"Although it looks easy, the process is difficult and demands practice and skill. As a vegetarian, I like vegetarian zongzi; ingredients contain no additives. I like drinking Chinese tea and jasmine tea. I have a Chinese name Chali (2èàò), which sounds like my German name," Charlie Stein, from Germany, tells Shanghai Daily.
One of the traditions of the festival is to ward off pests and illness that became common in the hot summer months. Doctors from the Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital attended the festival to diagnose visitors by feeling their pulse, looking at their tongue, giving health advice and writing personal prescriptions.
"The doctor looked my tongue and asked questions about habits and diet. Then he gave me prescription for tea to drink daily. As soon as I'm back downtown, I'll get the tea prescription at a TCM pharmacy," says Gehl.
The practitioners also showed them how to make sachets filled with aromatic, insect-repellent herbs like bai zhi (angelica dahurica), sweet-flag leaf (calamus) and cang (Chinese atractylodes) as well as cinnabar and realgar, or arsenic sulfide. They are also supposed to ward off evil, dispel illness and bring good luck. The foreigners wore the sachets around their neck or placed them in their pockets.
Yingzhou Village with many ponds has become an "ecological" town famed for its "happy fishermen's life" experience. Old fishing traditions are maintained and the ponds are used to raise fish.
Foreigners wore waterproof suits and carried nets and baskets as they jumped into the water that came above the knee. Fisher taught them how to scoop up the fish without thrashing around and making the water muddy.
"I really had fun fishing. We usually fish with rod and reel, but this is the first time I used a hand net. I caught five fish!" says Hannes Wiech, an exchange student from Germany.
"I also want to try the dragon dance which looks quite cool and requires perfect coordination. Chongming Island with diverse folk customs, traditional culture, simple country living style and unpolluted scenery is such a magnet for me," he adds. "One day is barely enough to enjoy everything in Chongming."
The Bund turns into beach as the temperature reaches high
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