Original title: Funuan China丨Dutch Jacob with his more than 30 "Chinese New Year".
**SHANGHAI, Feb. 8 (UPI) --
**Reporter Zheng Yingying.
Every Chinese New Year, I'm in China", Jacob von Bisterfeld, a Dutchman, told *** reporters.
Jacob was born in the Netherlands and moved his family to New Zealand when he was young. He came to China in 1992 to work and live and has been there for more than 30 years.
He said he enjoyed being in China because it was a vibrant land, and he was happy to feel the vitality and change of the country's economy and people's pockets growing over the decades.
Jacob (first from right) and his two neighbors welcome the upcoming Chinese New Year of the Dragon with his two neighbors on February 6. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Having lived in Shanghai for many years, Jacob is very busy every year as the Chinese New Year approaches, because there are always friends or neighbors who come to his home in Songjiang District, Shanghai, to give him Spring Festival couplets and other Spring Festival gifts.
And he himself bought nine Zodiac dragon plush toys from ** early.
Look at my nine 'loongs', big and small. He said.
Every year during the Chinese New Year, Jacob decorates the sofa table in the living room with the upcoming zodiac animals. Chinese knots and small buntings were also hung in his residence, which looked festive and full of New Year atmosphere.
Having been in China for more than 30 years, Jacob said he spends his Spring Festival in China, except for returning to New Zealand to reunite with his family on New Year's Day and Christmas.
As a teacher, he is often invited to attend students' New Year family dinners during the Spring Festival, and he told that over the years, he has gone to students' homes in Zhejiang, Hunan, Xinjiang, Guizhou and other places.
Usually this kind of dinner is a family gathering, but I feel very honored to be invited. He said.
No, the New Year of the Dragon is approaching, and he has begun to participate in major dinners again. "I just attended a Chinese New Year party, and there were a lot of kinds of fish, chicken, duck, and my favorite braised pork. He said.
Jacob remembers that when he first came to China in 1992, there were still very few foreigners in China, and he was invited to a Chinese New Year dinner during the Chinese New Year. At that time, the houses in Shanghai were small, the TV was black and white, and the dining table could only accommodate 4 to 6 people, although the food at the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner was much more abundant than usual, but it could not be compared with now.
At that time, Jacob also ran to Yu Garden during the Spring Festival, but according to his recollection, in the early 90s of the 20th century, the most famous high-rise building in Shanghai was the Peace Hotel, and the city had not yet opened the subway, so he took a taxi to Yu Garden.
Another year has come, and in the blink of an eye, he has been living in China for more than 30 years. Jacob recalls the first time he came to China on a business trip in 1984, when China was still poor and the streets were full of bicycles.
In his view, from the changes in vehicles on the road and the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner on the dinner table, people can see how much China's economy has changed in recent decades.
Can China's economic resilience stand the test? For Jacob, who has witnessed decades of dramatic changes in China, there is no doubt about that. He used the words "super" and "unbelievable" to describe China's development over the years.
He is confident about China's future. He said that China has a vast land and a bright future; People have confidence that the economy can do well. (ENDS).
*: China News Network