BBC documentary on Spring Festival eye-opener for West, tear-jerker for China

BBC hosts Si King and Dave Myers enjoy a New Year's Eve meal with a Chinese family. [Photo/Mtime]

Eye-opening traditions

It is hard to miss the meticulous planning that went into the documentary, to the point that in a sense, the series could be viewed as Introduction to Spring Festival 101 for those not familiar with the traditional holiday.

Stories of real lives of people, from both metropolises like Beijing and Hong Kong, to the remote mountains in Yunnan that the Lisu ethnic group calls home, are told by the hosts from first-hand experiences.

Traditions, such as fishing for fat-head carp on Chagan Lake in Jilin province, making 1,200 degrees molten iron dance in Nuanquan of Hebei province, shopping for the right ingredients to prepare for the most important meal of the year on New Year's Eve and planning and rehearsing for a television program watched by 800 million viewers from around the world, are all vividly captured.

"I've been there and done that in 2007 and 2008," Facebook user Mike Chico Bates says of the series. "It was an amazing experience, and the TV show is amazing!"

Josefa Merino from London also had a pleasant viewing experience. "Loved every minute of it," she said.