Only an estimated 2% of China’s population are practising Christians so, for people such as Ms Liu, there are no religious reasons whatsoever for celebrating Christmas.

Yet in recent years, there has been an increased focus on Christmas in China, particularly among young people who regard it as an important and fashionable day to celebrate.

“We simply just want to have some fun on this day,” explains Sai Wang, who works for an IT company in Beijing.

“Western holidays are more trendy for young people. There is no other sophisticated reason at all,” he adds.

And from Jaime Florcruz of CNN:

But what does Christmas mean to the Chinese?

“It’s a festival in the West, right?” surmised Zhao Jing, a young salesgirl, who hails from rural Shanxi province.

“I know it’s the birthday of Jesus Christ, as written in the Bible,” said a middle-aged Beijing woman, surnamed Chen, as she shopped for a New Year’s gift for her husband.

And the Shengdan Laoren? “He brings gifts, like candies and toys,” gushed a boy with his mother on a shopping trip.

And the Los Angeles Times profiles a rent-a-Santa from California who now plies his trade in hotels in Shenzhen.

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China marked its inaugural Serfs’ Emancipation Day on Saturday with testimonials by Tibetans on the merits of Communist rule, denunciations of the Dalai Lama and vows to crush any attempts at independence.

[...]China declared March 28 as an annual holiday in Tibet earlier this year, marking the date in 1959 when Chinese troops took direct control of the government in Lhasa after being brought in to quell an uprising.

In a carefully choreographed ceremony held on a sprawling public square beneath Lhasa’s Potala Palace, the government projected its message that its rule brought an end to a cruel feudal system and has improved Tibetans’ lives ever since.

Xinhua reports on the gala event to celebrate the first Serfs’ Emancipation Day:

A gala was held Saturday in Beijing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the emancipation of Tibetan serfs. Top political advisor Jia Qinglin and other senior officials watched the performances.

The gala, held in the studio hall of the official CCTV, are mainly songs and dances performed by Tibetan artists expressing their joys and gratitude over the liberation of Tibetan serfs in 1959.

Saturday also marks the first Serfs Emancipation Day, which was endorsed by Tibetan legislators in January this year to commemorate the historic changes that took place in Tibet 50 years ago.

Also on Xinhua, “On Serfs Emancipation Day, celebration, recollection, and wishes from across China.”

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People are walking to a cemetery in the west of Beijing on Friday, April 4, 2008. The Chinese traditional Qingming Festival falls on Friday this year, which is the occasion for Chinese people to pay respect to past ancestors by cleaning their graves, presenting offerings of food, and burning joss paper. [Xinhua]

Some 600,000 people visited graveyards in the suburbs of Chinese capital Beijing on Friday, about triple last year’s figure of 189,000, according to official statistics.
On December 16, the State Council (cabinet) revised the nation’s official holiday schedule to add three traditional festivals — Qingming, Duanwu and Zhongqiu — in response to public calls. It also changed the length of other holidays.

The holiday marked on Friday was Qingming, or grave-sweeping day.

The change was intended to allow more people to pay their respects to deceased relatives on what would otherwise be a workday like Friday. No national figures on this year’s tomb visits were immediately available.

A citizen mourns her relative in a cemetery in Guangzhou, capital of southern China’s Guangdong Province, April 4, 2008. The Chinese Qingming Festival, a day two weeks after the vernal equinox, is also called the Tomb-sweeping Day, when Chinese people usually mourn their deceased relatives, pay homage to martyrs and sweep the tombs of the departed. [Xinhua]

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“Nowadays, Valentine’s Day is widely celebrated in China, and divorce on this ‘day of love’ could be hurtful,” the newspaper cited Gao Zhi, a judge at the Xicheng District Court, as saying.

“We didn’t arrange the sessions of any divorce cases on Thursday, which is courtesy, rather than a policy,” said Yu Lihua, a senior female judge in charge of divorces at the Shijingshan District Court.

The reason for the practice, according to Yu, is that the majority of the judges presiding over divorce proceedings are young people who take the Valentine’s Day seriously.

Below are Some photos taken on Valentine’s Day in China, via fengniao.com and Daqi.com:

And in another China Daily article, Chinese fall hard for imported holiday of Valentine’s Day:

In the booming eastern city of Wenzhou, young couples rushing to get married on this special day led a downtown registry office to open 30 minutes early on Thursday morning — and to stop accepting divorce applications for the day.

Even old couples want to try the Western holiday: 60 years into their marriage, a couple in Xi’an in northwestern Shaanxi Province decided they, too, wanted to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

The news was published on a local newspaper on Tuesday and by 6 p.m. on Wednesday, about 1,500 people had put up Internet postings, 90 percent of which voiced support.

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It was the week before Christmas, and the crush of shoppers elbowing their way past stalls at the Tian Yi market would have been familiar to holiday gift buyers anywhere.

So would the brightly colored baubles, red and gold bows, and strings of flashing lights from which the crowds were choosing: After all, China manufactures more than 80 percent of the world’s Christmas decorations. [Full Text]

A series of photos about Christmas and Chinese people from Getty Image, Daqituhai, and Shanghaiist:

- Read also China Catches the Christmas Spirit by CBN.com

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A Chinese government panel announced plans on Friday to revamp the holiday schedule to re-emphasize traditional festivals at the expense of the Marxist May Day celebration.

The new schedule aims to address the severe overloading of China’s air, rail and road links in the first week of May, when virtually the entire country goes on vacation. But gridlock may remain around the two other major holidays ” essentially a week each ” at the Chinese New Year and in the first week of October. [Full text]

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Chinese source here from chinesenewsnet.com

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Long queue outside Taiyuan train station(Top)

Crowds inside of Xi’an train station(Bottom)

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Migrant workers pack into the railway station to board a train in Fuyang, east China’s Anhui Province January 19, 2007. China’s ‘Chun Yun‘, which means travelling during traditional Chinese Spring Festival, kicked off half a month ahead of the official time between February 3 and March 14, which the Railway Ministry predicted would saw a passenger flow of million. The annual train fare hike during the holiday season was scrapped begining this year. [Link1, Link2]

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