Based at Guangdong Foreign Languages Normal School I discovered that there were only two terms split by a four or five week holiday from January into February. Why so long and why then? My colleagues explained how people nationwide traditionally spend the Lunar New Year at their parents’ home. The students coming from throughout Guangdong faced lengthy, mostly bus journeys to their hometowns before returning to Guangzhou. However their travails within the Province paled into ‘insignificance’ compared to the vast number of university students and workers who had come from all over China to southern Guangdong, in particular the Pearl River Delta. With few exceptions, they would all be heading north. At that time there was just a single railway line connecting Guangzhou with central and northern China. Tickets could only be purchased at the train station. As the holiday approached my associates regularly talked about that scenario, which of course would be far worse for me, lacking language skills!!

I mentioned in a previous article it was suggested I should go to Hainan. An excellent choice except that very little happened around Sanya’s Dadonghai, where I was staying. There was no major celebration for the start of the new year. Apart from a few firecrackers going off, it was very quiet. People were at home with their families dining while watching spectacular annual gala performances on television - something I also would do from my hotel room! Next day, the first of the year, the weather was beautiful, indeed perfect. Close to my hotel stretched an extensive beach that will be bustling with many holidaymakers this week in February 2018. On January 23, 1993, the start of the ‘Year of the Rooster’ only a handful, including myself, ventured onto the sands. However a few locals had gathered, standing adorned in their finest clothes - men in suits with women in dresses shading themselves under decorative umbrellas!