This post serves more as a record of the festivities we endured just last night, in case time or memory fade the vivid experience from my mind. It epitomises the Chinese way of doing things so such an extent I cannot help but divulge the aimless way we spent our second Mid Autumn festival in China.
Kyle's friend Wang Feng invited us to "a bridge" to spend an evening with him and his friends in celebration of this Chinese holiday. Not knowing much about it, and realising that there's only so many times you can decline a person's invitations, we headed out. 1 and a half hours late and 2 minibus taxi rides later we were crammed up against what felt like a million other Chinese in a tunnel that lead to the famous Marco Polo bridge (the place history will tell you was where the Japanese invaded China in 1937). Paying an exorbitant amount of money to "view the moon" on that very bridge we settled against the railings (as did the other thousands of Chinese) to eat moon cakes and drink beer and take photos of one another. They then shared with us that this tradition of being outside and with family in this particular place was special because the very first emperor of China thought this was the best place to "view the moon". He declared in a famous, yet ancient poem 3000 years ago that this bridge showed a side of the moon that no other place did.
Well upon inspection I struggled to see the moon that was out briefly and then hid behind the expanse of rain clouds which emptied themselves all over us just 20 minutes into our "enjoyment" (after all the hassle it took to get there). After dodging the storm we took our moon cakes and left to endure the 1 and a half hour trip home. Oh what a pointless night!
In Western culture it is the norm to go to places that other people don't frequent and we pride ourselves on the ability to avoid the crowds and chaos at holidays by doing some new or arbitary things. Oh but not the Chinese. The Chinese will willingly submit themselves to hours of discomfort for a few minutes to enjoy what those before them deemed enjoyable. It's why the masses rush to Tiananmen on October 1st and it's why the crowds stuck to us like glue on the Marco Polo Bridge last night - it's just what you do!
The Chinese way is to do things as they have always been done: it might not make sense, it might be stupid or uncomfortable, but we do not question it, we do it anyway because that's what people do.
I fear I may need a year to recover before the next trip!
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