Celebrating the New Year in China: School Holidays

Chinese people typically celebrate lunar new year with their families.  Since many people work or study far from their hometowns, this time of year is one of the busiest times for travel.  Government officials estimate over 230 million people will travel on trains in the next few weeks.  A few VIA volunteers plan to join the millions as they visit their students’ families to ring in the new year.  We will be sharing a few new year’s stories on the blog this month.

Beijing-based volunteer Daniel Tkach and ten of his freshmen students celebrated the end of finals by cooking a meal together in his apartment. Daniel and his students have approximately one month of vacation in order to celebrate the lunar new year, known in China as the Spring Festival.