Home Sweet Home: Baidu Map Shows Chinese Lunar New Year Migration in Real Time

China's annual migration is well-underway. Four years ago, when Paul and I first visited China to check out our new 'hood', we managed to find ourselves at the Beijing Railway Station just a week before Chinese New Year. What we saw? An ocean of people hoping to buy a train ticket or already 'hop'on the train and occupy their 'standing seat' for the eight or more hour train ride home to their 'laojia', the family home. (And this of course only when the ticket you just bought doesn't turn out to be fake.)

Well, our laojia now is Beijing, so Paul and I are not going anywhere and I am just going to observe the migration from my desk with this very cool map that the Chinese search engine Baidu has set up:

  

  

The Baidu map shows people on the move on January 16 (top left) and today
(January 29, top right). The photos on the bottom show today's movements into
and out of Beijing (left) and Shanghai (right). 

Baidu Map of the Chinese Lunar New Year Migration in Real Time

The map is based on the number and location of people using the Baidu search app on their cell phones and shows destinations, cities of origin, and routes (on the Website, use the three big blue buttons on the right to toggle between the three). Beijing is a big departure and a big destination city, so--as can be expected--the whole thing is just a giant reshuffling of people.

Not everyone is going home though - this year I read a couple articles about the immense pressure and stress a lot of young people experience when they go home. Why are you not married? Why don't you make more money? Apparently these are some of the more gentle questions that might be shared over the Chinese New Year, along with the dumplings and fire crackers. This article in particular has gotten a lot of coverage:

Newspaper front page: Mom: "Please come home for Chinese New Year,
we won't ask you about marriage ever again!"

In het Nederlands: In China is op dit moment bijna iedereen op reis. Vrijdag begint hier het Chinese nieuwjaar en dan moet je thuis bij je pa en ma aan de dumplings zitten. Het is een hoop gestress natuurlijk, die volksverhuizing. En dan moet je eventueel ook nog jezelf bij pa en ma verantwoorden waarom je nog niet getrouwd bent of waarom je niet al een betere baan hebt. Sommige mensen ontduiken tegenwoordig deze stress en blijven lekker thuis. Zelf gaan we morgenavond even Nederlandse oliebollen bakken en een fles champagne opentrekken!

Happy New Year - Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Sinterklaas and Santa Claus have been long gone, the new year is here, and China is getting ready for its own lunar new year at the end of this month. Happy 2014 everyone -- may your year be full of good health and happiness. 

A rare family picture.

We always have a photographer with us these days.

Yesterday morning I saw this cart with red lanterns: Chinese New Year is coming!

Fireworks!

Wow, time flies when you are having fun! I was just looking at this older blog post about fireworks in February 2011, and here we are again: Fireworks in February 2013!

The kids are bigger, the fireworks better, but mom's nervousness pretty much the same! :-). These are some pictures from last Saturday, all taken just outside our little compound (neighborhood), on the main road. 

 

The character on the right, he, means congratulations (at least according to my very handy Pleco iPhone app.)

 

Boom! - A lot of the fireworks here are in nifty boxes. You light them once and they just keep going for a while.

 

The audience (left) and some scientists (right) measuring particle pollution from the fireworks. (Wow, who invited them to the party?)

 

The very second we were done, this man came to pick up all our empty boxes. In just a minute, half of the "trash" had been cleaned up!

In het Nederlands: Zaterdagavond was het lekker vuurwerk afsteken. Op 31 december gebeurt er in Beijing niet veel op dat gebied, dus we vinden het leuk om dan het toch zeker een avond tijdens het Chinees Nieuwjaar goed aan te pakken. Boem, boem, Tsssssss. De jongens (alle drie) vinden het in elk geval altijd erg leuk!

Perfect (Strawberry) World

Around Chinese New Year (or the "Spring Festival" as the one billion citizens in China actually call this momentous event) strawberries are for sale everywhere. The ones we buy come come perfectly aligned in a box. :-)



In het Nederlands: Is het geen prachtig gezicht? Deze twintig aardbeitjes in een doosje? 

Happy Year of the Snake: Temple Fair Mania

The Chinese New Year is here! Last Saturday night we inaugurated the Year of the Snake with a few happy fire crackers, and the next day we did the traditional Chinese thing: Go to a temple fair. 

 

Temple fairs are big fairs, with food, games, and performances, that take place at a lot of temples and other locations across town. The first few pictures here are from the Daguanyuan temple fair in southwest Beijing.

 

Lots of games...

 

...and snacks. The boys are eating delicious tomatoes (Simon) or mixed fruit (Thomas) on a stick, dipped in caramel sauce. Yum!

 

One particularly lovely sight at all the temple fairs are the children, bundled up in about five million jackets (give or take a few) and usually with animal hats! 

 

Party rockin' in the house!

 
We bought some of these delicious peanut bars and sesame crackers. They are really just gigantic slates of sugar with peanuts thrown into them. Delish, though I don't know if they'll appear on any kind of diet any time soon.

 

Above the lake was a tightrope performance. Never seen a guy bike across a lake on a rope in the blistering cold. :-).

 
Guards on duty.

 
Paparazzi are everywhere... Our blond boys are always invited into lots of pictures.

 
Spring came early this year...  No, the flowers everywhere are actually all fake! It looks lovely though :-)

  
In between temple fairs we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. I just thought I had to show you the sign at the ladies' bathroom: "Don't step onto the WC please". Please no! This is of course because people who are used to squatting might be inclined to take that same technique to a toilet seat half a meter from the ground. This might actually be a balancing act better than the tightrope walking at the fair!

 
We continue our entertainment at a second temple fair. This one is at the Dongyue temple, a daoist temple in northeast Beijing.

 
We buy and put up these red good-luck charms. (To buy the little tablets: 10 RMB, to have endless prosperity: priceless.)

 
More lovely decorations and wrapped children.

 
Simon and Thomas try their hand at some games and other activities. On the right behind them you see a whole wall of those red good-luck charms that people have put up.

 
We watched some great performances. This kid was doing things we had also seen big performers at the famous Shanghai Circus World do!

 

The temple itself was very interesting too. There were many small rooms (such as the one in the photo on the right) that showed particular aspects of Taoist believes in great detail. Mr. Frog had something to do with the gods from the water world. I prayed he would not show up in my bathroom anytime soon. 

 
On the way out, Simon climbs the Mt. Everest and we see this older man contemplate the traffic.
  
We're done with temple fairs for the day and head home. I just had to take a picture of the empty roads! Because everyone goes home for Chinese New Year, Beijing gets pretty deserted with only the true locals (and some lost Dutch Americans) hanging around. It's a great time for getting around!

In het Nederlands: Zondagochtend is hier het Chinese nieuwjaar, het jaar van de slang, begonnen. We mogen nog 15 dagen lang vuurwerk afsteken, dus daar hadden we niet zo'n haast mee. Wel gingen we meteen op zondag naar twee leuke "temple fairs". Een temple fair is een soort kermis bij een tempel, met spelletjes, eten en voorstellingen. Dat is gezellig en als het goed is brengt het ook een hoop geluk!