On 15 February, the 2022 Spring Festival Meet & Greet for Expats in Haikou was held at the Haikou Talents Home.
The event was held as a cultural exchange to share the traditions of Lantern festival with ex-pats living and working in Hainan. Around 30 guests from different corners of the world attended.
The event was jointly held by the Haikou Foreign Affairs Office and the Haikou Foreign Experts Bureau.
The afternoon kicked off with a visit to the Haikou Talents Home and a welcoming speech given by Zhou Aoshuang, deputy director of the Haikou Foreign Affairs Office.
After the welcome speech, everyone was given the opportunity to share their warm wishes for the festival and discuss lantern festival traditions.
Next came an opportunity to try the traditional Lantern Festival snack “Tang Yuan”.
Tang yuan is basically a glutinous rice ball, typically filled with a sweet filling like red bean paste or black bean paste. The Rice balls are not just a tasty sweet snack, but they also symbolize “reunion” as tang yuan 汤圆 (rice balls) sounds similar to tuan yuan 团圆 (reunion).
Lantern Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar and marks the final day of the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) celebrations.
After a quick sugar rush, everyone was given a Lantern’s Day gift basket of crackers, biscuits and tea then boarded a bus to visit the Meilang Twin Towers.
The Twin Pagodas date back some 800 years to the Yuan Dynasty and are more commonly known as the “Sister Pagodas”, they are located in the southeast of Meilang Village, Meiting Township, Chengmai County, Hainan Province.
Address: 海南省澄迈县美亭乡美榔村东南面
After a tour around the pagodas and of course a group photo, it was time to get back on the bus and head back to Haikou. An enjoyable day had by all!
Haikou Talents Home
The talent station was created to strengthen the management of Haikou’s overseas talents and public service capabilities, and improve the level of foreign-related public services.
The Haikou International Talent Home is an open and inclusive platform and its main function is to strengthen friendship, academic exchanges and promote cooperation between talents, cultures and businesses in Haikou.
Address of Haikou Talents Home: 海口市龙华区滨海大道22号海口国际人才之家
For more information on the Haikou Talents Home please scan the QR code below
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