The International Schools Review Forum

Happy Lunar New Year to all those teaching in the Middle Kingdom or wherever else it is celebrated!!!

May good fortune and prosperity be your companions.



Feel free to post any tips for celebrating the Chinese New Year!!! This will be my first proper one in Shanghai!!!

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I don't know if Shanghai still has epic fireworks the way they used to years ago. I spent several Spring Festivals in Shanghai years ago and with all the fireworks it was like living in a war zone. Even walking done the street you had to watch out for the long strips of firecrackers people would set off. The two big nights were on the eve of the new year and even bigger was the money god night. I think it is on day 5 of the new year and you're supposed to set off fireworks so you get rich the next year. Needless to say it was huge with the Shanghainese. If this still goes on it's quite a sight from any tall building, though they were never from any central point.

1. Enjoy the cleaner air
2. Take advantage of the lack of traffic
3. Take in the fireworks from ground level, not from a high rise
4. Go to the Bund (with your 100,000 closest friends) to take in the fireworks
5. Be prepared for some noisy nights
6. Sit back and enjoy

I don't know about Shanghai but the air quality is terrible in Chengdu. Must be all the fireworks.

No, the Chinese government knows what causes the air pollution and they're working on stopping it. It turns out it's all those Uighur guys selling those tasty, tasty mutton (rat?) skewers. I read about it in a Chinese newspaper this fall.

Eion….. don't knock it till you've tried it!!!!! YUM!!!!

In shanghai, lots of people get hotels on the bund, and really enjoy the city.

My advice is to go somewhere in Southeast Asia or Hawaii. I'd take fresh mangoes, beaches and scuba diving over fireworks.

I fully admit to eating lamb kebabs. At least I like to think they were lamb. I used to eat them a lottery frequently in my younger days when I would hit the clubs and bars frequently. I even ate squid kebabs too.

My favorite street food these days are jian bing and another thing I'm not totally sure of the name. I thing it's rou something bing. Basically it's chopped pork, some dried pepper flakes, cilantro inside a flat flour bread/roll.

Yeah, Hawaii or SEA is nice, but not everyone has the same budget to do that. Plus personally, I find going traveling again after only a handful of weeks after the December break to be a bit much. A number of my colleagues seem to feel the same way as a decent number are staying around for the break.