CCC will organize an exclusive event to celebrate the Spring Festival in a village of the suburb Beijing.

We will be welcomed with firecrackers and gaily bedecked, lively folk dancers, performers and crowds of hospitable, curious farmers. We will see happy revelers giving painted-face performances and walking on stilts, gay clowns, even paper donkeys, funny-looking ladies smoking tobacco pipes, and puppet shows--all to the accompaniment of the din of drums and gongs. They will invite us to join them as they dance in the streets. (Caution: we may find their invitations irresistible.)

In small groups we will visit in the homes of the villagers who will offer us tea, snack and good cheer. The villagers will teach us how to make "jiaozi & baozi" (dumplings traditionally served at this time of year) and we will feast on the fruits of our efforts. The day will include a visit to an artist who makes life-sized replicas of carts and horses out of paper for use in Chinese funerals.

Finally, we will be rewarded by a performance of a troupe of old Beijing street entertainers, which can rarely be seen elsewhere. Magicians, jugglers, story tellers, and sword swallowers will delight our group and leave us begging for more. If we close our eyes, we can easily imagine this day being celebrated a thousand years ago in much the very same way.

All participants will have lunch in different farmers' homes. You will see how they build fire to cook and heat the bed, and how to use their northern style kitchen.

Note: * Wear warm enough !!! The village is colder than the centre of Beijing.
Meet at the China Culture Center, Chaoyang District, Beijing to board the coach.