/Enjoy Temple Fairs in Beijing

Enjoy Temple Fairs in Beijing
2005/02/01Text by Winnie Li
To have a lot of fun outdoors during the Spring Festival, attend one of Beijing's many temple fairs. Temple fairs usually occur from the first to the seventh day of the first month on the lunar calendar. This year, that corresponds to February 9-15, 2005.
Traditional Temple Fairs
Changdian Temple Fair
The Changdian Temple Fair is Beijing's oldest and best known temple fair. It reopened in 2001, after a 37-year absence.
In the old days, Beijingers had a choice of eight temple fairs to attend, but Changdian was always the most popular. It was originally held on open ground outside of Liulichang, now a pedestrian shopping street full of curio and antique shops.
Changdian has everything you'd expect of a temple fair, a mixture of the traditional and modern. Performances include martial arts, acrobatics, Peking Opera, pop music and folk dancing. Vendors from far and wide come to set up shop and sell books, magazines, paintings, toys, tasty snacks, and dried and fresh fruit. There's plenty of food to tempt you including sugar-coated haw berries speared onto metre-long sticks, hot sweet potatoes and sticky pancakes. You can also find traditional Chinese crafts such as kites and painted masks taken from Peking Opera characters to buy. Acrobats and other performers are on hand to keep the crowds entertained throughout the day.