Moon Festival, Moon Day 2010

What a happy day today! Azure sky, comfy weather, and sweet mooncakes, all just on a single day - Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival September 22, 2010.

The name of Mid-Autumn Festival is a little bit too official, I'd like call it moon festival or mooncake day. It is the second most important festival in China, just after Spring Festival, Chinese Lunar New Year ( similar to Christmas in the west ).

The exact date of Mid-Autumn Festival is set on the fifteenth day of the eighth month according to Chinese lunar calendar, which falls on the changeable dates within early September and early October in the Gregorian calendar. The next 5 years' Mid-Autumn occurs on the following days:

2011: September 12 2012: September 30 2013: September 19 2014: September 8 2015: September 27

Mid-Autumn Day is similar to Thanksgiving Day in the United States and Canada, a time for family reunion. People come

home, enjoying being together. This year, though separated with our only son in Ottawa and aged parents in Hangzhou, we don't feel lonely in Beijing with the bright and full moon hanging high in the sky linking all of us as a Chinese proverb goes "Wish us a long life so as to share the beauty of this graceful moonlight, even thousands miles apart.. ".

For me, today is still a working day. As usual, I'm in office at 8:00am. But not for long, I feel like an ant sitting on a hotpot, not because of the moon day today, but the unusually and extremely fine day - sunny and blue sky! I can sit no longer, go down the stairs to the underground parking lot and merrily drive my car directly to Summer Palace for photographing.

Though having been toSummer Palace for several times before, I have never seen it under a blue sky. So today I have my dream come true. Like a hungry "beggar", in two hours, I take over three hundreds pictures there! I choose two of these photos for you to share for celebrate the moon day today.

After a sumptuous supper, we habitually open a box of mooncakes with a rich variety of

fillings with sweetened red bean paste, lotus seeds, eggs... Monncakes with lotus and eggs are my favorites. There are a huge choices of mooncakes on the mooncake market. We usually favor the mooncakes produced by the century-old traditional the time-honored Daoxiangcun Foodstuffs Store. The store used to produce light snack served to the royal family or governmental officials in the Qing Dynasty.

Walking after supper is one of my daily activities and today is no exception especially with my stomach loaded with rich and oily mooncakes. My walking hangout is Ming Dynasty Wall Relics Park, not far from my housing area. On this special evening, I take my camera with me for possible good shots. I walk along the ancient city wall under the full moon in a soft breeze. The moon tohight is the fullest and roundest in my memory album. I can't help taking some pictures of the full moon.

At the eastern tip of the city wall area, you find some local kite fliers fly glittering kites with beautiful lit tails! Kite flying

originated as a Chinese tradition to mark the beginning of spring. Now kite flying is very popular among Beijingers with lots of innovations.

The Ming Dynasty City Wall Relics Park was built on the one- kilometer-long ruins of ancient Beijing city walls, it was open to the public in May 2002. The rebuilding of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) City Wall Relics Park is part of the Chinese capital's effort to protect its historical relics.

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Moon Festival, Moon Day 2010

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