Someone shoved me in the back while I was trying to figure out what exactly was being cooked in the huge vat of boiling oil. Scorpions, fried to a crisp on long skewers. I couldn't stop long, the crowd just wouldn't allow it.

PINK PANTHER: Temple fair time in Beijing is a journey into a carnival that never lets up (FRANCISCO LITTLE)

It wasn't the noise so much as the feeling of being in a strait jacket and moving involuntarily in a human tidal wave.

In Beijing, Spring Festival just isn't Spring Festival without a visit to a temple fair. It's an ideal way to dive into Chinese folk culture and enjoy the carnival atmosphere with all the bargaining of a market. But it's not an outing for the faint-hearted.

Having been around for at least a thousand years, some fairs have kept their traditional link with religious rituals. In Ditan Park (Temple of Earth), people rush blindly to the center of the park, clutching three incense sticks and bowing elaborately three times before the fire at the altar. It was the place where in days gone by only the emperor would stand, as he offered his sacrifices to the God of the Earth for blessings on the Middle Kingdom.

"I don't really believe in these religious rituals as they are just some kind of superstition," said my friend Li Yongmei. Saying that didn't stop her from scrambling up to the altar to ask for fortune in the year ahead.

"For just in case," she smiled. I got it, better safe than sorry, right?

Right. Near the altar a performer was hitting all the high notes in a Peking Opera recital. Onward, ever onward. As we moved, I almost had my face squashed against the protruding plump bum cheeks of a toddler riding on her dad's shoulders. She was wearing a pair of those ventilated trousers that have easy access for toilet functions. Her little cheeks were apple red, seemingly frozen on such a chilly morning.

An entire goat on a spit, Mongolians in cowboy hats tempting the crowds with their skewered lamb, a woman smacking squid to flatten it against a sizzling grill--the air swam with smoke. This was snack heaven. People made small islands among the flowing mass munching on an unimaginable variety of snacks. The ground was a trellis of dumped wooden skewers. I was busy slurping my sesame porridge when I saw Li waving me over.