Of course the new year is celebrated the world over but I would guess that rarely with the same enthusiasm as the Chinese. I'm not talking enthusiasm measured in the amount of alcohol drunk, although with a billion people this might well comes to a reasonable score, but more the infectious child like enthusiasm to celebrate. The main indication is for sure the fireworks. Legally fireworks can only be set off in the boundary of Beijing for two weeks a year and they certainly make the most of the opportunity, but more of that later. To the sharp eyed, that's right the new year celebrations last two weeks, although right at the start is the official start of the new year. It is traditional for everyone to head home to see their family over the new year break - which is also a national holiday. This creates predictable chaos for the transport system as more and more Chinese find work away from their home locations. Since we were staying in Beijing we missed out on this fun but talking to people from work it seems that this year was as challenging as ever. So think of Chinese new year as the entire Christmas period rolled into one continuous celebration.
Now back to the fireworks. Basic health and safety takes a back seat to the demand to be able to launch huge fireworks from any flat patch of ground not currently occupied by a building - this includes roads. The first night of fireworks were pretty impressive and we went for a stroll around our apartment to see them in action. For the few days before and during the entire break there were lots of stands set up on many street corners selling officially sanctioned fireworks to the public:
To be clear these are fireworks we would at home hesitate to give to our firemen to set off. While explaining the restrictions someone at work expressed some surprise that with essentially no regulation and 20 million people 'having a go' the odd person actually gets hurt each year. I raised my eyebrows in mock surprise but I think the irony was lost on her. The up side is free firework displays for everyone! There are of course unlicensed fireworks shipped into Beijing as well and it would require some imagination to dream how much bigger they need to be to be outside the law. An indication is that one such shipment exploded on the way into the city collapsing a bridge certainly killing the driver. At the pearly gates I can only imagine he at least claimed to go out with a bang! But back to the fireworks that actually made it safely to be set off. The scale is hard to describe, within only a few hundred metres of our apartment there were several choice sites to set off fireworks, all of them busy. Looking across the city we could see constant local displays competing to be the brightest/loudest. The noise seems to be a big factor in the fun, many of the fireworks are crackers on the ground designed to sound like automatic gunfire. These are very popular during the day as well as the night. which leads onto the next point, firework fatigue. On the first night we were quite excited and enjoyed the display until our eye lids started to droop. We spend a while on our balcony watching the display with a hot chocolate (rock and roll I know but we had all been under the weather including a sleepless Alex) before turning in. Not realizing or indeed caring about the Bolton's need for sleep the noise continued to echo throughout much of the night into the early hours. This was repeated for the next two weeks and we got used to dropping off to the casual sounds of warfare in the background.
Now a note on the locations of the launch sites. We mentioned the roads were perfect surfaces and indeed they were greatly used. Of course the traffic didn't stop at this time but the drivers were careful to avoid any suspicious sparking packages that might cause some serious unentertaining bangs under the car. The side of the river were also good spots and was a good source of flat spots. Now the fact that these are very close to the apartment blocks in our compound did not deter anyone, the sparks of the fireworks often showered the buildings.
Now of course new year is not just about noise and light, although you may be forgiven for thinking that this is the major focus. We also went to one of the temple fairs to see what sort of day time celebration went on. To be honest this was a little bit strange. Firstly it was immensely busy, with people pouring out the subway station and the roads almost grid locked. There were a couple of stages which were showing traditional dances which we hung around to have a look at for a while but the cold soon got us moving again. The main part was lots and lots of market stalls selling reasonably tacky good from plastic swords for children to fairground games.
So with all that said and done the impression of our first Chinese new year was of a casual disregard to health and safety in the name of painting the sky with sparks, much travel exhaustion for locals and an overall feeling of goodwill and merriment. Bring it on next year!
