Celebrating Spring Festival with Temple Fair: New Year’s Party at Qijiayuan DRC
2016-05-11

  A traditional-style Temple Fair had been introduced to the tenants of the Qijiayuan DRC to mark the Spring Festival in 2015 and received support and passionate response from the residents. To welcome the New Year of 2016, the Property Management Department offered one more chance for the tenants to experience the traditional style Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations and have  a taste of the time-honored Chinese culture in the Year of Monkey in the Qianjiayuan DRC.

  On the morning of 20 February, 2016, the DRC tenants gathered at the basketball court decorated with the scarlet “China Knots” and were treated to traditional games and delicacies of the season prepared by the Property Management Department. Based on the experience gained from last year’s "Temple Fair", new items were added to the program list of this year's party while popular games like the Lantern Riddles, Ringtoss and Fun-Selfie were retained. Each stall immediately saw a long queue of contestants right from the start of the "Temple Fair". The most popular game this year proved to be the Giant Panda Shoot, as the participants were requested to throw small sandbags precisely into a hole on the image board, drawing a large crowd trying their luck amidst rounds of loud cheers.

  The party goers were eventually exhausted by the games and came to the snack stalls to taste the treats like the Jiaozi (boiled dumplings), Tangyuan (glutinous rice balls), Lvdagun (“rolling donkey” or glutinous rice rolls with red bean filling), Aiwowo (steamed rice cakes with sweet filling), Matuan (deep-fried sesame seed balls), Tanghulu (sugarcoated haws on a stick) and Wandouhuang (sweet pea flour cakes), to name a few, which won exclamations of “Hao Chi(delicious)!” from the foodies.

  In addition to the games and food, folk performances and traditional artwork display were also a key part of the celebrations. The Property Management Department invited handicraft workers from the Xiushui Community to present their artworks which included the inner--painted snuff bottles, brush-pen paintings, bristle figurines, silk wear, hand-knitted wear and sugar-coated fruits, and drew a sizeable crowd of admirers.

  A number of blind masseurs showcased their skills to the party goers, offering treatment to the spectators while describing how Chinese-style massage was given. After having had a massage, a Sri Lankan diplomat offered his opinion and commented, “It is marvelous. The masseur merely pressed and kneaded my shoulders for several times and now I feel very relaxed. The party is lot of fun. I took part in the games and won many lovely souvenirs. I am very happy and would like to thank the organizer very much!”

  The New Year’s party saw participation by some 100 DRC tenants from countries such as Algeria, Japan, Cuba, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Finland, the UK and Egypt, offering a chance for the dwellers to be more familiarized with the traditional Chinese culture and bringing the Property Management Department closer to the tenants with sincerity and compassion. As the Qijiayuan DRC Renovation Project will involve more construction work in the Year of Monkey, this Department is going to make proactive efforts in stepping up communications with the tenants to convince them to stay and make the DRC their home in Beijing.