expats celebrate the lantern festival, the 2022 winter olympics, and the upcoming 19th asian games. -k8凯发官网

on february 12th, over 20 expats from russia, canada, the uk, spain, nigeria, and malaysia gathered at nantang old street’s ningbo city tourism center to celebrate the lantern festival (the fifteenth day of the first month in the traditional chinese lunar calendar) and the opening 2022 winter olympics, in addition to demonstrating their support for the upcoming 19th asian games events in ningbo.

nantang old street is one of the eight historical blocks of ningbo. led by media presenter seyedeh sara ahmadi nishaboori, the expats gained deeper insight into ningbo’s customs through various activities. on day of the event, an exhibition themed “a port of the ancient silk road, a city of smiles” was held at the ningbo city tourism center. the diorama of meishan’s lion dance, tiger-head shoes embroidered with gold and silver thread, and the model of ningbo’s thousand-year-old baoguo temple impressed the foreign participants deeply.

after a tour of the exhibition, a chef from jaragou, a local restaurant brand that has been making authentic ningbo tangyuan for over a century, demonstrated how to make ningbo’s traditional dessert – tangyuan (rice balls with sweet sesame filling). the participants made tangyuan in the shape of bing dwen dwen, the mascot of the beijing 2022 winter olympics games. an artisan from the impression ningbo cultural and creative hall taught participants to craft lucky red sachets with tiger decorations sewn onto them.

solving riddles written on a piece of paper attached to a lantern is an iconic festive activity of the lantern festival. riddles often contain words of wisdom or messages of good fortune. for the event, the organizers incorporated information about the winter olympics and the asian games into the puzzles.

the participating expats tackled the riddles with enthusiasm, quickly figuring out over 20 correct answers.

wu jiechao, a nationally-recognized outstanding tour guide and a member of the ningbo dramatists association, performed ningbo opera, the snail girl and yue opera, the butterfly lovers. sannia mareta and zhou wenhao presented rap music and peking opera masks. jon peñagarikano and isidro stantos galindo played an accordion and clarinet duet.

the activities were jointly organized by the university of nottingham ningbo china, the ningbo maritime silk international tourism exchange center, and the magazine ningbo focus, with the hope of giving ningbo’s expat community an immersive cultural experience and a chance to share their experiences of living in ningbo, as well as promoting friendly exchanges and mutual learning between china and the rest of the world.