Discover China

Today is the traditional Chinese “Laba Rice Porridge Festival” celebrated on the 8th day of the 12th month in the lunar Chinese calendar, heralding the coming Spring Festival. The tradition has its roots in Buddhist practices, when on this day large Buddhist temples would offer rice porridge to the poor to show their faith to Buddha. find out more in the CNTV story “Laba Rice Porridge Festival” celebrated in China.

In 1983 a list of the “142 key Buddhist Temples in the Han Area of China” was produced, and since 2009 James Baquet has been visiting them during his holidays. His fascinating website Chinese Pilgrimage features images and brief descriptions from his “epic” three-year journey to these sometimes exquisite, always interesting temples.

You can also read the stories of James’ visits to many of these temples and other sites in the travel section of the Shenzhen Daily newspaper.

James Baquet is an American living in Shenzhen and many of his great insights into Shenzhen and its history and Chinese temples have previously been featured in Discover China News.

Over the past few days I’ve had the pleasure of attending the Shenzhen Open tennis tournament, where in a close battle yesterday China’s Grand Slam champion Li Na (at left) defeated Klara Zakopalova from the Czech Republic to take the singles title. The Shenzhen Open is a new addition to the annual WTA calendar in the lead-up to the Australian Open.

This year the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on Sunday 30 September and Chinese National Day is the following day, 1 October.

The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the day of the full-moon on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. It’s the second most important traditional Chinese festival, after the Spring Festival. Eating moon cakes is a highlight of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Chinese National Day 2012 marks the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and various celebration activities are held across China and around the world. Following these two days is a week-long national holiday.

China has celebrated the Qingming Festival, when it’s traditional for people to pay tribute to their ancestors and the heroes who died serving their country.

In central China’s Henan Province holiday makers enjoyed some of these varied traditions at the 2012 Kaifeng Qingming Culture Festival. Kaifeng is closely linked to Qingming Festival, with the famous ancient painting “The Riverside Scene at the Qingming Festival” capturing life in the Northern Song capital of Bianjing, which is today’s Kaifeng.

In the Qingming River Garden, the bustling scene depicted on the scroll painting comes to life. There is also a model of the scene in the excellent Henan Museum in Zhengzhou which I visited on my trip to Beijing, Tianjin, and Zhengzhou in December 2010 – January 2011.