新春快乐
今年春节很特别。一月二十五号我跟一个同学上飞机。三个小时之后我们到了。今年我去重庆，成都和延安过年。
首先，重庆是一座在中国的西南方充满活力的山城。特色的地形造就了层叠的道路和错落的建筑。重庆最具特色的城市景观之一是轻轨穿楼而过。.
第二天，我们见了一个北大同学一起吃火锅（重庆以麻辣火锅而闻名）。她是重庆人。对于不了解的人来说， 火锅是一种中国传统的饮食方式。在锅中加热汤底，接着把各种食材放入锅中涮后食用，一边煮边吃。一般来说，热汤麻麻辣辣。幸运的是，两锅热汤中，第一锅是麻辣底料，第二锅是西红的。食材非常丰富，从蔬菜到鲜肉，老少皆宜。
除夕（一月二十八号）那天，我们坐火车去成都。成都市是四川的首都。从杜甫草堂到大熊猫研究基地，这座城市景点众多。第二天我们见了另一个北大同学，然后我们整天一起玩了一整天。因为她是一个成都人，她就像一个私人导游，她对成都了如指掌，对每条街都门儿清。
我们首先一起去一条传统购物街，那里遇到一种叫“三大炮“的传统成都小吃。三大炮是一种糯米制成的甜点，因制作过程中独特的“弹射”方式而得名。制作过程如下，轮流拿一个糯米团，用力往案板上摔，让它弹起来！！顾名思义，连续摔3次。最后裹上黄豆粉，淋糖浆，美味可口！除了吃小吃以外，我们在成都参观了杜甫草堂、大熊猫基地、还看了川剧变脸。成都太棒了！最后，三十一号我一个人晨早起床被送机，飞到延安(我的同学回北京)。
在延安，我跟另一个北大同学和她的中国家人一起过年。早上8点半我朋友的爸爸来接我。有意思的是，他不会说普通话或者英文，只说延安方言。幸运的是，延安方言和普通话差不多，但有时候难以听得懂! 那天我朋友的家人和亲戚一起吃午饭。因为春节，我们吃各种各样的延安小吃，大饱眼福！那天我朋友需要写完一张论文，所以她爸爸带我们游览了这座城市。晚上在停车场里我们点燃烟花，砰然炸响，五彩斑斓的光芒在夜空中绽放。
在延安，我们参加了街上的活动、参观了博物馆、吃了多美食，比如延安沾沾[1]、还欣赏了璀璨夺目的烟花。二月三号晚上，我累死了。终于坐上绿皮车回北京。坐车时，我一边听着火车在铁轨上哐当哐当地驶过，发出低沉的轰隆声，一边渐渐入睡。我感到十分满足。我不仅游历了三座中国城市，还和中国家庭一起过年。我觉得我对中国的理解更加深刻。
Happy New Year!
This year’s Chinese New Year was special. On the 25th of January I took the plane with a classmate. Three hours later we had arrived. This year we were going to Chongqing, Chengdu and Yanan to celebrate new year.
First, Chongqing is a south-western lively mountainous city in China. The unique terrain creates layered roads and staggered buildings. One of Chongqing’s special city features is the metro that cuts through building blocks.
On the second day, we met up with a friend from Beijing University and ate hotpot (Chongqing is famous for its spicy hotpot). Our friend is from Chongqing. For those that do not already know, hotpot is a traditional style of Chinese cuisine. In a pot you brew a base soup and then briefly boil all types of ingredients, cooking and eating as you go. Typically, the soup is numbingly spicy. Luckily, of the two base soups, the first one was spicy, but the second one was tomato flavoured. There was a range of ingredients (to boil), from vegetables to fresh meet, something for everyone.
On New Year’s Eve (28th January), we took the train to Chengdu. Chengdu is Sichuan province’s capital. From Dufu’s[1
] thatched house to the national Panda Research Centre, the city has many attractions. On the second day in Chengdu, we met up with another friend from Beijing University. We spent the whole day out together. Because she is from Chengdu, she was like a private tour guide, she knew Chengdu like the back of her hand, and familiar with every single street.
We first went to a traditional shopping street, where we encountered a traditional Chengdu snack called ‘Three big explosions. Three big explosions is a type of sweet snack of glutinous rice. It is named after its unique ‘catapulting’ method in the making process. The process is as followed, you take turns taking a ball of glutinous rice and then thrown it hard onto a board, letting it bounce up. As the name suggests, you do this three times in a row. In the end you envelop it in soybean flower and drizzle syrup over them. It’s so delicious! Besides eating snacks, in Chengdu we also visited Dufu’s thatched cottage, the panda research institute and watched the Sichuanese opera’s traditional performance of face changing. Chengdu is great. Finally, on the 31st I got up early in the morning to go to the airport and flew to Yanan (while my classmate returned to Beijing).
In Yanan, I stayed with another friend from Beijing university and her family. 8.30 in the morning her dad picked me up from the airport. Interestingly, he cannot speak Putonghua[2] or English. Luckily, the Yanan dialect and Putonghua is not too different, but sometimes I did find it hard to understand! That day we ate lunch with my friend’s family and her relatives. Because it was new years there were all types of Yanan delicacies, a feast full of food. My friend had to finish an essay that day, so her dad took us around Yanan to see the sights. That evening we sent off fireworks in a parking lot, with loud bangs, their colourful light lit up the sky.
In Yanan we participated in many street activities, went to museums, ate lots of delicacies including Yanan Zhan Zhan[3] and enjoyed more dazzling fireworks. On the 3rd of February, I was so tired. I eventually got onto the night train. Taking the train, I listened to the clanking noise of the train on the tracks and gradually fell asleep. I feel really satisfied. Not only did I experience three Chinese cities, I also experienced spending new year with a Chinese family. I feel that I have come to understand China much better.
[1] Dufu is a famous Chinese poet from the Tang dynasty (7th century).
[2] Standardised Mandarin. Because China is so big, often different regions use different dialects. The majority of people however also speak standardised Mandarin (the Beijing dialect) particularly the youth.
[3] Like hotpot but with skewers and cumin spice.