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Not a traditional Chinese holiday but the festivities have been adopted via Hong Kong, which means that there is a stress on the commercial aspect. High-street stores are bedecked with Shengdan Laoren, the Chinese version of Father Christmas.

Cricket season in Beijing has nothing to do with the genteel English game. The Chinese version involves ruthless antennae-on-antennae action as cricket-fanciers goad their insects into battle in the plastic bowls that serve as gladiatorial arenas. Once the favorite sport of emperors it now takes place in backstreets all over town.

Not so much an art festival as an arts circus, incorporating music, dance, and performance.

Drums thunder and paddles churn up the water as dragon-headed craft compete for top honors. The festival remembers the honest official, Qu Yuan, who, the story goes, drowned him-self 2,500 years ago after banishment from the court of the Duke of Chu. Shocked citizens threw rice cakes into the water to distract the fish from nibbling on his body, hence the wholesale consumption of these delicacies on this date every year.

A reminder that China is still a Communist nation, Labor Day is celebrated with a week-long holiday, which marks the start of the domestic travel season. Shops, offices, and other businesses close for at least three days, and often for the whole week. Don’t plan on doing any out-of-town travel during this time.

Performance festival with an unpredictable mix of Chinese and foreign theater acts.

Four days of home-grown punk, metal, rock, and dance. Venues and dates change from year to year.

The “Water Cube” is a complex of five pools intended to stage the Olympic swimming and diving events. It’s another ground-breaking design, in this case inspired by the formation of bubbles and molecules.