A not-so-Chinese New Year

An expat visits the Beijing Dongyue Temple Fair, which is held over Spring Festival each year. (Photo: GT/Li Hao)

Beijing's expats get into the spirit of Spring Festival

As Beijing's inhabitants flock back to work, bloated waistlines and sheepish grins betraying their festive binges, Metropolitan bleats in the Year of the Sheep by speaking to six expats to find out how they celebrated the traditional Chinese holiday and what Spring Festival means to them.

From dumplings with chorizo and cheese to bartering over bananas in rural Yunnan Province to making the pilgrimage to the temple of Bruce Lee's master - the Chinese New Year rituals of Beijing's expat community are not, strictly speaking, conventional.

But each embraces the spirit of renewal and remembrance that is at the heart of the traditional celebration, by creating new memories for the years to come.

Modesto Corderi Novoa

34, Spain, a graduate student at Beijing Language and Culture University

For Chinese New Year this year, I took a seven-day bike ride through the remote mountain villages and forests of Yunnan Province.

I've been in China for more than nine years. I will be graduating from Beijing Language and Culture University this summer and I might be leaving China to pursue a doctorate in the US.

Because this might be my last year in China, I said to myself: "It is now or never!"

In Yunnan, it was very interesting for me to see how the local people celebrated Chinese New Year.

I slept in local rural houses in the mountains. I also learned how to make Pu'er tea and to cook some Yunnan food. The local people were all very nice.

One day in Ganlanba ("Olive Dam"), I bought a kilogram of bananas in a local market for only 2 yuan ($0.31)!

I tried to give the vendor, an old lady who belonged to the Dai ethnic group, 5 yuan, but she refused. Not only did she refuse, but she even gave me a free mango!

I do hope that I will come back one day, because China will always be in my heart.

Neil Larocque

37, Canada, English teacher, musician and songwriter

I spent my Spring Festival holidays in Guangdong Province. I've always wanted to visit Foshan, because the lineage of the kung fu that I study (Yip Man Wing Chun) was developed and popularized there.

I study Wing Chun in Beijing with Master Jai Harman, who also trained Donnie Yen for the two Yip Man movies. While my skill level is nowhere near these experts (I usually leave training sessions bruised like a wilting apple), I've always had a fascination with Chinese kung fu.

When I finally walked through the Yip Man Memorial Museum in Zu Miao Temple, I was not disappointed. I was enthralled with Yip Man's dedication to and enthusiasm for Wing Chun. While there, I sent photos of the historical figures in the museum to Master Jai who seemed to know all the people in the photos and sent photos back to me proving it. It was an exceptional day for me.

Besides visiting Foshan, my girlfriend and I also took in the fireworks at Yuexiu Park in Guangzhou on Chinese New Year's Eve, at least until a torrential downpour forced the festivities to close. Also, we went to a circus at the Guangzhou Chimelong Safari Park, where I tried by hand at feeding tigers. One Siberian tiger snatched the meat clean out of the air.

I think Spring Festival is a chance for new beginnings and for spending time with loved ones. Next year my girlfriend and I plan to go to Greece or Spain, but I'm sure we'll make dumplings on the beach to commemorate Spring Festival in our own way.

Magdalena Navarro

30, Spain, news translator at CCTV

This year was the first time I spent Chinese New Year in the traditional way with a local family in Beijing. I was invited to the home of a friend, and because his wife is vegetarian, we made our own vegetarian jiaozi (dumplings). It was my first time rolling jiaozi, and I was really bad at it! But at least they still tasted good.