China is one of the most mysterious countries in the world. Some people are still convinced that people with hogheads live there and eat cockroaches. Others talk about the latest developments in the field of artificial intelligence and eco-friendly buses. Still others want to know the Celestial Empire personally and check whether the stories are true. Those who want to go there during the most important Chinese holiday - the local New Year, which in 2018 fell on February 16 - Lenta.ru explains why it is better to abandon this idea.
When there is a desire to find out the country from its most exotic side, tourists choose for a trip the time of some traditional festival or holiday. In Brazil - for the carnival, in Venice - for the masquerade, for Japan - for the cherry blossom. In China, the main holiday and festival has always been and is the Spring Festival of Chunjie (春节), or the New Year according to the traditional agricultural calendar. He comes every year on a different day, usually in January and February.
For those who are thinking about taking a vacation and officially to meet the Dog Year in China on February 16, we want to give some advice on why the trip can be postponed for a month or two. Well, those who still decided to conquer the Celestial Empire in the New Year - how to survive there.
To begin with, travelers need to know how the Chinese New Year looks. For residents of the Middle State, this is also a Family holiday. Family it with a capital letter, because the main goal of any Chinese - to work well and go to the New Year home. This is the subject of hundreds of books, stories, songs and films.
Secondly, the holiday is shrouded in a veil of thousand-year traditions and special rituals. They are manifested in colors, shapes, sounds that can be heard on the streets, in tastes, in general in everything that one way or another can be felt. The main color of the holiday is red - the color of happiness and well-being. The shape is a square or a diamond, it is important that it is stable and symmetrical, then everything in the New Year will be stable. With the sounds a little different. The main thing is that it should be loud. It is desirable - very loud. Why - tell you later. There are Chinese and traditional New Year's food - pelmeni. They are made to sculpt and eat with the whole family. Form they look like small ingots of gold, and therefore foreshadow wealth and satiety in the new year.
Well, let's move on to the main part - traveling.
«Spring motion»
An untrained traveler, unless, of course, he bought a tour all inclusive in a steep hotel and is going to go beyond the tourist bus without a guide, should first of all know the reasons why you do not need to go to China on holidays.
The first and, perhaps, the most serious - the so-called spring motion. "Spring Movement" chunyun (春运) is when one and a half billion Chinese begin to move around the country at the same time. Millions of migrant workers and students return home for the holidays. Those who have not personally encountered this will find it hard to imagine the scale of the mass exodus. They say that those who have seen this, and especially those who have survived, prefer not to recall this traumatic experience.
"Movement" begins about a month before, and its peak falls on the last week before the New Year. These days, if you are lucky enough to be on the train (we'll tell you about this rare luck in detail later), then you need to be prepared for the fact that you will not only step on your foot, but also kneel down, on your shoulder and even on your head if have to.
Here you need to be prepared for another Chinese reality: if in Russia seats in trains are usually used for short distance trips, then for most Chinese people to buy a sedentary ticket for a 25-hour transfer is considered a big success. Moreover, in the period of mass movements of people from one part of the country to another to buy a ticket to travel between the bodies of compatriots standing in the vestibule for a day, there is also unprecedented happiness.
The shock experienced by a foreigner, when he is in a Chinese sitting car, is difficult to compare with something. It happens this way: first you find yourself in a building more like an anthill of the station. Halls of expectation for different directions by Russian standards are very roomy, but in Chinese - not very. Therefore, as soon as the landing is declared, the main thing is not to lose balance and self-control.
When the flow of people takes you to the platform, you need to find your place. If there is already someone in the car, the place is most likely occupied. It is necessary to drive out an impostor with a scandal. Sit down by the aisle, if you're lucky. If you are not lucky - on the one hand, a mother with a child will sit down, who eats a strange kind of sausage, and then she can run it into her grandmother sitting opposite (children in China are very spoiled because of the long-standing policy of one child). On the other hand, a village worker sits with smelly custard noodles and huge bags of things. All of them look at you point-blank, discuss what your white skin, big nose and eyes are and take pictures without demand. In general, whenever possible, avoid sitting trips.
In fact, if you were in an overcrowded, but a transport vehicle - the trip already, count, was successful, and you managed to buy tickets. And to buy tickets in China is not as easy as it might seem. Even if you own a magic code and can read Chinese, this can not save. How can not save and buying tickets through an English-language website or travel agency. Usually on New Year's Eve, train tickets can be bought not earlier than two or three weeks. As soon as the sales opened, depending on the direction tickets can be fully redeemed within a few hours. With the aircraft, of course, the situation is better, but it is desirable to still think over the scheme of movement in advance and not rely on fortune. Otherwise, you risk a vacation in the waiting room or be imbued with Chinese culture in a sitting car.
Ruslan, who planned to leave Shanghai from Changchun this month a month before the Spring Festival, said that tickets for more or less comfortable high-speed trains were bought in a few hours after the start of sales. On ordinary and less comfortable trains - with slightly less speed. In the case of the direction from the megalopolis to the periphery, one can not hesitate for a minute: "It's not a problem to leave for big cities, but it's very difficult of them," Ruslan says. "Because of Chunyun, the order of sale was changed, so from January 1 it was possible to buy tickets only 20 days before departure."
The speculator sells the trouble
There is an occasion to double-check the authenticity of tickets - speculators are to blame for this. Especially unscrupulous businessmen sell fake tickets from under the floor. It also happens that tickets purchased on a solid site or in an agency are not real. When it opens, it will not be until the clarification, you need to grasp your teeth in your place.
In such situations, it often saves you that you are a foreigner. With you, as with a helpless child, treated carefully and affectionately and try to settle everything without scandal. The experience of many friends says that in a difficult situation it is better not to shine with your Chinese, even if you can only say "no hao." In the minds of the Chinese, if you have this "code", it does not matter at what level, then you do not need help anymore, you will manage yourself. In general, in the case of a fake ticket, the question will be resolved, most likely, without you, but in your favor. Although the nerves will get ruffled.
Another thing is to watch the struggle for the place of the Chinese themselves.
A student of the Far Eastern Federal University, Anya somehow decided to return from school to study in China by train. I remembered late, a week before I left. Tickets on the Chinese site was not on the train, nor on the plane. I had to seek help from the Chinese travel agency. For double the ticket was found, but what was the surprise of Ani, when the train, to which all tickets were sold, was half empty. If you decide to go - buy and double-check the tickets in advance.
This is a catastrophe
So, you bought tickets, went through pandemonium in the street, at the station or at the airport. Now it remains to find what to do with yourself. And to occupy yourself, unless you are in Shanghai or another very large city, and even that is not a fact, there will be nothing. Shops, museums, entertainment centers, in general, everything that can be closed - is closed for holidays, employees and owners leave home.
"Everything was closed on the shovel, they were starving. Only on the third day Pizza But, KFC and supermarket opened, "says Alexander, who survived the New Year in China.
Now in such large cities as Shanghai or Hangzhou, on the doors of some
Svetlana, who has been living in the main city of Shandong Province Jinan for several years, says: "Everything is closed, even 饿 了 么 (the food delivery service -" Lentey.ru ") - and that does not work, there's nothing to do, nowhere to go and not with whom. All will go to their homes and will not appear in the city soon, so it will only stay at home and howl with boredom. "
"It's better to bypass China at this time, to be honest. Boring place does not exist, "- this advice she gives travelers.
Food, by the way, is a separate occasion to prepare thoroughly for the trip. If you can find an open restaurant, most likely, it will be oriented only to local residents. The menu in English in the cafe is a rarity, and if it is, then it is about as clear as the Chinese. Therefore, take a closer look at the pictures and develop acting skills: the chicken will have to be shown as pantomime.
Some Chinese secretly say that on New Year's Eve it's better to avoid meals at a cafe: "On New Year's Eve, food tends to suck. A lot of meat, incomprehensible as made, and by-products. And all sorts of nastiness. Well, except dumplings. "
Rehearsal of nuclear war
Another New Year's tradition, which can drive foreigners into China crazy, is firecrackers and fireworks. "Ha, so what?" - An inexperienced tourist will think, in Russia they also bark in New Year's Eve for New Year's Eve. But the fireworks display is different.
The Chinese, as is known, gave the world gunpowder. But they invented it not at all for shooting, but for repelling a monster named Nyan (年), who woke up once a year and came to the Chinese villages to smash, destroy and eat everything he saw. To scare him and other evil spirits, the Chinese blast crackers. Blast them for a week or even two - in the morning, afternoon and evening.
Eyewitnesses say that the idea of lying in bed longer does not arise: in the morning they begin to blow up so that it is unclear whether hostilities or a holiday have begun in full swing.
"In the night there was a feeling that everything would explode and an apocalypse would come. Everywhere before and after Chunjie, pyrotechnics was sold on the street. Great mountains. I think if there was accidentally something caught fire, a house nearby could be blown up, "- said the survivor Alexander. "From me: if they go for a walk in the New Year, let them be ready for the crazy shells. I do not know, gloves are thick, a cap with ears, iron pants, "he added.
Another general observation from all who have ever found themselves in China in the winter is to dress warmly. If the north is just very cold, but at least heated in the premises (which makes the air in many places very dirty), then in the south, where the temperature in winter can drop to 0 degrees, there is no heating.
"Friends in Ningbo in an apartment with three heaters, working on heating, in down jackets go," - says Alexander. Indeed, if you do not freeze, then the electricity bill will get impressive. And you just do not want to be in the Chinese pharmacy in search of medicines for colds in the New Year.
Those who were in winter in Harbin's famous "Ice City", say that two sweaters were not enough. Impressions of beauty can be spoiled by the fact that you are just cold, whatever you put on. "The fool was simply awful! I was in two sweaters, and even with a hot water bottle. Beauty is beauty, but it does not work. Saves kiosks with hot drinks, which were also upholstered from the outside, "- shared a tourist from Australia, who flew to Harbin from Shanghai specifically for the sake of ice spectacle.
In total, we have at least six reasons to postpone the trip to China in the Chinese New Year. Crush in the "spring motion", the lack of tickets, speculators, closed cafes, shops and attractions, a long day's thunder of firecrackers and cold - not the best attributes of a good trip. However, if you do make up your mind, impress not one hour of stories.
And one more thing. We told you about China - a country with an unusual multi-layered culture, imbued with symbols. Six reasons not to go there is also not an accident. In Chinese, the number six (六) is pronounced "lu" and is the homonym of the word "flow" (流). So let the new year the Dogs all travel smoothly and smoothly!