Travel

Celebrating Chinese Christmas

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-18 09:21

Food

Over the years it's been increasingly easier to find Christmas turkeys in China but why spring for the customary cuisine when you are in a city famous for roast duck. Instead of paying 100 yuan per kg of turkey, you can have a Chinese restaurant deliver a Peking duck to your door at a fraction of the cost.

The moderately-priced Jinbaiwan Roast Duck Restaurant delivers its award-winning Peking duck at 78 yuan per duck.

For those running low on cash after holiday shopping sprees, they also accept credit cards.

Side dishes can include chestnuts roasted on an open street fire. A bag goes for about 5 yuan.

While you're at it, pick up a handful of cooked yams from a street vendor for 3 yuan a pop, add butter and mash them for sweet-mashed potatoes.

Entertainment

Gingerbread people have to live somewhere. Fortunately for them, Christmas is the time of year when the availability of Gingerbread housing is at an all time high.

Get the whole party engaged and add a Chinese twist to a Christmas classic by constructing a Gingerbread hutong. Buy four gingerbread house kits and fashion them into a square courtyard.

Gingerbread house kits are available at 7-Eleven for 70 yuan each. Be forewarned, the Chinese version of Hansel and Gretel may find the constructions irresistible.

For the less arts and crafty types, print out the lyrics of your favorite holiday tunes and host a Christmas carol karaoke party.

This activity is best enjoyed with large amounts of Chinese-style eggnog.

Drinks

No Christmas is complete without a frothy, heavily spiced glass of eggnog. While replacing the traditional rum or bourbon with plain baijiu would almost certainly spell disaster, Jingjiu, a brand of 'spiced' baijiu, adds an extra bit of flavor that makes it an acceptable, if not delectable, substitute.

Chinese-style eggnog

6 separated eggs

1 oz Jingjiu

1 cup sugar

1 pint heavy cream

1 pint milk

1 pint bourbon whiskey

Separate 6 eggs.

Beat yolks well.

Beat in 1/2 cup sugar.

Clean/degrease beaters and bowl.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Beat in 1/2 cup sugar. Fold in yolks to whites.

Gently stir in 1 pt heavy cream, 1 pt milk, 1 pt bourbon, and 1 oz Jingjiu. Serve as is or well chilled.

Avoid spending your entire party manning the blender to churn out batches of eggnog by picking up a 50 yuan case of 24 big bottles of Yanjing beer from a local convenience shop.

For those in search of something more elegant, 48 yuan bottles of Great wall Red wine can also be found at most convenience shops.

Decorations

A quick way to spruce up the old hutong with Christmas dcor is by visiting the Liangma flower market near the Lufthansa Center. In addition to Christmas trees, they have almost every kitschy craft from tinsel to singing toy Santas, to assist in creating the perfect replica of your childhood Christmas. Trees start at 200 yuan depending on the size and the buyer's ability to bargain. Delivery can be arranged with the vendor.

To deck the halls with a Chinese flavor add Chinese paper cuts to the mix. They can be found at almost any gift shop in Beijing, but one particularly well-known location is the China National Art Gallery and the surrounding Liulichang street. The cost of paper cuts start at 5 yuan for a packet of 10.

Gifts

Christmas may be known as the time of year when family and friends trump all, but there's always an element of the little kid in us that craves the gifts. Brighten the mood of your guests by doling out small gifts as they arrive. The Nanluoguxiang Hutong boasts one of the chicest, cheapest shopping locations in Beijing. From vintage tin toys to boxes of Mao matchbooks, it's one of the hippest spots for last-minute shopping. For a one-stop shop, check out Beijing's Panjiayuan flea market. Almost every Chinese trinket imaginable, and some that you'd never fathom, are available.