For Chinese, 2009, the year of ox, has some special meanings, especially after the earth quake, snow storm, financial crisis, and other hardships in the past year.

The word “ox” in Chinese is pronounced similar to “new”, but with a slight upward tone. People always attach their hope for the new year with the key characteristics of the animal. Being robust, bold, hard working, and faithful is naturally this year’s people’s hope for themselves and those around them.

Apart from the animal, “Niu” (“ox” in Chinese) also has a meaning of being great, and is used to praise somebody or something. For instance, you could say:”Huibo is so niu! He dared to quit his job in this declining economy!”

Therefore, the year of ox has been given really special meanings for all Chinese people. Have a look at snapshots of new year celebration at my parents’ place.

First thing in the morning, put on a pair of red socks with an image of a little man at the bottom and three words “cai xiao ren”, meaning the bad people will be under our feet and won’t do harm.

Visa, my sister’s doggy is just too cute not to show up here.

Then we pasted Spring Festival couplets on the door.

I was in charge of the fire crackers.

Then we had lunch with pork and lamb ribs as main dishes (a Mongolian tradition).

Then we went to the cinema and watched Red Cliff II. It was GREAT!

Before supper, we burnt some “paper money” and kowtow to our ancestors.

We had some Nian Gao (new year cake) for supper. “Nian Gao” has a meaning of being greater year after year.

And some yu (fish), which has a meaning of having more to spare every year.

Then we watched CCTV’s new year’s show. Xiao shenyang in the picture was hilarious.

Close to mid night, we fired up more fire crackers.

Then we had some delicious jiaozi (dumplings) at the beginning of 2009.

That’s it for the new year’s eve. With the Spring Festival lasts for 15 days, there’s more fun to come!

Happy Niu Year!

So they came to the train stations hours or even days earlier in order to get a good spot in the queue. But sometimes the chance of getting a ticket is still slim.

A cardboard left at a ticket office at Beijing Railway Station, it says “I’m the first, I came here yesterday”.

People waiting in the queue was not as many as I imagined. But some were still reluctant to leave before the next batch of tickets was released.

Chun Yun (Transport during the Spring Festival period) in China is one of the biggest movements of people on earth. It is estimated to be 2.32 billion person-time travel around the country by various means during this year’s Spring Festival.

Thanks to the Internet, complaints regarding the difficulties of buying train tickets have brought the attention of the central government. Mr. Hu Jintao issued a special order to solve the problems.

Then, Deputy Director of the State Railway Department, Wang Zhiguo, made a public apology on TV.

Regarding the Ticket Office Scandal video (a video showing a railway personnel suspicious of selling bulk tickets to ticket scalpers), he said “there was a misunderstanding, but it has hurt our passengers’ feelings”.

According to Southern Daily, one of the few newspapers that have some independent journalistic spirit, a Real Name System can fundamentally solve the problem. But the Railway Department refuses to implement such a system because of technical difficulties. Whereas our neighbor India has already done that 70 years ago.

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