Beijingers celebrate Chinese New Year

(Chinaculture.org) Updated: 2016-01-24 10:55

Photos by Laurent Hou, who won the second prize of the 2015 Just Share It contest.

北京人民欢庆中国农历新年

摄影：Laurent Hou

2015年乐享中国——欢乐春节征集活动二等奖。

I have been in Beijing for almost for years (but not continuously) and it was the first time I was staying for the whole spring festival.

I wanted to use this opportunity to see and understand how Beijingers celebrate the spring festival. For some pictures I simply went out and take pictures of scenes I found interesting. But as I felt it would not really allow to see family celebrations, I asked friends if they knew some families that would be willing to be photographed (and of course, in exchange I would give them the pictures too).

In the end I found three families but ended up taking pictures of only two as the third family's schedule changed and made things not very convenient to organize. It was a very nice and interesting experience. Both families were really great (and cooked very good food). I had an unforgettable Chinese new year in Beijing.

我在北京已经好几年了（但不是一直都在），今年还是我第一次在北京过完整个春节。

我想通过这次的机会去好好看看，去理解北京人都是怎么庆祝春节的。我只是出去拍了些照片，我把我认为有趣的场景都拍了下来。但是我觉得能得到允许去看北京人家庭的庆祝活动是不可能的，于是我询问了我的朋友看他们是否知道有没有家庭同意我去拍照的（当然，回报是我把我所拍的照片也给他们一份）。

最后我找到了三个家庭，但是我最终只给两个家庭拍了照，因为第三个家庭改变了行程，致使拍摄计划不方便进行。给这两个家庭拍照真是件又棒又有趣的经历。这两家都非常的棒（他们的食物都烹饪得非常棒）。在北京我经历了一次难忘的中国新年。

Hongbao (Beijing, Daxing) [Photo/Laurent Hou] 红包（北京大兴区）[摄影：Laurent Hou]