This year, we'll be staying in Yunnan for Chinese New Year!

Due to the on-going spreading of Covid-19, quite a few expats in China choose to stay where they are for the coming Spring Festival holiday.

Now some of them are preparing the reunion dinner with their friends, while others are dipping themselves into local sights or chatting with their families on Chinese festivities.

 

To welcome the coming Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), we renovated the garden and the dining area, creating a French air in the Chinese old building. We put up a funny English couplet on the door, so that the diners will be amused. 

 When the Spring Festival comes, we’d put on traditional Chinese costumes, getting together with senior family members for cooking and dinner.

I guess the festival means loving the ones with you and home is where you are. Wish you all health and happiness in the new year.  

Vincent, from France 

Having lived in Kunming for four plus years, I’m now son-in-law of a Kunming native. I run a Cainiao logistic branch. 

In the past years, my wife and I would return to my hometown of Houayxay in north Laos. Due to the Covid-19 this year, we stay in Kunming for the Spring Festival. 

As for the family reunion dinner, I’ll make cold-dressed poached egg, so that everyone in the family can taste the Lao flavor. 

Staying in Kunming for the festival, I can chat more with the Chinese family members, while tasting authentic Yunnan dishes. It’s perfect!   

Viengxay Phoudthavong, from Laos

I’m from Hong Kong, China. Affected by the Covid-19 this year, I stay with my grandparents in Yunnan for the Spring Festival.  

I’ve been studying abroad over the years, and I saw them aged a lot at my recent return to home this year. Now I’m going Spring Festival shopping and putting up couplets with my grandparents. All are reminders of the childhood days. 

In the new year, I hope the Covid-19 will be under control worldwide.

Ng Ko Yeung, from Hong Kong, China 

I’m from Peru, South America. I work as an agro-engineer in Mengzi, south Yunnan, specializing in blueberry growing and quality management. 

I’ll stay in Yunnan for the coming festival, no plan to go elsewhere.

When in my home town of Trujillo, I used to have the dragon-lion dance with my Chinese mates during the Spring Festival. What lively scenes! Still on my mind now. 

Spring Festival is a joyful occasion for family reunion. I’ll go sightseeing in Mengzi and meet with local friends. It will be fun.  

Marcelo Vergaray, from Peru 

In 2020, Sothea Vuthimean (3rd from right) spent the Spring Festival with classmates.

I’m from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. As a sophomore now, I’m majoring architecture at the School of Engineering, Dali University.    

As for the coming Spring Festival, my roommates and I choose stay in Dali, going on studying at school. 

Though not at home, I can still enjoy my holiday for the thoughtful arrangements: I’ll have a dinner with Dali flavor, watch the Spring Festival gala and have a video chat with my family in Cambodia. It’ll be warm and fun.

I hope my family could visit Dali during the 2022 Spring Festival, so that I can show them around the old town, mount Cangshan and Lake Erhai. 

Sothea Vuthimean, from Cambodia

I’m from Thailand, and I’ve been spending the Spring Festival in Yunnan over the years.

This year, I want to slow down to have a good rest at my home in Kunming.

It would be fun to cook some special dishes with my friends and enjoy the reunion dinner, while watching the Spring Festival gala, admiring the fireworks outside and waiting for the new-year countdown.   

Due to the ongoing Covid-19, I’ve not been in Thailand for over one year. I hope to meet my Thai relatives in the new year. 

And I also expect to take my Chinese friends to my hometown of Phuket Island in the 2022 Spring Festival, so that we can have a Thai-style new year.   

Jaruwan Udomsab, from Thailand 

Cai Jinghu (Central) shows strawberries to his customers.

I feel the amusing part of Chinese new year is sending red envelopes. I’ve prepared some on WeChat for kids in my family.

Due to the Covid-19, I’ve cancelled my plan to return to the RoK for the Spring Festival. Instead, I stay in my wife’s hometown in Liaoning province for the holiday. 

The festival is where the family get together. I’ll stay indoors to have a quality stay with my family. 

I used to return to India to be with my parents during the Spring Festival holiday. But this year I choose to stay in Kunming. 

I was born and raised up in India, being a fourth-generation offspring of Chinese migrants to India. I first came to Kunming in 2012, and I teach business English at the Yunnan Normal University Business School.

I haven’t spent the Spring Festival in China yet. When I was in India, however, the family would visit local China Towns for the dragon-lion dance and enjoy Chinese snacks there.

Vera (right) 

This year, a Dali family has invited me to come and celebrate the Spring Festival with them.

So I will get to experience a real Chinese New Year’s, and I’ll also feel part of a family. It can be a warm occasion to usher in the year of Ox with them. 

I first arrived in Yunnan in 2000 and settled here in 2017. I’m pleasantly surprised by the big changes that happened in China in the intervening years. People these days enjoy a much higher standard of living and now life in China is a lot easier.

I expect to be with the family for authentic Dali vegetables. I hope everyone will have a good rest and a positive start of the Year of the Ox. Wish the Covid-19 could end soon. 

Vera, from the Netherlands

Reporting by Wang Huan, Tan Xuedan, Shen Yan, Yao Chengcheng, Wang Jingzhong, Hu Lixian, Ma Yifei, Pu Xiao and Zu Hongbing