degree in English, I have to make a choice among different careers. To become an English teacher just as most of my classmates do? Or find a job which may relate to business or translation in some company?Or try to become a civil servant?
These choices will lead to totally different lives. Teacher is a stable and comparatively comfortable job, but it seems a little bit flat. We can predict what kind of life will be for a teacher. If I go to the company, I can have more opportunities to improve my all-round abilities and may possess a colorful life at the cost of facing more challenges, risks and hardship.
On this issue, Lisa gave me lots of advices and encouragement which I really appreciated. And I agree with her opinion that choice is more important than hard work. Yes, a choice may decide the road of rest of my life.
Anyway, I have confidence to do a great job whatever I choose. Wish all graduates and I can get satisfactory jobs before our graduation.
When I was only a little girl, I heard of many stories about how the soul left deceased body and then was reincarnated. So, such possibility of pre-existences or reincarnation has been built in my mind. However, due to my RED education came from my parents and schools at that time in last 50s and 60s, I could not believe in it fully.
However, 20 years ago when my grandmother was dying, she asked her son in Beijing to buy some incense paper to burn for my late grandfather, who was buried at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery. She said she had a dream, seeing our grandpa was too poor to buy any food, and he had to rob another relative's twisted cruller for his breakfast.... I was shocked by grandma's saying since I knew that she was an old Communist Party member and never accepted such superstition before.
From then on, I started burning of joss sticks, paper money or to say "Hell Notes" for my late father. As the time went by, my deceased relatives such as parents in law, uncles, other in laws were more and more, so that the paper money I burn every year was also more and more. I normally do it in December of Chinese Lunar calender. Every time I finished doing it, I would feel peacefully in mind and felt as if my heart was purified under the bright and cold moonlight.....
At this time we are approching to the Chinese Niu Year, I devoutly wish all the deceased rest in peace! Of course all the souls came from the Wenchuan earthquake are included!