Basics - The Rough Guide to Beijing - page 43

and Time Out ( timeoutbeijing.com ) , all of which have listing and event sections, with ad-
dresses written in pinyin and Chinese.
Television
There is the occasional item of interest on Chinese TV , though you'd have to be quite bored
to resort to it for entertainment. Domestic travel and wildlife programmes are common, as
are song-and-dance extravaganzas, the most enjoyable of which feature dancers in weird fet-
ishistic costumes. Soap operas and historical dramas are popular, and often feature a few for-
eigners; in keeping with the global norm, talent and dating shows are currently all the rage.
CCTV , the state broadcaster, has an English-language rolling news channel, CCTV News;
their dedicated sports channel, CCTV5, often shows European football games. Satellite TV
in English is available in the more expensive hotels.
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FESTIVALS AND EVENTS
The rhythm of festivals and religious observances that used to mark the Chinese year
wasinterruptedbytheCulturalRevolution,andonlynow,morethanfortyyearson,are
oldtraditionsbeginningtore-emerge.Themajorityoffestivalscelebratetheturningof
the seasons or propitious dates, such as the Double Ninth festival held on the ninth day
of the ninth lunar month, and are times for gift-giving, family reunions and feasting.
A festival calendar
Traditional festivals take place according to dates in the Chinese lunar calendar , in which
the first day of the month is when the moon is a new crescent, with the middle of the month
marked by the full moon. By the Gregorian calendar, these festivals fall on a different date
every year.