January 28th is the Chinese New Year. These days, wherever you go in the country, firecrackers and fireworks are talking to you: "Hey, aren't you deaf yet? Alright, I’ll destroy your ears, gimme some time!". The sound of firecrackers is a distinctive feature on Chinese festivals, more than in any other country I have visited. Since there are no laws to supervise these "toys", anyone can sell/buy/fire rockets almost anywhere. But especially tonight, sounds of explosions have started around 5pm and we were told it won't stop until tomorrow morning. Burners will have fun during several days to welcome the Dog Year. Chinese people use fireworks to express the fact of being ready for the New Year, and also to get rid of evil spirits by frightening them. We wanted to spend this evening in Shanghai to see some real kick ass celebration, but we didn’t manage our trip well enough.
Anyway, it is quite fun to live such a joy around us. We studied the event with our Li Laoshi (Teacher Li) in Dalian, before the holiday. Thus, we know the special words to use today. In each coffee shop we get in, each restaurant we leave, we practice our "Xin nian kuai le!" (Happy new year), and the "Wo gei ni bai nian!" (Wish the New Year to the elders).
Who can resist to the firework sell-spots flourishing in every single street? We stopped at one of those; it is hard to tell everything we saw. There are these huge boxes, one meter wide, you can hardly imagine what kind of think it launches in the sky. And there are these colorful tubes, 5 cm diameter, and 1 meter long.
I am looking around for some rockets and missiles while the others buy firecrackers, the small ones, 300 little red crackers linked with one flammable line, how neat it is.. Please imagine Rambo with his machine gun bullets around the neck, make Julien the Rambo and have the bullets red colored, there you are.
It is time to find the best place to burn our crackers. Is this lane good? No, too many trees. Is this street okay? Nah, too crowded. We finally got to a wide square where no one seemed to fire anything: “Great! We will see our fireworks well enough”. As soon as we light up our first firecracker, a policeman comes: “Here, you cannot!”. How on earth did we manage to end up in the only place were this thing is forbidden?? We probably are the best tourist ever.
We head to a narrow street, illuminated by the fireworks burned on its sidewalk. To be clear, when I say fireworks, I am not talking about little glitters. Each family here can challenge the French 14th of July national day celebration fireworks show. But in a dangerous way though. For example, we saw this 10 years old kid borrow his father’s cigarette, run to the huge firework box, light it and return the cancer stick to his daddy. Hence, the box launches 3 war heads straight to the sky and knocks off balance, aiming the sidewalk across the street. The next missile hits a car; the last one hits a building. Who cares anyway, Xin nian kuai le!
The more lately it gets, the more fireworks explode. There is not a single silent second. Around 8pm, you feel like being in Baghdad, in the middle of American/Iraqi riots, explosions sounds surround us. You can grab a Kalashnikov and fire around, kill hundreds of people. Nobody would notice. Thankfully, Mc Donald’s sundae ice creams are here to remind you there is no war going on. The fast food restaurant is also useful to give our ears a rest.
We make it to a park where a lot of people are gathered. The ground is covered by the fireworks’ red paper. We watch happiness around. 3 young guys decide to settle their bombs one next to another in order to fire them at all together. Of course, one of them gets late because his lighter won’t work. He is soon hidden by the white smoke, which is, by the way, allover the city, making the Baghdad illusion truer. “Forget about the guy, we’ll see how he did in that smoke once the fireworks are done exploding”. Alright.
Besides fireworks, Chinese New Year must be traditionaly celebrated with “Jiaozi”s, the meal we call dumpling or raviolis. As we want to be as Chinese as possible, we decided to find a restaurant to eat jiaozi and ended up in a cheap dirty place, the kind we are used to eat at in Dalian. This one was hardcore though: cold solid rice, oil bathed jiaozi. Whatever, lets have this meal short and grab Snickers back to our Hotel.
What a pity Chinese New Year is the busiest day for hospitals. But at least, it is a hell of a celebration achieved in such a happiness we hardly live in Europe.
Wo gei ni bai nian.
Who can resist to the firework sell-spots flourishing in every single street? We stopped at one of those; it is hard to tell everything we saw. There are these huge boxes, one meter wide, you can hardly imagine what kind of think it launches in the sky. And there are these colorful tubes, 5 cm diameter, and 1 meter long.
I am looking around for some rockets and missiles while the others buy firecrackers, the small ones, 300 little red crackers linked with one flammable line, how neat it is.. Please imagine Rambo with his machine gun bullets around the neck, make Julien the Rambo and have the bullets red colored, there you are.It is time to find the best place to burn our crackers. Is this lane good? No, too many trees. Is this street okay? Nah, too crowded. We finally got to a wide square where no one seemed to fire anything: “Great! We will see our fireworks well enough”. As soon as we light up our first firecracker, a policeman comes: “Here, you cannot!”. How on earth did we manage to end up in the only place were this thing is forbidden?? We probably are the best tourist ever.We head to a narrow street, illuminated by the fireworks burned on its sidewalk. To be clear, when I say fireworks, I am not talking about little glitters. Each family here can challenge the French 14th of July national day celebration fireworks show. But in a dangerous way though. For example, we saw this 10 years old kid borrow his father’s cigarette, run to the huge firework box, light it and return the cancer stick to his daddy. Hence, the box launches 3 war heads straight to the sky and knocks off balance, aiming the sidewalk across the street. The next missile hits a car; the last one hits a building. Who cares anyway, Xin nian kuai le!
The more lately it gets, the more fireworks explode. There is not a single silent second. Around 8pm, you feel like being in Baghdad, in the middle of American/Iraqi riots, explosions sounds surround us. You can grab a Kalashnikov and fire around, kill hundreds of people. Nobody would notice. Thankfully, Mc Donald’s sundae ice creams are here to remind you there is no war going on. The fast food restaurant is also useful to give our ears a rest.We make it to a park where a lot of people are gathered. The ground is covered by the fireworks’ red paper. We watch happiness around. 3 young guys decide to settle their bombs one next to another in order to fire them at all together. Of course, one of them gets late because his lighter won’t work. He is soon hidden by the white smoke, which is, by the way, allover the city, making the Baghdad illusion truer. “Forget about the guy, we’ll see how he did in that smoke once the fireworks are done exploding”. Alright.
Besides fireworks, Chinese New Year must be traditionaly celebrated with “Jiaozi”s, the meal we call dumpling or raviolis. As we want to be as Chinese as possible, we decided to find a restaurant to eat jiaozi and ended up in a cheap dirty place, the kind we are used to eat at in Dalian. This one was hardcore though: cold solid rice, oil bathed jiaozi. Whatever, lets have this meal short and grab Snickers back to our Hotel.What a pity Chinese New Year is the busiest day for hospitals. But at least, it is a hell of a celebration achieved in such a happiness we hardly live in Europe.Wo gei ni bai nian.
2 comments:
artical is very enlighting and educational..and inevidable for me not to think and smile how 3 members of United Nation Security Consuls handle the Dogs..Chinese pay lots of respect to dog ...perfect for animal lovers...congratulations..
and this is how Russian hadles.... (from my blog)
Man Kills Wife Over Protest Against Cutting Dog at Their Kitchen
A man from the town of Sudzha in Kursk region, western Russia, has killed his wife, who did not like him cutting a dog at their kitchen, Newsru.com web-site reported.
Nikolai Sanin, 54, killed a dog and brought its corpse home in order to melt the animal’s grease, but his mate Valentina, 50, did not like it and asked him do it at another place. Nikolai went angry and killed Valentina with the same knife he used to do the dog. Soon she died of injuries.
My my o my... first the cows than the dog..whats going on..what do you do with dog grease is another question .Can you imagine someone slaughter a dog in your kitchen. Dont even want to imagine . Poor Valentina..my dear you had to know the temper of your husband. I feel sorry for everybody involved in this news.
and a news from USA....
Nitro the Police Dog Receives a Hero's Sendoff
It was a fitting farewell to a hero who lost his life in the line of duty. Close to 700 human mourners -- mostly police officers plus a number of dog handlers and their canine charges -- attended Monday's funeral for Nitro, a German shepherd police dog who died last month while pursuing a suspected car thief.
After reading kitchen incident in Russia this news makes me feel great.this is a perfect example of fortunate and unfortunate dogs
different people different approach...
for more funny news...
http://sky-and-earth-funnynews.blogspot.com/..
sorry for the long comments
How to underline the importance of human life from one country to another... As in Russia, the dead dog leads to a woman's death, back in the USA, it gathers 700 people. What can I say, education and life standarts settle it all don't they.
I'll wear my red boxers as the tradition defines it and hug the doggie..
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