s celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the Chinese calendar. During this festival (a "festival" in China is like our period of vacation surrounding a holiday) the Chinese race dragon-boats to honor the death of
Qu Yuan (a Chinese government official about 1500 years ago). The myth says that Qu Yuan threw himself into a river after another disloyal and corrupt "minister" dismissed him from office, because he realized his state would now be in the hands of evil officials.
Every year on the anniversary of his death, his people threw rice into the river where he drowned himself, but the story says that one year, his ghost appeared and said a creature
（爬行动物）stole the rice. Supposedly the ghost suggested that the rice be wrapped in
silk and bound with different colored threads before it was thrown into the river. Now, everyone eats Zong Zhi to symbolize the rice thrown into the river as an offering to Qu. The rice is a sticky mixture of rice and food such as water chestnuts and even dates. Then this mixture is wrapped in bamboo leaves and tied with some other thin string-like plant and boiled until it's ready to eat. Actually on Friday, we had a team competition in my division to see what group could make the most Zong Zhi (I don't think my group won because I only finished 3 of them, while some people made as many as 10). We did get a prize though for participating... milk, duck eggs, and some other kind of eggs (I haven't eaten mine yet). It was a nice little bonding experience with some girls from my office.
Unfortunately, the government doesn't require three days off for the festival, but only one- on Wednesday. Some people that I know do not have to work from Monday to Wednesday BUT some companies (and schools) required this time off to be made up on SATURDAY and SUNDAY! So children were in school this weekend! That's crazy to me! How is this a vacation if it's just a switch of the days you work/go to school? Weird. On Wednesday (the actual Dragon Boat Festival Day) Chinese people cook with their families and enjoy free time with them. I think I will go to the Baiyun Mountain (
白云山=Bái Yún Shan or "White Cloud Mountain")north of Guangzhou or rest, and maybe even cook with some friends.
On another note, this weekend I found out that I have to take a NE W Visa picture (I took one when I first came here) because the receipt says the picture is valid for 14 days after it is taken for Chinese government papers. That means that I took a picture and they are so paranoid that I have to take another one, because MAYBE I have changed the way I look in the last 2.5 months. Wow.... SOOO now I cannot go to Macau this weekend because I will not have my VISA ready (it was supposed to be ready on Friday). Yay to the rules and regulations and the way the government here works :/ Oh, and of course they do not have to work today or tomorrow OR Wednesday, so I need to take my pictures, and turn them in, on Thursday.
Lastly, I was talking with Audre and told her there is a worker's strike in Zhongshan (a few cities from my town)... a strike for forming a union in a Communist country. This might get interesting. I read about it on The New York Times, but I doubt any people around here know about it. I don't think the government would want people to know there is a strike going on right now, because it makes it look like they are rebelling (the strike is by factory workers in a Honda plant). We think the last strike were the Tienanmen Square protests. Audre also told me I need to remember where I am (a Communist country) and that I should be careful. I'm not sure what would happen if this blog was found and read by the Chinese government...I have no idea how this stuff works, but I doubt they would be happy with my open criticism. I might need to change my name on this site as well as my picture and address in previous posts. The sad thing is that I'm NOT joking
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