CELEBRATING WITH THE CHINESE

Once you exit the subway at Hepingmen (south of Tiananmen Sq.), the big moving crowd and the kitsch decoration make it easy to see where the new year festivities are taking place in that area. A wide street, with dozens of small red stands on each sidewalk selling an amazing variety of things -going from books, kites, masks, homemade sweets and meat sticks to the refined and exotic delicacy reflected on the picture above (a tasty mix of skorpions, sea horses, dragonflies and different bugs)- is a great place to observe hundreds of chinese families enjoying the biggest celebration of the eastern culture.

The sea of people barely lets you stand still for a moment and try to capture with your camera some of the many eyecatching scenes that are going on around you. Once you manage to keep up with the crowd and get used to the peculiar smells coming from the stalls, enjoying the walk becomes an easy task.

Kids wearing all kinds of masks (including Bush and Saddam faces), people with wigs and piggy ears, musicians and artists performing puppet shows are some of the main attractions for the curious eye. Also, mini parades of people dressed in tradicional garments pass by from time to time.

We are 5 western girls, all equiped with our digital cameras and asking in our poor chinese what sorts of cookies some girls are selling, trying to get a shot of the weird looking skorpion and bug appetizers, wishing those who stop to take a closer look at us a happy new year (Xin Nian kuai le, literally New Year happy) and posing with some cute kids whose parents want a picture with us. Everything is worth a look, everyone is worth a smile.

Then, after over an hour trying to walk without accidentally hitting someone or being pushed, inhaling the not-so-delicious smells, stepping on all sorts of trash, barely being able to communicate with the people, one gets tired.

But still, the impression I got after sharing some of the Spring Festival celebrations with a small percentage of Beijiners, is that a pair of eyes is not enough in China to see all those amazing things that call up your attention on the streets. I wish I had 2 more...