Shanghai Surprises: Christmas in China

Happy New Year! A lot of people have emailed me wondering what it is like to be in China for Christmas. Actually, it really wasn't as wierd as I thought it would be. First of all, about 3 weeks before Christmas, almost every public place (restaraunt, shops, hotels, etc) had put up some type of picture or cheesy replica of Santa. Granted, many of the Santa art had funny pictures of ducks and cartoon stars along with it but I give them credit for trying. And I was really surprised by the number of xmas trees everywhere. The people themselves don't celebrate xmas in their own homes but they like the lights and decorations along the street. All religious meaning has been removed from the decorations but that is to be expected here. And of course there were no mall Santas, no Christmas carols on the radio, no mad dash to the shops.

Thankfully, my parents had made the long trip to Shanghai to celebrate the holidays with us this year. They really helped to stave off the homesick feelings I am sure we would have had if we had been here alone. And we decided since it wasn't too Christmas-y here in China anyway, we would fly to a tropical destination to celebrate xmas. We chose an island owned by China called Hainan-just off the coast of Vietnam and Malaysia. The island is famous for hosting the Miss Universe pagent every year. My dad's brother who happens to be working in Hong Kong, joined us with his wife and daughter which made it really feel like a family vacation.

Anyway, I went in to it with low expectations as living here for the past 5 months has taught me to do. But we were pleasantly surprised upon arrival. The weather was perfect- about 80 and sunny everyday. The beaches were pristine- no rocks, no shells, no trash. The water was blue and warm. We stayed at the Marriott and really never ventured off the resort because it was so awesome! We couldn't help laughing everytime we wandered through the open air lobby and gazed upon the palm trees while "White Christmas" was playing in the background. Probably the most humorous moment occured on Christmas day when we went out for dinner at a Vietnamese restaraunt and a Philipinno cover band belted out "jingle bells" with an accent. I would absolutely say that Hainan island was better than most places in the Carribean that I've visited but I wouldn't say that anyone needs to make a special trip to visit the island- if you're in China and you have some extra time, it makes for a nice long weekend.