Fellow Virtual Travelers,
Happy Chinese New Year that is! The Chinese New Year is different than our calendar-based New Year known as January 1st of each year. Today, February 10th is the start of this year's calendar and this is the year of the Water Snake. Lunar and solar cycles determine the exact timing of the new year and the Chinese Zodiac plays a large role the new year's celebrations!
Check out the Chinese New Year details here:
http://www.theholidayspot.com/chinese_new_year/
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/focus/calendar.htm
Learn more about the Chinese Zodiac:
http://www.theholidayspot.com/chinese_new_year/calendar.htm
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/zodiac/story.htm
Following the principle of Chinese yin and yang (the concept of complementary opposites like hot/cold, light/dark and young/old), on this day of National Chinese celebration, we bring to you a story of tragedy from within the lands of China. We met a warm soul during our travels across the orient, whom we call John. He lived during the time of the uprising of the Red Guard under Mao Zedong, known as the Cultural Revolution. John's family had for generations been small business owners, passing the business from father to son.
Under Mao, capitalists and capitalism were deemed undesirable and needed to be purged from society. As a result, all private business was seized and assets destroyed. John's father was sent to prison and tortured for years for being a capitalist. While his father languished in prison, John was sent to work at hard labor with other capitalists' children on rural farms.
John's father nearly died in prison and, although eventually released, he suffered from nightmares to the end of his days. John later took the college entrance exams and passed with flying colors, so under Chinese law was eventually allowed to attend college. Meanwhile the infrastructure of the entire country collapsed. Only after Deng Xiaoping became Chairman were the mistakes of the Cultural Revolution acknowledged and corrected. But barely in time, as the whole country was on the verge of physical and economic collapse.
While John has persevered and lives life the best he can, it is clear that many emotional wounds exist.
The New Year is a peak travel time in China. One of the big changes we found since our last visits is the huge growth in domestic tourism. Citizens are discovering their rich heritage by visiting places like the Shaolin Temple in Henan Province. While it was once possible to get photos of just buildings at such places, the surge in tourism makes these ancient temples very crowded today.
Blessings,
Dennis & Anita