Important Chinese Festivals

Written by Wong Yee Lee


Continued from page 1

Hungry Ghost Festival (August/September) It isrepparttar time whenrepparttar 134008 gate of Hell opens and all ghosts will come torepparttar 134009 earth. People would offer roasted pork, steamed chicken, and fruits torepparttar 134010 ghosts. They would also burn paper offerings torepparttar 134011 dead inrepparttar 134012 streets. It is also said that people should not walk or respond to anybody calling them when walking inrepparttar 134013 street at night.

Mid-autumn Festival (September/October) Mooncake isrepparttar 134014 gift you give to your friends and relatives atrepparttar 134015 festival. Apart from that, salted sausages and star fruit are other popular gifts. It isrepparttar 134016 happiest forrepparttar 134017 children because they would enjoy walking inrepparttar 134018 streets with their lanterns. 'Wax-boiling' has become very popular butrepparttar 134019 government in Hong Kong has made it forbidden after many accidents from burning wax. Of course people would make use ofrepparttar 134020 chance to look atrepparttar 134021 full moon onrepparttar 134022 day on their balconies or just at home. Traditional mooncakes are made with sweet lotus seed paste with one or more egg yolks. Modern mooncakes come in various styles. Tastes like green tea, red beans, hams and nuts, or even mooncake ice-cream are all available. Just name it and you may find it. Chung Yeung Festival (September/October) There has been a legend fromrepparttar 134023 East Han Dynasty. A man was told to leave home and go to a hill top ofrepparttar 134024 date to avoid a disaster which would kill all lives there. So he left home with his family and drank chrysanthemum wine as he had been told. When he came back afterrepparttar 134025 day, he found that all livestock were killed. Since then, after almost 2000 years, it is believed that it is a day when people should leave home and show their respect to their ancestors onrepparttar 134026 day.



Visit www.asiadragon.co.uk to see an exciting & authentic range of oriental fashion & accessories, stylish home furnishings & furniture, beautiful ornaments, Chinese calligraphy plus much, much more!


What will I do when I grow up - says the 45 year old woman!

Written by Karen Bryan


Continued from page 1

I drifted back into market research telling myself that I would just dorepparttar more interesting social survey work. I started with a company who only did social surveys and was told there was plenty of work available. I think I had about 3 jobs from them over 6 months. When I was doing a sex survey for them in Perth I bumped into another interviewer. She told me thatrepparttar 134007 company she worked for were about to start a big social survey whererepparttar 134008 same families would be interviewed every year forrepparttar 134009 next 3 years. I phonedrepparttar 134010 area managerrepparttar 134011 next day, we hit it off and things seemed to be going well. After a few monthsrepparttar 134012 area manager asked me to apply forrepparttar 134013 position of deputy. Believe it or not, as deputy manager I was still paid byrepparttar 134014 hour. I actually had more hassle, made less money and had less flexibility than working as an interviewer. I still had to go out interviewing and would get home inrepparttar 134015 evening to a pile of faxes and phone messages, when I just wanted to relax.

I lasted around 6 months as deputy. I rationalised that I had tried studying, tried a promoted post, I wasn't that ambitious and no employer seemed prepared to offer me a decent job, so I would have to be realistic and just plod on as an interviewer. Well that lasted for around a year thenrepparttar 134016 area manger was forced to retire at 65 andrepparttar 134017 new manager wanted to greatly reduce my work onrepparttar 134018 annual social survey and force me to do all other sorts of surveys I wasn't interested in.

I was wracking my brain about what on earth I was going to do to earn a crust. I had started thinking that I would like to start a travel business. It was a growth market, I wouldn't need any employees, and I could work from home. The Internet was really catching on (this was 2002) and I thought that it would allow me, to gain some market exposure, even as a small fish. I also thought it would be wonderful to work in a field in which I had a great personal interest. I signed up with a flight supplier as a travel broker in August 2002.

That was almost two years ago. I am still working as a market research interviewer andrepparttar 134019 business is slowly growing. It's been an ongoing dilemma to me, whether to give uprepparttar 134020 interviewing and just concentrate onrepparttar 134021 business. At some points I have been doing market research six days a week, so really have not had much time or energy to devotetorepparttar 134022 business. However I have been loathed to give uprepparttar 134023 steady income. Byrepparttar 134024 same token if I don't focus onrepparttar 134025 business then it will never really take off.

My initial business was Europe a la Carte. I thought that there was a niche inrepparttar 134026 market to assist people who were looking for something different torepparttar 134027 traditional package holiday, put together a tailor made trip to Europe. It is possible to do this yourself onrepparttar 134028 Internet but it's pretty time consuming. I reckoned that there was a significant minority of people who would value some assistance with planning and booking their trip.

From enquiries I received I began to realise that there was demand for cultural and activity holidays in Europe. The sister site, European Cultural & Activity Tours, was started in January 2003. May aim was to build up a good selection of holidays offered by small specialist suppliers throughout Europe.

I have to say that I am extremely lucky that one of my sons is really good onrepparttar 134029 computer. He has designed my sites and databases. My other son has also helped me with newsletters and photos.

I have begun to get more bookings and last week I had my first repeat customer. I have learnt a lot inrepparttar 134030 last two years about IT,repparttar 134031 Internet and marketing. I have tried my hand at writing articles forrepparttar 134032 websites.

I have had some interesting trips to meet up with suppliers and visits torepparttar 134033 areas that I promote. I have worked really hard but I haven't really minded that as I have, onrepparttar 134034 whole, enjoyedrepparttar 134035 work. I am working toward my dream of having a profitable business in a field I find fascinating. I believe that I have found what I want to do now that I am grown up!



Karen is a travel consultant and writer specialising in travel in Europe. Her sites are: www.europealacarte.co.uk www.europe-culture-activity-tours.com


    <Back to Page 1
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use