Celebrating Chinese New Year in Beautiful Countryside — Grenada Overseas Students Visit Yangjiashanli

QINGDAO, China, Feb. 20, 2024 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/–

During the Spring Festival, eight overseas students from Grenada, the southernmost island country in the Windward Islands of the East Caribbean, visited the Yangjiashanli Rural Revitalization Demonstration Area in Shandong’s Qingdao to experience traditional Chinese folk customs such as writing Spring Festival couplets and blessings, making paper-cuts, and pasting Spring Festival couplets with the villagers, according to the Information Office of Qingdao Municipal People’s Government.

At the event, overseas students enthusiastically immersed themselves in Chinese New Year festivities by writing Chinese characters on red paper, participating in the traditional tea ceremony, and crafting paper-cut window decorations.

In Huangni Lane Village, overseas students engaged in discussions with local children and villagers, enjoyed cultural performances and delighted the community with their own talents, including singing Chinese songs like “Friends” and Grenada’s “Happy Birthday Grenada.”

On Chinese New Year’s Eve, they joined villagers in making dumplings, setting off firecrackers, and watching the Spring Festival Gala, immersing themselves in the most traditional Chinese New Year customs. The next morning, they visited local villagers to extend their New Year greetings in Chinese, bringing blessings from afar.

In September 2023, Grenada Red Mud Village and Huangni Lane in Yangjiashanli, Tieshan Street, established a friendly village relationship, becoming the first international friendship village in Shandong Province.