An Action-Packed Chinese New Year Day in Beijing
Posted: February 7th, 2011 | Author: LumDimSum | Filed under: A Day In My Life, Hot Tips, Special Events | Tags: Beijing's Oldest Toy Store, Chinese New Year, Confucian Temple, Ditan Park, Guozijian Street, holiday, Houhai Lake, Imperial College, Nanluoguxiang, Sichuan food, temple fair | 3 Comments »
While many rush away from Beijing during the Chinese New Year holiday break either to return home or travel, I quite enjoy staying in the city this time of year. The non-stop fireworks can get a little intense at times, but it’s one of the few times a year Beijing has no traffic and everyone is totally chilled out.
With most places closed and many people away, it’s nice to spend quality time alone, catching up on work and on sleep, but after a few days of down-time, it’s also good to get out and explore what is available in the city.
Luckily this Chinese New Year break, Beijing’s been blessed with quite a few beautiful days with abnormally warm(er) weather! Taking advantage of the blue skies and sunshine, I spent the day in true Chinese New Year style.
Starting off on Guozijian Street 国子监街, we wandered in and out of various furniture shops, knick-knack shops, Beijing’s oldest toy store and peeked in its cozy cafes, Imperial College and the Confucian Temple.
LumDimSum Snapshots of Guozijian Street 国子监街:















After exploring Guozijian Street, we made our way over to Ditan Park to check out their annual temple fair, one of the liveliest in the city (click here for full list of temple fairs in Beijing). Decked out in red lanterns and festive decorations, this temple fair was packed to the brim with people. Weaving through the herds of people, we explored the fair and checked out the live performances, snack stalls section, game area and a few private temples.
LumDimSum Snapshots of Ditan Park’s Temple Fair:













Our next stop: Houhai Lake for some serious ice-biking fun. The frozen Houhai Lake offers a gigantic space for people to ice skate, ice bike or ice sled on chairs with picks to slide yourself around. Our group all hopped on ice bikes for races around the lake and a seriously awesome good time.
LumDimSum Snapshots of Houhai Lake Ice Biking Fun:







We topped off our perfect Chinese New Year action-packed day with a final Sichuan feast at the popular Sichuan joint directly across from the north end of Nanluoguxiang. Spicy and flavorful, this restaurant was an ideal cap off to a long day exploring the city’s most festive sites.
LumDimSum Snapshots of Sichuan Feast:

















