By William Dey-Chao
wdeychao@yahoo.com

Spring Festival, also know as Chinese New Year was always a time of great excitement for me because, like may Chinese citizens, it is the time of the year when I return home to Puerto Rico in order to visit my family and escape Beijing's cold weather. This year however I have decided to stay and experience Chinese Spring Festival in Beijing and choose to spend the first day of the Year of the OX at Happy Valley which is a very popular theme park in the Southeast of Beijing.

In the beginning, I was a little skeptical about how much Chinese tradition and culture could I experience from visiting an amusement park whose themes included the Ant World, Mayan Empire, Atlantis, Shangri-La and a magic Forest, however once I got there my expectations were more that met.

Just as I and my companion entered Happy Valley theme park we were instantly greeted by an army of Chinese bronze, silver and golden statues and several other characters that made us feel as if we where instantly transported into a magical world where there is only laughter and excitement. We could not help but feel like we have been instantly transformed into kids again.

We first headed to the world of Shangri-La where we were going to enjoy a number of Chinese traditional acts. Once we got there we found a small area in which a traditional Qigong demonstration was about to begin. My companion and I joined a large group of visitors that could only stare in awe observing how a group of Qigong experts climbed a tower of blades and walked on hot steel plates in order to demonstrate their mastery of this traditional Chinese practice.

Afterwards we moved to a larger stage where a less suspenseful but equally entertaining performances were about to take place. It was on this stage that we enjoyed a display of various traditional Chinese performances that according to my companion and several people in the audience came from the various different regions and minority groups of China.

The show began with a large group of colorful performers playing a traditional Chinese drum, to a rhythm that was more than contagious. After the drums performance a group of Chinese Kung Fu performers displayed their ability to handle various form of traditional Chinese weapons including staffs, spears and swords. Then a group of larger performers showed their strength and prowess in handling incredibly heavy weapons of the likes used by ancient traditional characters like Lord Guang from the traditional Chinese novel Romance of The Three Kingdoms. After the more adrenaline pumping performances the showed relaxed a bit with a beautiful display of Chinese Taichi and an amazing performance of traditional stilt dances and acrobatics that made the audience forgets about the cold weather.

Then we moved to the Ant world where a huge parade, that included all the traditional Chinese performers and most of park's colorful characters, was about to begin. There was a lot of dancing and very brief intro to of all the acts, which was repeated all over the park. After following the parade for a bit we decided to enjoy some of the parks attractions like the haunted house, and several other entertaining games.

After enjoying for several more hours the rest of the park we finally headed to the world of Atlantis were the Fire Dragon was about to appear. This performance was by far one of the most enjoyable performances I have seen during my 2 years in China.

The main event started first with a traditional Chinese drums performance followed by an amazing display of Chinese acrobatic and exciting fire breathing performers and dancers. Then the show temporarily jumped out of the magic world into reality and modern times with a enjoyable dance choreography that seemed taken out from a Jay Chou video which suited the more teenage crowds. Then we returned to the magical world will finally the entire park's characters came down singing and dancing for the crowd. An in the spirit of all good Chinese tradition the show ended with an amazing display of fireworks that left the people wanting for more.

In general the park's environment was very warm (although the weather was a bit cold), with very cheerful and helpful staff and a very clean environment. The food is pretty good ranging from soup containing noodles made right before your eyes, Chinese style food and other more international options like hot dogs, popcorn and cotton candy all at very affordable prices.

The overall experience was an unforgettable one filled with fun, excitement mixed with Chinese tradition and culture. Happy Valley successfully managed to integrate aspects of modern entertainment like amusement park rides and Hi-Tech shows with a good dose of Chinese traditional performance that successfully appealed to the young and old alike. Although, many of the park's ride where not operational during my visit, there were so many performances to see that we spent 95% of the 8 hours we were in the park enjoying all the shows and left us with an opportunity to come back another day to enjoy the rest of the attractions.

William Dey-Chao, 27 years old, was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is a beautiful island in the Caribbean.  He's a full-time Strategy Consultant for The Beijing Axis which is an South African company established in Beijing which specializes in China Business Solution to and from China.