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Hi Colly,
I sent an email before we left China but I'm not sure if you received it. I just wanted to thank you for organising our tour in Beijing. We had a wonderful time and think Kathy was a great guide, with very good English.
We will certainly recommend your company to any friends who visit Beijing.
Regards
Lynn Porus and family (from New Zealand)
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Lantern
Festival(元)
 The
Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of
the 1st lunar month, usually in February or
March in the Gregorian calendar. As early
as the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 25),
it had become a festival with great significance.
This day's important activity is watching
lanterns. Throughout the Han Dynasty (206
BC-AD 220), Buddhism flourished in China.
One emperor heard that Buddhist monks would
watch sarira, or remains from the cremation
of Buddha's body, and light lanterns to worship
Buddha on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month,
so he ordered to light lanterns in the imperial
palace and temples to show respect to Buddha
on this day. Later, the Buddhist rite developed
into a grand festival among common people
and its influence expanded from the Central
Plains to the whole of China.
Till today, the lantern festival is still
held each year around the country. Lanterns
of various shapes and sizes are hung in the
streets, attracting countless visitors. Children
will hold self-made or bought lanterns to
stroll with on the streets, extremely excited.
 "Guessing
lantern riddles"is an essential part
of the Festival. Lantern owners write riddles
on a piece of paper and post them on the lanterns.
If visitors have solutions to the riddles,
they can pull the paper out and go to the
lantern owners to check their answer. If they
are right, they will get a little gift. The
activity emerged during people's enjoyment
of lanterns in the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
As riddle guessing is interesting and full
of wisdom, it has become popular among all
social strata.
People will eat yuanxiao, or rice dumplings,
on this day, so it is also called the "Yuanxiao
Festival."Yuanxiao also has another name,
tangyuan. It is small dumpling balls made
of glutinous rice flour with rose petals,
sesame, bean paste, jujube paste, walnut meat,
dried fruit, sugar and edible oil as filling.
Tangyuan can be boiled, fried or steamed.
It tastes sweet and delicious. What's more,
tangyuan in Chinese has a similar pronunciation
with "tuanyuan, meaning reunion. So
people eat them to denote union, harmony and
happiness for the family.
In the daytime of the Festival, performances
such as a dragon lantern dance, a lion dance,
a land boat dance, a yangge dance, walking
on stilts and beating drums while dancing
will be staged. On the night, except for magnificent
lanterns, fireworks form a beautiful scene.
Most families spare some fireworks from the
Spring Festival and let them off in the Lantern
Festival. Some local governments will even
organize a fireworks party. On the night when
the first full moon enters the New Year, people
become really intoxicated by the imposing
fireworks and bright moon in the sky.
Mid-Autumn
Festival()
 The
Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day
of the 8th lunar month, usually in October
in Gregorian calendar.
The festival has a long history. In ancient
China, emperors followed the rite of offering
sacrifices to the sun in spring and to the
moon in autumn. Historical books of the Zhou
Dynasty had had the word "Mid-Autumn".
Later aristocrats and literary figures helped
expand the ceremony to common people. They
enjoyed the full, bright moon on that day,
worshipped it and expressed their thoughts
and feelings under it. By the Tang Dynasty
(618-907), the Mid-Autumn Festival had been
fixed, which became even grander in the Song
Dynasty (960-1279). In the Ming (1368-1644)
and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, it grew to
be a major festival of China.
Folklore about the origin of the festival
go like this: In remote antiquity, there were
ten suns rising in the sky, which scorched
all crops and drove people into dire poverty.
A hero named Hou Yi was much worried about
this, he ascended to the top of the Kunlun
Mountain and, directing his superhuman strength
to full extent, drew his extraordinary bow
and shot down the nine superfluous suns one
after another. He also ordered the last sun
to rise and set according to time. For this
reason, he was respected and loved by the
people and lots of people of ideals and integrity
came to him to learn martial arts from him.
A person named Peng Meng lurked in them.
Hou Yi had a beautiful and kindhearted wife
named Chang E. One day on his way to the Kunlun
Mountain to call on friends, he ran upon the
Empress of Heaven Wangmu who was passing by.
Empress Wangmu presented to him a parcel of
elixir, by taking which, it was said, one
would ascend immediately to heaven and become
a celestial being. Hou Yi, however, hated
to part with his wife. So he gave the elixir
to Chang E to treasure for the time being.
Chang E hid the parcel in a treasure box at
her dressing table when, unexpectedly, it
was seen by Peng Meng.
 One
day when Hou Yi led his disciples to go hunting,
Peng Meng, sword in hand, rushed into the
inner chamber and forced Chang E to hand over
the elixir. Aware that she was unable to defeat
Peng Meng, Chang E made a prompt decision
at that critical moment. She turned round
to open her treasure box, took up the elixir
and swallowed it in one gulp. As soon as she
swallowed the elixir her body floated off
the ground, dashed out of the window and flew
towards heaven. Peng Meng escaped.
When Hou Yi returned home at dark, he knew
from the maidservants what had happened. Overcome
with grief, Hou Yi looked up into the night
sky and called out the name of his beloved
wife when, to his surprise, he found that
the moon was especially clear and bight and
on it there was a swaying shadow that was
exactly like his wife. He tried his best to
chase after the moon. But as he ran, the moon
retreated; as he withdrew, the moon came back.
He could not get to the moon at all.
Thinking of his wife day and night, Hou Yi
then had an incense table arranged in the
back garden that Chang E loved. Putting on
the table sweetmeats and fresh fruits Chang
E enjoyed most, Hou Yi held at a distance
a memorial ceremony for Chang E who was sentimentally
attached to him in the palace of the moon.
When people heard of the story that Chang
E had turned into a celestial being, they
arranged the  incense
table in the moonlight one after another and
prayed kindhearted Chang E for good fortune
and peace. From then on the custom of worshiping
the moon spread among the people.
People in different places follow various
customs, but all show their love and longing
for a better life. Today people will enjoy
the full moon and eat moon cakes on that day.
The moon looks extremely round, big and bright
on the 15th day of each lunar month. People
selected the August 15 to celebrate because
it is a season when crops and fruits are all
ripe and weather pleasant. On the Mid-Autumn
Festival, all family members or friends meet
outside, putting food on tables and looking
up at the sky while talking about life. How
splendid a moment it is!
Qingming
Festival()
 The
Qingming (Pure Brightness) Festival is one
of the 24 seasonal division points in China,
falling on April 4-6 each year. After the
festival, the temperature will rise up and
rainfall increases. It is the high time for
spring plowing and sowing. But the Qingming
Festival is not only a seasonal point to guide
farm work, it is more a festival of commemoration.
The Qingming Festival sees a combination of
sadness and happiness.
This is the most important day of sacrifice.
Both the Han and minority ethnic groups at
this time offer sacrifices to their ancestors
and sweep the tombs of the diseased. Also,
they will not cook on this day and only cold
food is served.
The Hanshi (Cold Food) Festival was usually
one day before the Qingming Festival. As our
ancestors often extended the day to the Qingming,
they were later combined.
On each Qingming Festival, all cemeteries
are crowded with people who came to sweep
tombs and offer sacrifices. Traffic on the
way to the cemeteries becomes extremely jammed.
The customs have been greatly simplified today.
After slightly sweeping the tombs, people
offer food, flowers and favorites of the dead,
then burn incense and paper money and bow
before the memorial tablet.
In contrast to the sadness of the tomb sweepers,
people also enjoy hope of Spring on this day.
The Qingming Festival is a time when the sun
shines brightly, the trees and grass become
green and nature is again lively. Since ancient
times, people have followed the custom of
Spring outings. At this time tourists are
everywhere.
People love to fly kites during the Qingming
Festival. Kite flying is actually not limited
to the Qingming Festival. Its uniqueness lies
in that people fly kites not during the day,
but also at night. A string of little lanterns
tied onto the kite or the thread look like
shining stars, and therefore, are called "god's
lanterns."
The Qingming Festival is also a time to plant
trees, for the survival rate of saplings is
high and trees grow fast later. In the past,
the Qingming Festival was called "Arbor
Day". But since 1979, "Arbor Day"
was settled as March 12 according to the Gregorian
calendar.
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