Hi Liz,
Me too, completely in love with Chinese calligraphy. Any good calligraphy, for that matter - the Tukish arabic "Golden Letters" make me weak at the knees ---->swoooon

So...those are the characters for "Kung hei fat choi" just "happy new year", the character for pig is:

and "Year of the Pig" or “sui ci ding hai” is:



The written language is the same all over China, here we speak Cantonese (well, I can just about manage "taxi cantonese" - very basic) - you were speaking Mandarin, that's very up-market!

By the way the "Mei Yo" bit is the phrase you'll hear all over the Mainland - means
- no, haven't got any, no, you can't have any, no whatever it is we haven't got it and you can't have it. no. no, no.....(tiring place, China Proper!)

So! Lovely warm weather - it's usually much colder this time of year - mists hanging down the mountains and fireworks on the beach. I'm having a couple of days off, and am planning later to take the dog up the mountain at the back of my village for a good long walk.

all the best