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Writer's pictureAnja

Happy New Year



You think we are late or overslept?

No, the Chinese celebrated "New Year's Eve" only yesterday. It's not called New Year's Eve here, but Chinese New Year or Spring Festival.

You could think it was the last festival they celebrate... It's our first spring festival here, so we have no comparison, but they really do fire up something here, it's really hard to believe. For days now, the advance firecrackers have been increasing steadily, culminating yesterday in continuous thunder from 17:00 to 01:00. THROUGHOUT!

Normally, firecrackers are not allowed inside the 4th ring road in the city. (We live inside) But no one complies. The Chinese don't let off colourful fireworks, which would still be pretty to look at. No, they shoot firecrackers. They also set off fireworks right in front of the garden gate. (Not in front of their own, of course...)


Anja slept with earplugs, otherwise it was not possible. And this morning it continued from 6:30 am. So we were thrown out of bed with firecrackers, practically standing in bed.

It really makes you wonder whether the Chinese are actually surprised about their own air quality! In the city, the smoke from firecrackers wafts through the streets, you can literally cut the air and the air values shoot into dark purple. (there are colour tables here -green is clean-.

If you are interested, you can download the app AirVisual, which not only works for China).

But there is something good about this Chinese New Year: Denny has 1.5 weeks holiday.

What have we planned for that time? Not so much so far. Anja has a few flat optimisation wishes and Denny wants to go on a few trips.

We'll tell you about them in the next blog.


Nanhu-Lake

Did we tell you that it's sooo cold here that you can drive your car onto the lake? The Chinese also use the thick ice to make ice sculptures, snow sculptures and fun parks. The blocks are cut out of the lake and then art is made from them. Snow is piled up into mountains and turned into statues. Around Nanhu Lake (or South Lake) these sculptures are set up everywhere. Now that it thawed a bit yesterday, the statues look a bit sad.

If you like, you can also go ice bathing at Nanhu Lake? With the help of bubblers, a small area is kept ice-free. So far, however, we have not seen anyone who has dared to go in.


Moon Lake - cross-country skiing

Last weekend we went cross-country skiing at and across Moon Lake. The first time on the new skis we bought here. Jogging is not so great at -15 degrees, so our decision to do endurance sports was cross-country skiing.





Anja had already written in an earlier blog that there are supposed to be arctic foxes at this lake. Back then we were a little disappointed that we didn't see anything except for a couple of sparrows, but this time we were really rewarded.


However, the foxes here are fed by the visitors. Whether it's because of the Chinese food or the fur is just incredibly plush, we don't know. But we do think that the arctic fox looks very Chinese with the small (slit) eyes... By the way, on the photo is Anja's ski tip, he came really VERY close. From an early age, children in Germany are trained not to let foxes get close. Danger of rabies. And anyway, they only come so close when they are sick...

But Anja forgot all about it because she was so excited. And the fox also ran away again after he noticed that she had nothing to eat.


And again the traffic

We already told you about the traffic situation here in the last blog, now here are pictures of the crossroads we already mentioned: When the light is green, you want to enter the motorway, but you can't because the cars on the right also have the light and drive over the slip road to the left....


Lotus Mountain and Snowkiting

Alpine skiing is also quite good here. There is a small ski area about 1 hour from our home. The slopes are not endless, but good to ski. Unfortunately, the après-ski flair has not yet arrived here in China. So there's no mulled wine, Willi, Germknödel or dance music. But it's still a very young skiing nation. And when the Winter Olympics take place here in 2022, there's bound to be something going on. In terms of leisure activities, Changchun has a lot to offer in winter. Denny also goes snowkiting almost every weekend with the Changchun kiters on some lake near here.


Thaw

The thaw yesterday and today not only thaws the snow and ice in record time, it also has its pitfalls on our doorstep. We don't have a gutter above the exit. So the defrost water drips onto our steps. They are cold and there is a really thick layer of ice. It drips during the day and freezes at night. There's nothing you can do about it by beating it off. And salt is not allowed here, as far as we know. And above all, how much should we pour on it....?


We wish you a long time with great snow.

Many greetings home

Anja & Denny



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