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A Halloween-birthday in Shanghai
On Halloween, witches come true, wild ghosts escape from dreams. Each monster dances in the park.
#Shanghai #halloween #travel #moveaborad #adventure
Previous post in the series: The Great Chinese Adventure – the Commencement
The weekend befell right before actual Halloween. It was the 28th late at night, and my hosts invited me to go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. I was happy to do so, as I’d truly never expected to be welcoming my birthday doing what I find to be mostly appropriate. In fact, having come from Europe, I’d expect any US traditions to be called “the evil from the West” – especially so far East. Fortunately, and Fortune does favor the bold, that didn’t happen to be the case. I pulled up random clothing objects and wore them in a ridiculous fashion. Not the best mask, but great when accounting for the fact I had no time to prepare. For the first time ever, I was about to go trick-or-treating! And even better, I was about to experience the commencement of my birthday doing so, enjoying this marvelous tradition!
Not sure if it’s because we went around buildings, but everyone treated us, so there was no need to trick anyone. It’s a win-win, I guess. But it was quite marvelous to see small children dressed as random ghouls and ghosts. I’d never gotten to see anything alike before, and became completely overjoyed with feeling a normal yearly tradition once for a change. Not sure if this experience was life-changing for me, but it was, most certainly, eye-opening. I used and enjoyed every moment of it, with my heart and mind completely open for new things. This is the birthday when I proclaimed the following – I oath myself to feel, try or do something new, every single day. And I’ve been sticking to the promise ever since. My gratitude for this event is endless. Whatever holidays you celebrate, I advise going to a new and unique culture once every now and then, just to have a piece of its experience in celebrating various occasions of life. You will never know how much you’ll benefit from it, seeing the reality with utterly dissimilar eyes.
Talking about birthdays in China, I won’t be egotistical and steal the stage to use the whole post just for myself – you will read about my 2023 birthday travel in a few weeks from now, after all – right after the Great Chinese Adventure series. Let me tell you about visiting my hosts’ great-grandmother to celebrate her 90th birthday in Suzhou. I know – WHAT?! Believe it or not, the Chinese are so hospitable, you can expect them to invite you to their cousins’ and predecessors’ houses and even festivities, such as a 90th birthday. And now I can’t even get my grandpa to celebrate his 80th… Anyway, I was invited to my hosts’ family’s houses on countless occasions, even just for a short visit, out of the blue. I especially loved this, because it was a major life event to celebrate. Apart from that, we stayed in bungalows, in a village near Suzhou. Plus, seeing a new major city in China is like seeing a new country in Europe, just for comparison for most other world travelers and travel enthusiasts. All in all, what I really loved (apart from the mooncakes) was being accepted by the rest of the hosts’ family, as one of their own, more than just a guest. These splendid emotions cannot be caught on paper/screen or expressed by any words or photos. This is a genuine feeling that cannot be simply transferred to anyone else – one more reason why I always suggest traveling to China to be an awesome idea.
Just to mention another festivity, the Chinese New Year (or simply New Year, in Chinese) is an occasion no one can miss, in any way or form. It is celebrated country-wide, everything stops working for 2-3 weeks, and there are red envelopes with money going around everywhere. Even the youngest ones receive these, rather than any other gifts. Not sure why such a traditional yet advanced society would gift only money, but apparently, it works. Everyone is happy to receive these red envelopes, and children don’t just waste the gift on candy – as most people would expect. In fact, talking about the red envelopes, I bought a bunch in a local Chinatown earlier this year. Each time I had no idea what to buy to someone (especially for weddings), I would simply put money into one of these, and gift it away, without even signing. Bottom line, if we are friends, and at one point this year you received a mysterious red envelope with money, well, now you know whom it came from.
One more trip within China I can mention is my three-day visit to Beijing. Most people expect this to be the highlight, and everyone is always shocked to hear that this is the place I least liked. Absolutely not that I wouldn’t go again, I just wouldn’t necessarily be happy to go there, knowing I could instead visit Shanghai, Suzhou, Teng Chong, Kunming, Hong Kong or any other city in the Chinese territory. Apart from an amazing hotel (and 5* in China is really something grandiose!), I’d recommend only two places to see in this city – and neither of them is the Great Wall. In fact, there are exits to the Great Wall in other Chinese cities, and they’re not nearly as crowded as the one in Beijing. The sites I want to talk about are the Forbidden City and the Stone Carvings Art Museum.
Some years back, after being asked what the Forbidden City is like and what it should represent, my off-the-bat response was – it clearly should stay forbidden, it’s really not for everyone’s eyes to see. Although this may sound as prejudice, I can bet countless humans would not be able to appreciate the vast space the emperors’ palace stretches over. If you’ve seen any version of Mulan at least, you’ll recognize that I’m talking about the elongated, curving red roofs. The tour around this locality lasts for over four hours, and believe me, it doesn’t even cover the most significant parts of it. For some reason, a Clock Museum is incorporated, but entry tickets are sold separately. Of course, I went in to see that part of the exhibition as well, but was not more thrilled than I was with overall Beijing. For someone who’s not a fan of clocks, especially not the kitschy ones, including personifications of animals, humans and events – I don’t want to say it was wasted time, but it most certainly can have been spent better.
The Stone Carvings Art Museum is a truly marvelous place, that really stands out from the rest of its hosting town, the capital of China, Beijing. You can walk for hours to discover countless figurines, statues, depictions of animals, plants, humans, events and ideas, all made of stone. There is no special story behind it, to be completely fair – it is simply beautiful and brings its visitors to an intellectually higher level. What I especially love about this place is how well it represents the Chinese way of thinking and understanding life. I recently spoke with a coworker who had also travelled to China at one point, and it was super easy to agree on one thing – people with Chinese mentality do not perceive life the way others do. However, this is not at the level of “they perceive life in a different way or style”. No. The comparison is much closer to switching from Android to iOS – I feel like I’ve been using a phone, and now in its stead, I use a car. Until one goes to live in China, inhale, eat and drink this fascinating culture, they will not be aware of the meaning of these words. If you were thinking about visiting this part of the Earth – this is apparently your sign, go and let me know how it went!
If you’ve been following my blog before, you most certainly got to read some of my Hong Kong posts. I won’t tell you much about it now, but feel invited to click on the link and read more yourself. What’s Hong Kong got to do with China, you wonder? Apart from being a neighboring country, or a part of China’s territory (depending on which politics you root for)? Believe it or not, Chinese visas are not extended in Mainland China, but in Hong Kong! Also, it’s a free trade zone, so you can buy imported products without unnecessary taxes. The city-state is a concrete jungle of its own, resembling major US cities only by the quantity of skyscrapers – and even surpassing the above-mentioned in this discipline significantly. Apart from that, it is a conglomerate of worldwide, international people, of uneasy-to-guess origins. It is much more diverse than Mainland China, and has a spirit of its own. I will not tell you more about it at this point, for you can always refer to some of my first blog posts, for more input.
How many blog posts can a Chinese experience fit into, you wonder? I don’t know, even I originally planned only three, but it will not be even remotely possible. I’ve done nothing if I skip to tell you at least about the following:
- Chinese culture and understanding of life’s questions,
- An excursion to Kunming and Tengchong,
- How your true best friend will come to the other end of the world to visit you, even for just four days.
Which one would you want to hear about first? Please feel invited to write it in the comments.
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[…] the light of ongoing holidays, you will find out how I awaited my birthday trick-or-treating for the first time ever. Don’t miss it, or it’s a trick you pulled on […]
[…] posts in the series: The Great Chinese Adventure – the Commencement, A Halloween-birthday in Shanghai & The Great Chinese Adventure – […]
[…] posts in the series: The Great Chinese Adventure – the Commencement, A Halloween-birthday in Shanghai, The Great Chinese Adventure – South-West & The Great Chinese Adventure […]
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