Record-low temps can't freeze Christmas spirit

Temperatures hit record-lows in northern China on Monday, but that didn't make Christmas Eve any less festive for those celebrating in faith, through charity work or with a trip to the mall.

Christmas trees, Santas and jingling bells attracted shoppers to department stores and malls across the mostly secular country.

Liu Ping, a postgraduate student at Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, celebrated last Christmas by having dinner with her boyfriend and taking advantage of holiday sales.

"I had a great time, and I'm planning to do the same this year," Liu said, adding that she spent 10,000 yuan (1,604 U.S. dollars) last Christmas.

Although temperatures plunged to a ten-year low of -14 degrees Celsius in Beijing on Monday, diners lined up outside for Christmas dinner at Joy City, a big shopping mall in Xidan, a busy shopping street in downtown Beijing, and tickets were sold out for many films being shown at the mall's cinema.

Experts say more young Chinese have started celebrating Christmas as a reason to take a break from their usually hectic lives.

"Carrying a lot of pressure, the young seek to relax, providing money-making opportunities for merchants," said Ma Zhichao, a professor specializing in cultural studies at the Shanxi Academy of Social Sciences.

"Festivals like Christmas have been turned into a shopping festival, even a carnival," Ma said.

Christmas merry-making in many forms could be seen from the national capital to the Tibetan Plateau.

In Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, which is home to many Buddhists, Christmas celebrations have become an exercise in cultural exchange.

At the St. Regis Lhasa Resort, tourists celebrated Christmas Eve with turkey, a Christmas tree and Tibetan song and dance performances.

"I used to spend Christmas in the U.S., and now I'm spending it here in Tibet, which is really special," said Li Hui, a magazine editor from Shanghai.

While some indulged in material pleasures and fancy dinners, others opted for charity work.

On the first floor of the Joy City mall in Beijing, a charity organization was busy selling apples to raise money to buy school supplies and backpacks for children of migrant workers studying in the capital city.

"I want to help those children. By buying the apples, I feel like I have sent them some Christmas gifts," said a buyer in her 60s.

Meanwhile, some took a more faith-based approach to Christmas, like Chen Kejia, who was baptized two days before Christmas.

"I chose to be baptized on that day, to spend a real Christmas with other Christians," said Chen, a nurse at a foreign-funded hospital in Beijing.

Chen said the most attractive part of Christianity is love. "Love your family, your friends, colleagues and people you don't know."

Wang Li, 28, and her friend were among a large number of Beijing residents who observed Christmas at the North Cathedral, one of the biggest Catholic churches in downtown Beijing.

"I live far away from the church, but I wanted to experience the Christmas atmosphere by attending Mass, which I think is quite mysterious," Wang told Xinhua.

Church staff said no fewer people attended midnight Mass this year than last year, despite the freezing weather.

On Christmas Eve, thousands of Catholics went to Mass at the South Cathedral, one of Beijing's oldest cathedrals.

A 20-year-old woman, surnamed Zhao, spent her first Christmas in Beijing. She and her Catholic family had always observed the holiday at a local cathedral in her hometown, but this year she helped prepare the Mass at the South Cathedral.

"For real Catholics like us, Christmas is a day to remember the birth of Jesus. It moves me and gives me power," said another Catholic, surnamed Wang, as she waited for Mass to begin.

Yang said the Christmas spirit has been commercialized in China and has nothing to do with religious beliefs.

"It's completely different from our real Christmas," he said.