Celebrating New Year's in Ipoh

The much anticipated time of year with Chinese, is their New Year. We were very excited when we received an invitation to come to Ipoh to help celebrate this occasion. We arrived in Ipoh late on Monday, in order to celebrate Tuesday, the second day of Chinese New Year with our new adopted family.

Mom and dad, Goh

We woke early as instructed by sister Hong, only to be told by older sister Ying, we didn't need to get up so early. We offered to help, but I think they felt we would be more of a liability, so they politely declined. I think they heard about my cooking.

After breakfast, while the sisters went into preparation mode, I had the opportunity to speak to my newly adopted father. With my limited Chinese and dad's much better English, we managed to have a couple of hours worth of a conversation. He told me about his family, he was the youngest, his migration to Malaysia as a boy of 15, his 6 children, and his travels. While I had some alone time with dad, Mark had time to catch up with Daniel and Ben, hoping to drive them crazy. He accomplished his mission! Yup, they missed him. Both seem to enjoy Malaysia very much. Can't blame them, they have their dogs, a backyard to run around in, and the opportunity to play/taunt their cousins in between their studying.

Dad, and daughter, he never knew he had

By mid morning, family and friends dropped by to enjoy the festivities. First off was the hong bao, which is basically a red envelope with money in it. It is typically given to children, and single people. Since Mark and I were newbies to this part of the New Year, we also received hong baos from mom, and sister Hong. I love this time of year!

First the prayers!

Later, the lion dance was held as part of the Goh tradition, and kids from all ages enjoyed the theatrics. Mark and I were the photographers of this event, which gave us the opportunity to contribute to the fun of the new year.

Lion had to retrieve lettuce out of the tree! Don't ask.

Afterwards, the lion grabs the fruit and throws it to the children

Children vying for the fruit

Family and friends enjoying themselves!

After the lion dance, the best part to many, was the food and I have to agree with them. Job well done to all the chefs, Min, Ying, Hong and Yi and of course, mom.

By 3pm, everyone left and we enjoyed a nice peaceful afternoon. Hong, Mark and I went into Ipoh for a short time, purchasing the famous white coffee before returning for dinner, which was held at 7pm at Maria's. This has become a family tradition to have a final get together before everyone leaves to go their separate ways. Our very generous brother, Alex, treated that evening. We ate, drank and laughed, while champagne and red wine kept flowing.

Our brother, Alex on the left, with family and friends.

Mom, friends, and the sisters

Mark, enjoying his night with Daniel! Not sure who is the older one!

Family reunion with my sisters!

Afterwards, Mark tried his luck at gambling, and ended up winning.

All in all, it was a fantastic way to spend Chinese New Year. We would like to thank our adopted family in Ipoh for a most memorable time.

Happy 牛 Year

It's strange to be in Xiamen during this first weekend of the Chinese New Year as it is very quiet. Most all of the shops are closed up, the market was open and full this morning but by the afternoon it too was quickly starting to empty out.

Closed stores in Xiamen

At least when we wandered we found that the ladies that we always go to when we get our shoes polished were still in town. There were about 10-12 people out waiting to polish shoes today, and when the two that we always go to saw us they lit us with big smiles and immediately started to wave us down.

Pricing, however, became something of a sticking point.
Usually Tina pays about 3 kuai - I barter more and pay 2 kaui (0.30 USD) - but today being New Years' Eve I was in a giving mood and had agreed to pay 4 kuai for a good polishing. All was going well until Tina finished first (damn her tiny feet) and gave her girl 10 kuai, this got my girl into thinking that she also deserved a little extra pay. Second problem was that I only had a 10 and thus required change. The photo above is taken after I finally convinced her that she needed to give me change and she decided that 2 kuai were all I needed. I tried to argue and the small crowd quickly formed. I've learned from them that as if I refused to move it meant that I didn't accept her agreement so I sat there and just kept saying 不好 (bu hao - no good) until she got up and walked away from me. The other shoe shiner in the purple coat told me to take her shoe polish station instead of the change - this was all done in good fun and joking (at least we believe that, these women might be cursing us when we leave). Finally I did manage to get another kaui out of her, making for an expensive 7 kaui (1.oo USD) shoe polishing...

Then to top it off, she tried to refuse the 3 kuai I wanted to give her as a tip when I said 新年快乐 (Happy New Year).

Tomorrow we are off to Malaysia, chances are we will not be posting again until we return from that trip on Sunday. Enjoy your Chinese New Year, year of the 牛 (niu), the ox or cow.

Chinese New Year

Yep - it's that time again, the lunar new year and all of China seems to shut down as most people head back to spend the week with their families. We learnt today that Temptations had already closed for the holiday so we were suddenly left without a chance to purchase some wine....

I think Tina mentioned it earlier, but we are now moving into the year of the Ox, or Cow. I think that this is supposed to be a good year, as opposed to the year of the Rat that we just finished with. Steveo over at AsianRamblings.com has two good posts on the whole zodiac - here and here. I find linking to him is easier then pretending that I know what I'm talking about, or taking the time to actually get a better understanding of how this system works and what it means.

So with a week off we will be travelling again, this time heading back down to Ipoh, Malaysia to see our adopted sisters and to catch up with Big Red, Ben, and Daniel since they moved from Xiamen. We fly out Monday, the actual first day of the new year and we are looking forward to heading down to the warmth that is the 30c of Malaysia.

The fun of travelling in China....

For those of you who haven’t heard, China, over here, will be celebrating their New Year’s next week. We are going to bid adieu to the Rat and welcome in the Ox.

And in keeping with the theme, I thought I would share a story or two about the adventure one can have traveling within China during this festive week.

It started out innocently enough. Yang, my Taichi teacher, asked how long my flight back to Chicago took. I explained it took approximately 14 hours and then we had to wait a few hours before heading up to Toronto. He thought that rather quick.

The first time he left Xiamen to go to his hometown in the Henan province, he took a bus. This trip lasted 55 hours. The second time he opted for the train, which took less time, only 30 hours. After how long it took him to travel to his home province, I would agree.

The discussion then went into safety of the trains and buses in China during these peak times. According to Yang, the issue with the system here in China is the guanxi, and the the process of purchasing tickets. Unlike home, one doesn’t purchase a train ticket via the Internet or phone, one must go to the train station and queue up. Basically, it’s you and thousands of your closest friends. Bring a good book, and perhaps a meal or two. Generally one can only purchase the tickets a few days ahead of time.

Guanxi, which is common practice here in China, is basically the art of “gift” giving. This helps the person purchasing the ticket to secure a bunk (if you gave him a large gift, or a seat, if you were too cheap to cough up more money). Not that much different than Chicago politics but I digress. The trains are always oversold, and if you weren’t lucky enough to secure a bunk or seat, your only choice would be to stand, unless you find the bar car first. As for the rest of the travelers, well that means being vertical most of the trip. Yang has seen people sleeping, standing up the entire time. Some were so exhausted they couldn’t stand anymore and would fall on people’s laps.

He also told me of a story about 3 years ago, where the train was so crammed during this time, they found 7 people in the toilet, as there was no place else left on the train to stand. Apparently, if you needed to relieve yourself, you used the windows.

The buses are no better. Typically, the buses will call out to people who weren’t fortunate enough to get a train ticket, and then cram as many as 100 people on them.

Yea, I think I will stick to airplanes…