First day of the rat year - more temple fairs!

Beijing during Chinese New Year public holiday

The days before Chinese new year Beijing had changed a lot from what it usually is. No traffic jams, fewer cars, no long queues in the supermarkets, clear sky, fresher air.

This is due to the fact that Chinese new year is a family party - like Christmas in Western countries - and therefore everybody who has the possibility to return to his / her hometown does so.

Only on the day after we noticed how many people had still remained. Our target being Ditan (Altar of the Earth) temple fair we started rather early in the morning. Near Ditan we already had a traffic jam and we saw thousands of people (no exaggeration!) - were they all going to Ditan temple fair? Yes, they were!

Fight for your right to enter and exit!

Ditan temple fair was crowded like a football stadium. You had to push hard in order to make it through some gates. People with fear of big masses of human beings can probably not go there on Chinese new year.

Ditan temple fair itself was similar to Longtan temple fair the day before: foodstands, carneval articles, dance & drum shows, red coloured "lucky" decorations, rats in all kind of forms. The only difference to the day before: Everything much more crowded.