Monday the 12th of September was China's Mid-Autumn Festival also known as the Moon Festival, that celebrates when Yang the male who lives on earth gets to visit Yin the female, on the moon. The moon is it's fullest and brightest on this night and people light lanterns, make a wish and send them into the sky. Last Thursday the school held a Mid-Autumn festival night at the school and told six teachers that they needed to host an activity for the event. I was one of the lucky six that were chosen to host but another teacher was asked to assist me during the event. Initially we were going to be told what activity to do for the festival, and then Tuesday afternoon we were told that we needed to come up with our own. I decided to do a craft in my room since the other classrooms were doing games. From years past all activities at the school on week nights have been unsuccessful, so the administration made the event sound like it was not a big deal. The night of the event was a smash hit and I ran out of supplies within the first half hour. I completely depleted my sticker supply that I brought from home, and I had to run to the paper cutter twice to cut more paper. It was great to see my students come in with their families and watch them interact and have fun. At the end of the evening we gave out moon cakes which is the traditional dessert of the holiday. They are named after the legend of Yin and Yang and the moon, but also because in the middle is a half cooked egg yolk to represent the full moon. Quite the surprise when you bite right into it.
The school was closed on holiday for the festival, so some coworkers and I decided to take advantage of our first three day weekend. We booked a flight to West Lake, located in Hangzhou, the capital of the Zhejiang province. At first I wasn't too thrilled about spending money to fly to another part of China to see a lake, but from looking at pictures of West Lake my interest in visiting increased. We also found Wuzhen, the last water city of China in a nearby village that looked intriguing.
When we arrived, we checked in to our hostel and went in search of the lake. We walked around for hours looking for the lake and asked more than one person for directions, and all said we were right around the corner from the lake. We went through a tunnel, up a hill, under an overpass, and through a market until we at last found the lake. The weather was very foggy so we couldn't see across the lake, but we were just as thrilled to be there. We walked around half the lake and then decided to head back to the hostel to get dinner and go to bed.
Day two we went to Wuzhen and spent the day at the water city that is also known as the "Venice of the East." There we went on a boat ride and walked the streets and bridges and admired all the history of ancient China. The following day we climbed Mt. Wu to a pagoda and looked down on the city and lake. Overall it was a fun weekend to get away from the hustle and bustle of Shenzhen.
