February 18, 2007

Chinese New Year...
Happy Chinese New Year! It's the year of the Golden Pig, not just the Pig, but the Golden Pig! I don't know what that means, but it only happens every 60 years.

I was hoping to see dragon dances and stuff here in Shanghai, but there weren't any that anyone knew of. Instead there were fireworks and firecrackers everywhere. Literally everywhere. They started at 6PM last night and went until 2AM, then they started again at 6AM today and they'll go all day long. Literally everywhere you looked there were fireworks -on the street, between giant skyscrapers, being thrown out apartment windows. Everywhere! It was incredibly loud at midnight, and the streets filled with smoke from all the gunpowder.
I must admit that I wondered how many people in a country of 1.3billion got injured because some people were quite reckless with the fireworks. In some ways walking through the street was like being a soldier in a WWII trench -there was smoke everywhere, coloured lights flashing above the buildings, bangs and pops all around, you never knew where the next one will explode, people shouting, firecrackers that sound like machine guns, and people selling ammunition/firecrackers from every street corner. It was quite something to experience.
In the words of a Chinese lady who shouted at us off the back of her boyfriend's motorcycle "Happy Chinese New Year!"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

for us, firework and firecrack has been forbidden for so many years.but our parents can enjoye these activities at past.Maybe they can bring a lot fun to people of that generation,or more.
so at first time,they behave a little crazily.

Stephen said...

That makes sense, it was a little crazy! Very fun to watch, but I still wonder how many people were injured.

Stephen said...

I just read that for the past 10 years fireworks have been banned by the Central government, and that it was just last year that they were allowed again during Chinese New Year