Sunday Jan 25th (New Year’s Eve)…
I woke up to the sound of fireworks. Fireworks everywhere!
Caitlin and I decided to go see the Shanghai Museum today…the one we tried finding last time and ended up in the art museum instead. We got ready for the day and headed to the subway. We went to peoples square and found it quickly, its amazing how quickly you can get somewhere if you know the right exit to use J The Shanghai Museum is free to everyone and 4 floors of great Chinese history. We saw clay sculptures, a bronze exhibit, a jade exhibit, there is an area on seals, Chinese calligraphy, and Chinese paintings. This is the same museum I went to last time I was in Shanghai, but it is still interesting to see again. I feel like I saw a lot of new things, or I just forgot about things that I saw 2 years ago. I think the Jade exhibit was one of my favorites.
After the museum, we came back to the hotel and quickly had to leave to go out with the class for our pre-arranged Chinese New Years Eve dinner. We went to a place right down the street from campus’s South gate. The food was great. Nice to have another traditional meal and it was just our class so we were able to just relax and enjoy.
Fireworks continued all day and when we got back to the faculty club after dinner we were finally able to see some of the fireworks because it was dark. Caitlin and I stood outside on our window ledge and watched some fireworks, saw a lot of reflections off of the high-rises and heard even more fireworks. We were getting antsy inside so we decided to layer up and go out to People’s Square, East Nanjing Lu, and we eventually made it to the bund. Walking around the city was awesome. The fireworks never stopped. Anyone can buy fireworks and they can be lit anywhere.
It is the year of the Ox so there were Ox statues everywhere. The people walking around were so happy. It was just a great environment to be in. We spent most of the night at the Bund. Most people at the Bund were foreigners. The Chinese people traditionally spend the holiday with their families. The Bund was really busy with eager foreigners with his or her camera and vendors wanting to rip off everyone. When we first got there we saw people lighting these lanterns that ended up flying away from the hot air of the light…like a hot air balloon. The sky was filled with these balloons it was an incredible sight. Caitlin and I decided we wanted to buy one. The vendors weren’t into bargaining The vendor we got ours from tried selling it to us for 50 Kuai right after I heard him sell it to some Chinese people for 20 Kuai, we didn’t let that fly and he sold it to us for the same 20 Kuai price J We asked to borrow some guys lighter and we lit the cube at the bottom of the lantern. As the lantern was about to lift off the police came by and signaled for us to put it down, we passed it off to the guys that were helping us and they sent it up for us (The Police made Caitlin and I nervous). We made our wishes (that is what you are supposed to do when you send one of these up) and our lantern joined all of the others in the sky.
The next couple of hours we just spent hanging out and socializing with people around us. Eventually the city lights and building lights started turn off and at midnight, in every direction, you could see fireworks. It was unbelievable how many fireworks were in the sky. The noise wasn’t as loud as expected because we were in an open area and the sounds weren’t vibrating off of the buildings, but there were a ton of them, and the sky was constantly flashing. It was one of the most impressive sights I have ever seen. I cannot even put into words how magnificent it was to see all of the fireworks in every direction at the same time. It was truly breathtaking. Most of the firework shows lasted about 20 minutes. I later came to find out that most of the fireworks we saw were just form individuals, not a big display show. 4th of July fireworks will never be the same.
New Year’s Eve was incredible. Words do not do this experience justice. I am so glad I was able to personally witness something so important to the Chinese culture. It is such a happy time to be in China J
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