The Birthplace of Chinese New Year (Langzhong, Sichuan)

Today, I'm in one of China's four ancient towns. It has a history of over 2,300 years, and this is the actual birthplace of the Chinese New Year. Welcome to Lanzhong. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Lanzhong, here in northeastern Sichuan. In the year 104 BC, Lü Xiaohong created the first complete calendar with a clearly defined start of the year and end of the year, and he was from here in Lanzhong. So they call this the birthplace of the New Year. Now, the actual Chinese New Year is coming up so quickly, the whole town is basically red. Let's take some photos and capture the New Year's vibes. So let's get moving around Lanzhong. Boss, how much is this ice? Okay, give me one. How are you? Good, how are you? Behind me is Zhongtian Tower, which sits right in the geometric center of Lanzhou ancient city. This place was very, very important in times gone past, and it actually served as the capital of the whole province of Sichuan. So we're just walking through the town, and this is going through a little New Year's parade. And these guys in the middle, the old dudes, are the old men of New Year, and they walk through and give out Hongbao. Good morning. Lanzhong has an important segment in the history of the Three Kingdoms period. The senior general, Zhang Fei, actually ruled here for seven years and is buried here. And around, there is a temple dedicated to him. So, let's try and find it. Zhang Fei was a sworn brother of the King Lu Bei during the Shu Kingdom, and he was known as a fierce warrior with a short temper, but always very loyal. And in this hall, we have all of his achievements, different statues of him doing different deeds. The whole ancient town was built in accordance to feng shui principles, with the mountains surrounding and the Jiangling River, almost totally encompassing the whole city. Right at the back of this temple, some really nice gardens. Very quiet, just hear the birds chirping. And some really, really old tablets, I guess these are called. Some ancient writing carved onto them. So, you cannot come to Sichuan and not try some local douhua. So, this is like tofu, and these little street vendors do it. And this guy's lovely dressed up. Mm, very soft tofu, sort of like almost soupy, there's so much sauce in here. Lots of flavor, and not bad, only five RMB. Here we have some ancient doors, and painted on them are the door guardians, these old door gods, and they would keep evil spirits out. And there's a tradition around here, no longer do they use these painted doors. Instead, they paste a picture of the door gods the night before the spring festival. And that is to bring good luck and prosperity into the new year. So, I saw this local uncle doing this really cool hand thing, making noodles. I videoed it a little bit, so out of courtesy, I will try their noodles. I'm getting quite full walking around here in Sichuan. Is this what you guys do all day? What kind of noodles is this? This is sweet potato flour. Sweet potato flour. Yes, yes, sweet potato flour. And I asked for a little bit spicy, this is Sichuan, a little bit spicy. It's totally red. So, this restaurant has been open for 16 years. It's just a little family restaurant. And they're very, very friendly. So hot. And they're literally freshly made. They just finished this batch. It's a little bit spicy. Very tasty, very original Sichuan flavor. Wow, so look at this local shop I've just come across. It's all like door knockers. And we saw the little paintings on the doors earlier, so what a good memento this would be. So, in ancient days, these would have been on every single door to knock and see if anybody was in. And this is used to lock them together. It's almost like a door lock as well. They don't need these anymore, so they're just purely for decoration. It'll look good in my apartment, right? Pretty cool. Maybe in my office door, I can put one. Can you put them inside? A lot of places in China, all the sort of souvenirs are the same. A lot of fridge magnets. A lot of little wooden things. But these door knockers, pretty cool, right? You don't get that everywhere you come in China. So in Lanzhong, obviously because of the long history, there's a lot of culture and art and folk things here. It's very famous for the Sichuan opera. Unfortunately, it's not on. But they do have a puppet show. So let's go and see the old school puppet show. Puppet shows like this one telling stories have been going on in Lanzhong for over 360 years. Long history. Hey, there he is. There's Guangyu. Okay, so they just said they're doing a disco. If you want to go and join in, you can go join. Oh. It's actually quite a pity because there's only four people watching that whole performance. I think it's important for people to keep in touch with the old traditions. More people should come and watch, right? What do you guys think? Especially Chinese New Year. Very traditional time. Pass it on. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, it's nice to meet you. Me too. I hope you have fun in Lanzhong. Thank you. I hope you have fun in China. Okay, thank you. Welcome to Lanzhong. Okay, thank you. Bye-bye. Okay, we're leaving. Bye-bye. And to finish up the day, we've came across the Jiangling River to the lantern show here. Lanterns are very important during this time of year because they symbolise the wish for a bright future and the ward off darkness. Let's go inside and take a look. What I really like on this phone is up here, you can turn on live photos. So basically when you take a photo, one second before and one second after it saves it. So you can actually see, you can play it and it's a little video. So it's way more like dynamic, way more like live moments. And you can also post this on your social media. Choose nine and just post them. So somebody's running about, playing with your dog, all these things. It's like a mix between photos and videos. It really brings it to life. And when you look back, stores your memories very good. In ancient times, paper lanterns were used and they would light a candle inside to give off this red glow. But nowadays with modern technology and everything advancing so much, we have all these like amazing different styles. These are now the style of lanterns that you see everywhere. And this here, we have a snake lady. Why? The year of the snake. And there we have it. That was our day here in Langzhong, a very nice place. And what better place to enjoy the Chinese New Year than the birthplace. Lots of history, lots of culture, lots of speciality foods, and lots of red. The whole town feels like it's just decorated in red. So I wish you all a very happy Chinese New Year and best wishes for the year of the snake. 恭喜发财! 身体健康! 都签在你的口袋里! Okay, see you on the next one. Bye bye!