It's Chinese New Year. So much for a parade and a big group of people dressed up as a long red dragon; this is the real deal. You aren't just watching the show; you are literally in the show. It is crazy. It's exactly like the fireworks at the Fourth of July, just a whole lot bigger and much, much closer to the ground. Fireworks are very legal and very plentiful in China, and these aren't just the little noisemakers-and-sparklers kind of fireworks, these are real fireworks. China is the land of fireworks, always has been and forever will be. There are absolutely no words to describe the whole atmosphere of it. Literally everyone is setting off some. In the courtyards, on the sidewalk, off of the roofs of buildings, etc. Our apartment is on the fifth floor, right next to the street that runs through the complex (the perfect place to light fireworks), so we get front-row seats when they explode right outside of our window (sometimes ricocheting off of the sides of the buildings.)
The official celebrations started on Sunday, New Year's Eve. We get two whole weeks off for the New Year, so we had full license to stay up until two in the morning. At around 10 in the evening, they started setting off lots of fireworks. Then it died down, and at about 11:30 it started up again at full force. I could hardly hear my own voice in all of the noise. It lasted for a few more hours. My grandma, who is visiting, is staying in my brother's bedroom, which is on the side next to the street. She said that she was woken a few times by people lighting fireworks in the street.
The last few days, there haven't been too many exciting firework shows, but today (Thursday night) they were doing a big show again. I was already in my pajamas and am too lazy to change back into by clothes to go outside, so I stuck my head outside the window to watch. They were lighting rockets in the middle courtyard of our complex, and, behind those, I saw ones being lit in the complex across the street. I also saw them being reflected off of the building to my right from where more were being launched on the other side of our building. I closed my eyes and pretended that there was a big thunderstorm, just for fun. The big fireworks were the thunder and the little crackling ones were the rain. It also helped that it had been raining hard earlier in the day, so rain still was dripping off of the side of the building and onto my head.
In short: Chinese New Year is absolute insanity. There's no way to describe it with justice; just come here and see for yourself
The official celebrations started on Sunday, New Year's Eve. We get two whole weeks off for the New Year, so we had full license to stay up until two in the morning. At around 10 in the evening, they started setting off lots of fireworks. Then it died down, and at about 11:30 it started up again at full force. I could hardly hear my own voice in all of the noise. It lasted for a few more hours. My grandma, who is visiting, is staying in my brother's bedroom, which is on the side next to the street. She said that she was woken a few times by people lighting fireworks in the street.
The last few days, there haven't been too many exciting firework shows, but today (Thursday night) they were doing a big show again. I was already in my pajamas and am too lazy to change back into by clothes to go outside, so I stuck my head outside the window to watch. They were lighting rockets in the middle courtyard of our complex, and, behind those, I saw ones being lit in the complex across the street. I also saw them being reflected off of the building to my right from where more were being launched on the other side of our building. I closed my eyes and pretended that there was a big thunderstorm, just for fun. The big fireworks were the thunder and the little crackling ones were the rain. It also helped that it had been raining hard earlier in the day, so rain still was dripping off of the side of the building and onto my head.
In short: Chinese New Year is absolute insanity. There's no way to describe it with justice; just come here and see for yourself
1 comment:
Sounds awesome!
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