A look into lives of foreigners in China during Spring Festival

Nelly Min (from the United States)

1. What's your favorite food for Spring Festival?

Dumplings, of course! We are lucky to live in a city with so many great choices for dumplings, not just at Spring Festival, but any time of the year. My favorite dumplings are the ones with vegetables that stay crisp, like at Baoyuan near Liangmaqiao.

2. What would you like to do most during the Spring Festival?

Would have been nice to travel, but Beijing is actually quite pleasant during Spring Festival, as so many people leave the city to visit family in other parts of China. That means crowd-free subways and traffic-free roads all week for us "natives" who stay behind. We will share some traditional Korean rice cake soup with our Korean friends in town, play mahjong and enjoy some leisurely time off.

3. What was the biggest change in your life during the past year?

Learning to use a few new (new for me) apps, with help from Chinese friends and colleagues, has changed my life in the past year, especially two: Didi Chuxing and Maoyan.

One is a private taxi service, much like Uber, and the other is a movie theater app that helps you find movies and theaters around town. You can also buy tickets and snacks, and they are usually much cheaper than at the theater.

Having access to Didi and Maoyan makes living in China so much easier!

I can also add a growing list of other apps: Jingdong and Taobao, Band, Alipay and WeChat wallet. They existed before, but it was only in the last year that I finally incorporated them into my daily routine.