It is a honey comb. She would cut a small piece of the edge to let you taste but, really, how clean can a honeycomb be that is setting on the ground of an overpass bridge, being passed by 100's of people all the while cars, buses and trucks are whizzing by underneath spewing out exhaust? I think I will pass.
The Chinese have celebrated the harvest during the autumn full moon since the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th to 10th century BCE).[5] Morris Berkowitz, who studied the Hakka people during the 1960s, theorizes that the harvest celebration originally began with worshiping Mountain Gods after the harvest was completed.[6] The celebration as a festival only started to gain popularity during the early Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE).[1] One legend explains that Emperor Xuanzong of Tang started to hold formal celebrations in his palace after having explored the Moon-Palace.[5] The termmid-autumn (中秋) first appeared in Rites of Zhou, a written collection of rituals of the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BCE).[1]wn.
Okay that is enough about the moon festival or mid-autumn festival. There is also a holiday ending today. It is a week long break from work. It is a national holiday, so many were out of town this week because it was their opportunity to go back home and see family.
So now I am going to beef a bit:
One of the things that drive us foreigners crazy is the unusual and bizarre way things are run here. For example: you try to get a definite answer from someone as to the time something starts, opens or the rules of anything and you get either no answer or a variety of confusing options. This is our latest situation with this craziness.
We have a trip to Beijing coming up. We are flying in to Beijing but taking the fast train home. Getting the plane ticket was no problem but the train ticket has been very frustrating. I stopped by last week at the train station, found someone to translate for me and asked the exact date that I can buy the ticket. You can only buy in advance either 10 or 20 days before your departure date. It differs from train to train. Well, I thought I was being smart by asking ahead of time to save us the worry of waiting too late and not getting a ticket. I eyed the ticket counter with about 8 counters open looking for someone in line who just might speak English. I nailed it on the first person I asked. A young woman helped me ask my questions: When can I buy and can I use a copy of a passport to get a ticket? I was told I could, and to come back on Saturday, the 5th, 20 days ahead to buy tickets. Okay, John and I will do that. So we got up early Saturday morning and headed to the train station. We had our request all written out in Chinese so all we had to do was hand it to her with our passports and money. Easy right?....Not! The clerk says "Can not buy today. Come back Monday." We know this because we called our friend Arthur to translate. Okay, then, we wait until Monday. Again, we get up early, head to the train station, everything in hand, get to the counter and the clerk shakes her head and hands it all back......What!! Again we got Arthur on the phone. (He is so sweet. He didn't complain about waking him.) "Cannot buy today. You can buy tomorrow." We have to wait until tomorrow, again. Well, now I am beyond frustrated and heading into 'I want to smack somebody with my passport' phase. It is getting almost too routine-ish. Wake up early; go to train station; stand in line with stuff in hand; wait until the clerk hands it all back to you; call Arthur to ask why....Yep it happened again. This time the clerk says..."I don't know why you can not buy it yet." AAAUUUUGGGG!!! Okay, stay calm, go talk to someone who might know. We find a window that no one is standing at and politely ask for help. We hand the woman behind the glass window our phone to talk to Arthur who explains our troubles. She mumbles, "let me ask" and goes off to inquire from the clerks. Her explanation is that we can not buy the tickets until after 9:00 am. WHAT! I have been getting up early for several days now and all we had to do was buy the tickets after 9:00?! Why don't they tell you these things in the first place??? The workers here are not stupid but just not trained well to address any thing other than the function they were given to do. And they don't care if you have a problem, just step aside so they can take care of the next person in line. There is a happy ending to this story. We got our tickets. I went home after the last rejection, to care for some workers who were coming to the house to fix leaks and then returned 2 hours later.....after 9:00....and got the tickets. I am relieved. I didn't get arrested for hitting someone with my passport. It was a good thing I was too tired to throw it. (*-*)
Well, that's my story and here's my life. Even with all the frustrations we have encountered in China, I still love it here. It is basically the people on the street who stop and offers help when you look lost or the parents who excitedly pushes their children to say hello to us or the big smiles we get when we just say hello. And it is especially those who are responding to the love that is being shown to them through our friends. I hope we get to stay a little longer.
Love and hugs.....Cindy