Spring Has Sprung
Spring Spring Festival, starting with Chinese New Year’s Day on Thursday the 19th, is particularly late kicking off this year. In fact, it is as late as it can be – almost – in 1985 it was February...
View ArticleWhat Year Is It, Anyway?
Whose year is it? I’ve seen a number of articles in the media asking what Chinese year it is this time. “Is it the Year of the Goat? The Sheep? The Ram?” they ask. The problem, they explain, is one of...
View ArticleSweeping Up
It has been pleasant to walk the streets of Liuzhou over the last couple of days, especially in the mornings. The sidewalks have been relatively free of cars and e-bikes. And people. The city seems...
View ArticleLanternLess Liuzhou
Tomorrow (5th March) is the Lantern Festival, marking the end of the Spring Festival. In previous years the city has held lantern displays and competitions in various places, most notably Liuzhou...
View ArticleA Woman’s Place
Liuzhou celebrated yesterday’s International Women’s Day. Known in Chinese as 三八, it is taken relatively seriously through China, unlike in many western countries. Of course, Liuzhou celebrated by...
View ArticleA Different Festival
Rongshui Miao Autonomous County (融水苗族自治县) lies to the north of Liuzhou city, but is under Liuzhou’s jurisdiction as part of Liuzhou Prefecture. It is a poor area, with around a 70% non-Han ethnic...
View ArticleSan Yue San 三月三
San Yue San 三月三, the third day of the third lunar month, is the most important festival for many of the ethnic minorities in southern China. This year it falls on Tuesday 22nd April. For the second...
View ArticleSan Yue San Shenanigans
To celebrate San Yue San, bunches of locals have been dressing up in their traditional costumes (or fakes thereof) and dancing around to promote various commercial entities. This bunch were parked...
View ArticleJapanese Holiday?
As part of the CCCP’s efforts to boost nationalism, it has been announced that China will have a national holiday on September 3rd to mark the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Japan in what we call...
View ArticlePeasant Art
Liuzhou Museum is having yet another of its temporary exhibitions in the hall on the first floor dedicated to such events. This time it’s entitled “柳州农民画作品展” which translates as “Liuzhou Peasant...
View ArticleDouble Holiday
Tomorrow, March 30th sees Guangxi close down for 6 days. The 三月三 ethnic minority festival is an officially recognised public holiday, but only here in Guangxi. This year it coincidentally abuts 清明,the...
View ArticleLong Lunch at the Dragon Pool
Like so many things, it came out of the blue. I was kind of aware that there was a Chinese holiday this week, but being self-semi-employed I am often a man of leisure and the holidays make little...
View ArticleLiuzhou’s Historical Nightmare
In order to mark the Dragon Boat Festival, and perhaps today’s Children’s Day, Liuzhou Museum mounted one of its occasional temporary exhibitions. These can sometimes be wonderful. This one wasn’t....
View ArticleBlue Sky; Bluer Water
Today in my perambulations around the city, I saw something rarely seen in Liuzhou. Yes, astonishingly, that is blue sky behind the Bubugao Tower. I had been in Liuzhou several years before I saw blue...
View ArticleIndustrial Museum
Over the National Day week-long holiday, a couple of dear, old friends (one from Nanning and one from Guangdong) visited me here in Liuzhou. Among their requests for amusement was a trip to Liuzhou...
View ArticleChina Holidays 2018
I know it’s still 2017, but if you are like me you’ll already be thinking about next year’s holidays. Here, courtesy of Josh Summers of TravelChinaCheaper.com, is a full list of China’s national public...
View ArticleDumb Phone – Failed
As usual, with everyone bored to death by the third day of the Spring Festival, they are resorting to their “smart” phones to pass the time. As usual, this has led to the system overloading and...
View Article54 Drunks
Liuzhou police stopped and breathalysed an undisclosed number of drivers over the Spring Festival between February 12th and 20th. 54 drivers failed the test, with one recording 115 mg/100 ml (the...
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