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10th February, 2001

Chinese New Year In Beijing Starts With A Temple Fair On The Road In Front Of The Grand View Garden Hotel.

February, 1999
Temple Fair viewed from hotel window.
About five o'clock in the morning of the first day of The Year Of The Rabbit I was woken by the shouts of a woman selling dumplings on the road below the hotel. Jiaozi ! Jiaozi ! Jiaozi ! Her voice sounded quite eerie in my half-awake state but I quickly left her to her early morning sales pitch, and returned to my dreamworld for another four hours. When I eventually got up and looked through the window, the road outside the hotel was already beginning to fill up with Chinese families and friends, muffled up against the cold, but all out to enjoy themselves at the Temple Fair, and I was impatient to join them.

Mini-stall at kerb's edge.Both sides of the road were lined with stalls, the stallholders wearing their official numbered badges, but where there was space at the kerb side, individuals set up their mini stalls, sometimes comprising of just a piece of cardboard laid on the pavement on which their few goods were displayed. There was one such mini stall just outside the hotel entrance and I am sure that had the lady sold all her wares during the course of the day, her profit would have been very little.

Stalls of cooks from neighoring provences.No Temple Fair would be complete without a fair number of different snacks, dumplings or noodles to enjoy, and the people on this day had quite a number to choose from, provided by cooks from other provinces. From experience I have discovered that many of these tasty looking snacks are prepared with liberal portions of very hot chillies, much to the liking of most Chinese people.

If you are interested in further New Year topics, such as...
Wise Man Brings Prosperity For New Year In Beijing...
Temple Fair, Grand View Gardens...
Temple Fair Food And Snacks...
New Year Temple Fair In Dalian...
...then just click them !

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