Time to Eat (gai chifanle)

Down the meandering laneways of Beijing's old quarters can be found the sights and sounds of a way of life on the wane, a life well-trodden and traditional that is gradually being set aside for the brighter prizes offered by urban development and modern living.

Places marked with the details of former times. 

A lively ququ (cricket) rhythmically clicks from a tiny cage inside an open neighbourhood window. A sudden flurry of feathers exploding from a pigeon loft cascade passed a ledge on which gourds, carved as portly Buddhas, recline, laughing and cherubic.

A partly open door reveals Chairman Mao memorabilia. Qing Dynasty-style chairs set around a low tea table on which strong-looking green tea in a glass pot, sunflower seeds and walnuts are arranged ready for a visit.

Details that are disappearing from view.

Not yet a living museum, Nanluoguxiang, one of the best preserved traditional housing areas in Beijing, in Jiadoukou, is home to two sets of eight symmetrically identical hutongs or traditional narrow laneways.

Nanluoguxiang dates to between the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties and has visible reminders of former days that can be found in authentic stone markings and in the structural elements of fengshui (wind, water). Still in use today, fengshui is a system of building positioning in which structures are placed in a relation most favourable to surrounding natural conditions.

Each hutong usually contains between 40-50 siheyuan, or courtyards. A siheyuan can house as many as 30 families.

In past times, a hutong housed a close-knit community of many generations of each family.

Modern times have changed this aspect of traditional Chinese life, but not entirely.

Each Spring Festival, a traditional time of reunion and renewal in China, the old courtyard homes burst with festive preparations and family activities.

The heart of this festivity is found behind steamed-up windows in the Chinese kitchen. Mama (mother), baba (father) and the rest of the family, including xiaohair (little ones), work collaboratively -- between tasting and talking -- to concoct a feast.

On the family table steaming hot jaozi (dumplings) hold pride of place.  Jaozi symbolize a mixture of the Festival's most important ingredients: food, family and togetherness. These haochi (delicious) packages are traditionally eaten by the family on the first and fifth days of the first month of the new lunar calendar.

This year, the new lunar calendar falls on February 9, with festive preparations and reunions beginning on chuxi (New Year's Eve) on February 8. This means jaozi will be made on the eighth, or very early on the ninth, and eaten that day and then again on February 14, according to tradition.

Although at this time of year jaozi fillings used to be restricted to pork, beef and mutton, because of the meat's scarcity during the rest of the year, an abundance of ingredients today means this is no longer so. Jiaozi fillings now include eggs, vegetables and seafood.

Served piping hot, the jaozi are eaten, depending on taste, first dipped in cu (dark rice vinegar), or jiangyou (soy sauce), or, for the more daring, in la (spicy) sauce.

"Spring Festival family traditions are not dying out," Yu Xiufang of the Nanluoguxiang community in Jiadaokou says. "Although young people spend less time on traditional activities than in former times, many others still participate as before."

From New Year's Eve, a Chinese home fills with sounds of festive happiness.

Brothers return home from afar with wives and children. Young daughters come from schools in far off provinces. Until they marry, daughters return to their parent's homes; afterwards, they accompany their husbands to see his family and wait to see their own families from the tenth day of the New Year until the start of the Lantern Festival on day 15. The Lantern Festival marks the end of festivities.

On New Year's Eve, in some homes, while the house teems with new arrivals, everyone breaks into song. A cluttered kitchen is packed with traditional baobei (treasure).

Tanggua (sugar root), labazhou (bean, rice and vegetable porridge mixture), yuanxiao (sticky rice balls with sweet fillings), niangao (slabs of sticky rice), mantou (bread buns), guazi (watermelon seeds) and chunjuan (spring rolls) cover every surface.

Collective laughter blows the cobwebs from the passing year and everyone raises a glass to "Ganbei!" (Bottom's up!) the coming fortunes of the New Year.

High above the roof tiles of the city's historic quarters can be seen the city lights that twinkle like a precious jewel below. As midnight approaches, a collective roar soars into the night-time sky.

"Guonian Hao!" (Happy New Year)

Tradition is wrestled from the arms of progress for another year.