Beware of the Rabbit!

The year of the rabbit is nigh. I know this, because all the stores are stocked with red underwear, red paper-cut rabbits, red lucky charms, red... red... red everything. Even Ikea had a "red-with-rabbit" version of its regular plastic cups and Simon made a cut-out rabbit at school (see photo).

Old Year's Eve is going to be Wednesday February 2, and New Year's Day is February 3. So from February 2 till February 8th, the world will (apparently) come to a grinding halt here. This is like our Christmas and Thanksgiving combined, and everyone will just go home and party. (When I ask people what they'll be doing, the answer invariably is: "Zuo fan, chi fan, mai dongxi" (Prepare food, eat dinner, buy stuff), so really, culturally we're all not that far apart.

Let me know if you need some red shorts. They are on sale and will bring you good luck.

More red.

Holiday decorations along the third ring road in Beijng. (At least now when you are stuck in traffic, the view is very good.)

In het Nederlands: Vandaag een paar fotootjes voor het Chinese nieuwe jaar--het jaar van het konijn. Volgende week dinsdag 2 februari is oudejaarsavond. Geen oliebollen, maar veeeeeeeeeeeeeel knallers, en een weeklang vuurwerk (zegt men). En mijn impressie is dat we toch allemaal niet zo anders zijn, want ook de Chinezen gaan met hun nieuwjaar lekker veel koken, eten en winkelen.