Vanessa’s Blog

Obama’s Visit to China has drawn the whole world’s attention.

The four – day (15-18 of Nov, 2009)visit just successfullly concluded.

In the past four days all media’s topics were about Obama’s visit.

I’m sure you can read or watch all the news from newspaper, internet or tv.

I would like to link 2 Chinese websites for future reference. The English version is Chinadaily and the Chinese one is QQ news.

Obama is so well known in China. His popularity in China is far more than other US presidents in history, I think , as no matter young or old, male or female all know about the name Obama. Wish him good luck!

– BEIJING, Nov. 17, 2009 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Hu Jintao shakes hands with visiting U.S. President Barack Obama after they meet the press at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Nov. 17, 2009.

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Today was one of the Chinese traditional festivals, Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival, or Zhong Qiu Jie in Chinese and also called “Ba Yue Jie ” (literally translated into English is the eighth month festival ) as it is on the 15th of the lunar August in Chinese calendar. Please refer to this link to find more information.

When I was young, well, I mentioned before that I grew up in a very remote and small village, we ate moon cakes on the festival, which we only had once a year before I was 15ys old I think. (Now you can eat when ever you want!)

The mooncakes were cheap before, RMB2.5 per bag of 5 mooncakes. My family normally bought 2 bags which were 10 mooncakes to share among the whole family.

Now… even a small mooncake costs you about RMB7 -10. If you buy a box of 4 or 6 as gifts that will cost you much more, may up to a few hundred RMB. You cannot really compare!!! Packaging is the big difference!

The mooncakes are much more expensive than the ones I ate before, but not as tasty as before…maybe because I only ate once a year.hahaha…

Mid-autumn festival on the 15th of Aug. and it’s full moon on the night…oh…that’s maybe why it’s called Moon Festival. hahaha…

My grandparents used to tell me a legend story, a pretty lady called Chang’e lives in the moon “Guanghan Palace” with her rabbit. We were supposed to see her on the mid-autumn festival…sorry, I can’t remeber the whole story. Please follow the same link to find out if you are interested in the legend.

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I bet the whole world now knows today marks the 60th anniversary of PRC(1949-2009)!

A link here shows you more that how Chinese people from different parts celebrated our National Day!

As a Chinese I’m so excited about the ceremony. I will watch the Parade on tv due to traffic and the crowd…lol… and later on I will go to watch the special film for it “The Founding of A Reublic” or “Jian Guo Da Ye” in Chinese with friends. The film gathered 172 Chinese famous actors and actresses such as Jackie Chen, Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi… well, there are 172 and i’m not going to name all!

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I’ve 2 posts about the games I played in my childhood. Please refer to : 1 and 2. Here comes the third one:

We call it “ti jianzi ” in Chinese and i’m not very sure if “Kicking Shuttlecock” is correct in English.

It’s a very popular exercise nowadays among families. The senior people like playing it in parks. Some schools even hold “ti jianzi ” competitions.

One person can play it. A team too. It has no limit of the number of players. You can kick with the top or sides of your feet.

The “jianzi ” (shuttlecocks) are prettier and more colorful than the ones I played in the old days. They are very cheap too. You can buy one at about RMB1 or 2 (US$0.14 or 0.28) each.

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