Chinese New Year

Ok, Zach and myself just got back to our place. We made it in one piece. Beijing is like a war zone. Everywhere you look there are fireworks going off. And I mean everywhere!!! Our taxi got hit by some shots! Its 12:30 AM and we are back home....!!! Weird. We were invited to our colleague at 4 PM. Stopped by the local firework shop! and picked up some arms. Quiet expensive...but the Chinese are experts right? Its easy to see that they are the inventors of this stuff. The afternoon was spent in the couch watching a movie and drinking beer. Dinner at 7. And then it started....war was coming to town. The people in the house across the road started up the cannons and the climax came at midnight. I have never seen anything like it. We got out at around 10PM to shoot off our arsenal. Unfortunately it was not enough. So we got some more. Two ribbons with 1000 crackers! Talking about noise!! The hours to midnight was spend watching the New Years Celebrations on CCTV 1. Nice mix of Chinese Opera, stand up comedy and spectacular performances by gymnast and acrobats. Out with the champagne, its the New Year!!! And all hell broke loose....when leaving the building it was overwhelming. Street was covered with burnt out tubes and firecrackers. Trying to get a cab was a like running the gauntlet. People have no sense...fireworks are set off in the middle of the streets and between buildings. It will be interesting to read about the injuries tomorrow in the newspaper. I guess we will be kept awake all night by all these bangs that are going off all around town. / Martin