An Untraditional Chinese New Year

We have never seen so many fireworks in our life.  They started off and on last week and then came to a climax on Saturday night at midnight.  But they have not stopped.  Celebration of the new Lunar Year takes time.  Something must have been significant about last night because there was another big build up of fireworks going all night long.  I am not kidding, it really sounds like you are in the middle of a war.  It reminds me of when Brad Pitt travel across Beirut in Spy Games.  There I go basing my reality on movies again. 

Last night I woke up to loud bangs outside a few times.  Luckily we are heavy sleepers because if we were not, I think we would not be able to sleep all night long.  According to our driver, this firework extravaganza should last about two weeks.  Unreal…  And the crazy thing is that none of these fireworks shows (that we can tell) are put on by the government.  It is all just people going to the fireworks stands and buying elaborate fireworks and lighting them off in the streets.  Apparently there was a ban on the fireworks last year so people are going crazy with them this year fulfilling their firework void in the Year of the Dog. 

As you can see from the picture above, Andy joined in the fun.  He thought he had bought some really big fireworks, and they were, but then a Mercedes pulled up on the street next to him and lit off fireworks twice the size.  The colorful fire seemed to literally be hitting the windows of our apartment and others (and we live on the 35th floor.)  Think Boise River Festival with individual patrons lighting off the fireworks that they bought instead of the city controlling it.  I will also remind you that we have a coal pit across from our apartment.  It was not comforting seeing kids through the finished fireworks over the wall to the coal yard…  According to the Shanghai Daily, 125 people were injured in Beijing from the fireworks.  I guess that is probably comparable to the US on the Fourth of July.  Like I have already said, it was and continues to be unreal. 

Our friends Claudia and Patrick came over for the Chinese New Years Eve.  They had a struggle bringing James, the dog they are dog-sitting over because he was so scared from all of the loud explosions and he did not want to leave their apartment building.  We had them over again last night and the same thing happened.  Last night all four of us had to prod and encourage James with each step and we even had parma ham in case we had to resort to true bribery. 

Both dinners with our friends were very nice and we ordered in from this delivery service “Sherpa” both times.  Indian food on the Chinese New Year (go figure) and Thai food last night.  Also both nights we spent watching the latest episodes of Desperate Housewives.  Andy and I had watched Seasons 1-part of 3 when we first arrived in Shanghai and then after we told Claudia and Patrick about them, they became hooked as well.  Now that we have both finished the box-sets, we have to download the latest episode on iTunes.  It really is a bummer having to wait an entire week for a new episode.

So yes, besides the fireworks, we probably did not spend our Chinese New Year in a traditional way.  While all of the Chinese were with their families watching some famous television/variety show that plays all night long, we were eating Indian food and watching Desperate Housewives with James, the golden retriever.