Thursday, May 28, 2009

It's Barca time on Dragon Boat Festival holiday

I didn't get up at 2:30 AM this morning as planned to watch the Champions League Final live on TV. I'm a fan of attractive and attacking football. Arsenal and Barca are my favorite football clubs. So when I woke up in the morning, I was a happy man. Barcelona is the WINNER! Ha, ha ... Rookie coach Pep Guardiola outsmarted Sir Alex Ferguson. Barca beat Man. United by 2:0. I'm watching the replay of the match now. Lionel Messi had a fantastic game and he is my pick for the World's Best Player of the year. It's great news to begin with the traditional Chinese Dragon Boat Festival. I'm going to buy and eat Zongzi to celebrate Barca's win and the festival today.

The Dragon Boat Festival is widely celebrated in China. This morning, CCTV had a good coverage of the celebrations in Guangdong, Guizhou, Zhejiang and across the country. The celebration event in my hometown (actually my father's hometown), Jiaxing of Zhejiang province, was on TV for about 2 minutes. Jiaxing is well known for Zongzi with the brand name of Wu Fang Zhai (五芳斋). Various fillings are used for Wu Fang Zhai Zongzi, and they are delicious! According to the TV report this morning, over 150 million Zongzi are produced by Wu Fang Zhai and sold across China every year. I'm going to buy some in the nearby supermarket here in Beijing. Great to eat Zongzi from my hometown on Dragon Boat Festival holiday.

Barca's win is great, Zongzi is delicious and the festival begins!

7 comments:

Ramesh said...

Hey Hang - forget about those overpaid football guys in Europe. More fun watching Lin Dan, Cai & Fu, Zhang Yining, Wang Hao, Ma Lin .... :)

Its a dreary wet Dragon Boat festival in Guangzhou. Its raining. Ugh.

Didn't know you're from Jiaxing. I have been to your hometown. Nice place.

Hang said...

Ramesh - Just look at the number of clubs in debt.I agree those guys are overpaid.

You've been to Jiaxing?! Surprise! It's a small city. Few foreigners know the city.

Ramesh said...

Came there for a conference last year. Jiaxing is actively wooing companies to come there - they even did a road show in Bangalore, India selling Jiaxing as a IT destination. The local city government is very active.

Had zongzi yesterday made in Jiaxing. Very nice ....

Hang said...

I know there are many companies from South Korea and Taiwan in Jiaxing. I am not aware Jiaxing is actively wooing companies from overseas, which is good for the local economy. I would be happy to see IT companies from India in the future. I ate two big Zongzi yesterday too. :)

冰蓝 said...

How sad I didn't eat the zongzi, the reason is ridiculous, I asked my parents to buy some zongzi in the supermarket as we are busy working and don't have time shopping. zongzi is so hot in dragon festival that one has to queue to get one. My parents go to the market but return without buying even a single piece, since they think it is too expensive(S$2.5/each which is about 10Ruan/each), so we end up a zongzi-less festival, really annoyed.

Hang said...

Mia - I didn't expect zongzi could be so popular in Singapore in Dragon Boat Festival. To queue to buy one was annoying.

I bought two zongzi for less than 10 yuan here in Beijing. :)

冰蓝 said...

You may not be aware that Singaporeans celebrate most classical Chinese festivals like dragon festival, mid-autumn festival, spring festival, etc. Like zongzi, Mooncake is also hugely popular.