Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Chinese New Year

After a smooth trip back from Taipei to Shanghai, a good night's rest, and a vegetarian hot pot New Year's Eve dinner with Sun-Ling's parents, we hopped on the metro and headed over to Sun-Ling's sister's 25th floor apartment in Pudong to watch the fireworks. We were not disappointed.

As we arrived at the complex entrance around 9:30PM, we paused for several minutes to watch some fireworks being shot off the gate - no fireworks allowed inside the complex. From the 25th floor we had great views both north and south. Although we could not see the official display in People's Park, we could see hundreds of "personal pyrotechnics" which increased in number and volume as midnight approached.

The show at midnight was awesome. One neighbor, just outside our window, to the south set off a 25 minute long display that easily equaled what most cities in the US do for July 4th. Wow!

The next morning we caught the metro back to Sun-Ling's parent's apartment, arriving just in time for a family lunch - two big tables - at a local restaurant. Everyone was in a good mood with a sunny although cold day for the holiday. After lunch we had Sun-Ling-made tiramisu for her mother's birthday, and took the remainder next door to her Great Aunt's place for more visiting. It was great to visit with relatives we had not seen in the lat four years.

Happy Year of the Dragon to all our families, friends, and readers!!

A short unedited video of the fireworks looking to the northeast.



5 comments:

Crash Eddy said...

Happy New Year of the Dragon to you two on the road. Appreciated your video complete with the popping sounds.

john said...

Thanks Ed for the YotD wishes and for verifying that the video is working/viewable. We are fighting the Great Firewall again so blogging is a rough road. But stay tuned for more video from Taiwan.

Cathy said...

Quite an amazing display!

Kathy said...

Happy Year of the Dragon!

I heard on NPR this is such an auspicious year that the maternity hospitals are getting swamped.

john said...

Thanks Cathy and Kathy for the comments!

Seems that every few years there is a very auspicious year for having babies, the last one being the Year of the Pig in 2007.

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