The Chinese Lunar New Year is coming up this week. Historically it is the longest vacation period during the year. Much of China shuts down for up to 2 weeks. However this year is already going to be different. As many of you have read this winter has been the coldest in over 50 years in China! It's making for travel challenges the likes we have never seen in the US. One day this week 800,000 people were stranded at a train station trying to get home. Many of them spent 5-6 days there. It has been reported that each year approximately 200 million Chinese people travel home during CNY. To put that in perspective that number would be itself the 5th largest country in the world! Long story is that many people are not able to go home this time. As of today it warmed up a bit down south but it's expected to cool off again.
My company hosted a CNY dinner celebration for our employees as well as our factory partners. We had about 45 people all in all. It's a very social event with lots of customs. The words "Gan Bei" were heard countless times. Gan Bei simply means "bottoms up"! As with any social event here drinking has a very important role in the dinner. Everyone including the kids got into the Gan Bei mode and yes even some of the little ones were actually drinking beer!
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