Chinese Family Festival
The last 3 days have seen China celebrate their "Family Festival." It was originally a celebration of the new moon closest to the vernal equinox (when I imagine the Chinese of yore did the whole hippie thing and danced naked to the light of the moon -or whatever they did here), but now that the Chinese are all new, shiny and modern (or what approximates to that here), the "party" has decided we shall use it to honour our families instead.
Ostensibly the Chinese are supposed to spend a day traveling to see their family (though that does make you wonder why they got so far from their families in the first place), party with them for a day, and then spend a day coming home. It's the middle day that's the holiday.
Sadly they don't seem to do that here now. Like bank holidays in th west, it's all about shopping here now, which brings me onto another thing. I don't know if it's all east Asians have a shoe fetish (I remember Imelda Marcos having a shoe thing going on at one stage), but I don't think I've seen so many shoe shops in my life as I have here.
I'm the sort of person who buys a pair of shoes, wears them for a year, and replaces them. In total I've 5 pairs of shoes on the go at any one time (2 black, 2 brown and a pair of trainers). After a year, at least one pair will be worn out or in holes (though I suspect it might be 2 this year), so I go to Marks and Spencers and replace them.
Here though shoe shopping (or rather shoe shops, because most never seem to have people in them) have been turned into an art form. There are shoe shops everywhere you look in China. They seem to sell everything from flip-flops and Crocs to walking shoes what my other half used to call knee high hooker boots. I have no idea how they keep in business to be honest.
Ostensibly the Chinese are supposed to spend a day traveling to see their family (though that does make you wonder why they got so far from their families in the first place), party with them for a day, and then spend a day coming home. It's the middle day that's the holiday.
Sadly they don't seem to do that here now. Like bank holidays in th west, it's all about shopping here now, which brings me onto another thing. I don't know if it's all east Asians have a shoe fetish (I remember Imelda Marcos having a shoe thing going on at one stage), but I don't think I've seen so many shoe shops in my life as I have here.
I'm the sort of person who buys a pair of shoes, wears them for a year, and replaces them. In total I've 5 pairs of shoes on the go at any one time (2 black, 2 brown and a pair of trainers). After a year, at least one pair will be worn out or in holes (though I suspect it might be 2 this year), so I go to Marks and Spencers and replace them.
Here though shoe shopping (or rather shoe shops, because most never seem to have people in them) have been turned into an art form. There are shoe shops everywhere you look in China. They seem to sell everything from flip-flops and Crocs to walking shoes what my other half used to call knee high hooker boots. I have no idea how they keep in business to be honest.