THE MOON CITY

A man with trained mice at the East Peak Temple Fair, Feb. 10, 2013. Chinese New Year is the time of year when Beijing empties out but for me it’s the best time of the year. The halved population makes for empty streets and subways. In recent years, the city has also seen an upsurge in temple fairs and performances of traditional dance, music and martial arts. I look at this year’s festival in this blogpost for the New York Review of Books.