China Update #4 - Chinese New Year

March 10th, 2012 - 

Hi there folks and happy march.....couldn't come any sooner in this part of the world, as we have just ended 15 straight gloomy days of rain....february was rainy, cold and grey....everyone is commenting on how this is the worst winter shanghai has seen since the late 70's....i guess i am just lucky to be here for it ;)  but the sun was out today and i am trying to catch up on my inability to stay on top of my blog....sorry about that....but maybe it was the gloom.....who knows....

just over a month ago was Chinese New Year here in asia....the beginning of the year of the dragon....and the end of the year of the rabbit.....i decided to stick around shanghai for this holiday, seeing that i had just gotten back from three weeks in japan and the whole fireworks thing here sounded like a true adventure.....i have to say there were certain nights that completely lived up to the hype and i am sooooooooo glad i stayed in town......on with the shots.....

 
 this first shot is from school....we had a HUGE chinese new year (cny) assembly, organized by our mandarin teachers, who rock!!!! we had a dragon and lion dance to kick it off...this is the group that did all of those things and obviously this part is the dragon part....it was a cool dragon and they ended up getting folks from school to hold different poles of the dragon and parade around the field.....yellow and red are featured a lot in cny....red for good luck and happiness, while yellow is for good luck too and was the color that emperor's robes were made of.....these two colors are everywhere.....

these are the lions....the lions are controlled by two people, and the dragons can be as long as 50 people....i was told it was an interesting group presenting, as the two people in the yellow lion were actually girls.....i guess this is not normal for the lion dance, but i am not sure why....i did learn that the lion dance actually comes from india, but the chinese have now added it to their celebrations....the lion dance is done to keep away evil spirits in the coming year....i am hoping it works for me :)

not only did we have a lion and dragon dance, but then the same troupe came and did acrobatic stuff and they were amazing....unfortunately my camera was not able to take the pictures fast enough of the acrobats in action,  plus i wanted to watch them....but i was able to get the girls playing with the chinese yo-yo....i saw the same things when i lived in ecuador...i guess they are just played with everywhere in the world....these girls were amazing....but i wish i had the boys group to show you...their costumes made them look like flash....yes, the super hero....it was awesome!!!! and boy were they flexible.....

the festival of cny actually lasts for 15 days...and the first night and the fifth night were the ones i went scouting for fireworks...the first night because that is new years eve here.....the shots above and below are from that night....it was FREEZING out, but that did not stop me and a friend from finding the best show we could....we went to the front of one of the oldest seafood restaurants here in shanghai and they had a show all ready to go....these guys lighting the fireworks were crazy....i got hit with stuff flying through the air and from pieces falling from the sky...it was amazing and i loved it....

sorry for the blurry shot...but i just wanted people to see the boxes of fireworks and what they look like when they are going off....it was freakin insane....these guys had stacks of boxes....they would light the first fuse with a cigarette...it would come to the end of the box and they would kick it off of the bottom box and light that one....these things were firing for a solid half an hour....at one point i  was yelling because it was so loud to my friend...and he couldn't hear me over the fireworks....from where we were standing we could see at least eight other launching sites....it blew the fourth of july  away(especially cape may's last year)!!!!!!

 this is what the empty box looks like after they have been launched....now picture this at waist high for some of the fireworks you can buy....it is insane....you can actually buy them based on how much of your arm they can blow off.....insane i tell you.....these were small ones...only could take off your fingers.....these chinese know their fireworks i tell you.....i have never been in a war zone...but this is what this experience reminded me of from movies and such...although i did not have the feeling i was going to die...which i was thankful for.....

during cny everyone is off work.....except many restaurants, as this holiday is about fireworks and eating...but at the beginning of the festival, even restaurants are closed so workers can go home to their families....we were out one day and wandered through a very crowded park....on the sidewalk was this man...painting chinese characters on the stone....with water....so it would not deface the sidewalk....i have no idea if he was writing a poem or ranting about unfair wages or wishing everyone a happy cny (xin nian kuai le!).....but how cool is it that he could do that and not worry about getting in trouble....the water dries and nothing can be seen.....i hope it was a poem...but you never know...

one of the nights in town i actually did a stay-cation.....i stayed at a night, very tall hotel (i was on the 34th floor) hotel for one night to enjoy their pool and sauna and feel like i went away....i did this with some friends for money god night.....the other crazy fireworks night and i lived it up....as the sun was going down we went to the top of the hotel...the 91st floor to take pictures.....we actually got off on one of the floors of the bar and no one was there....so we had this view at sunset literally to ourselves....in this shot you can see my favorite building - the marriott, the pointy one on the left, and you can see all of the air pollution....blech....it really is gross here for that....and when people catch colds or sinus infections, they are really hard to get rid of...i have now had a cold for the past two weeks....so annoying....

this is a view of the other side of the hotel....now you are facing the Bund...and the lit up street on the left hand side is nanjing road.....where everyone here goes to wander and shop....at times it is soooooo packed....but not this night....everyone was making their way to yu garden for the fireworks....which we saw from a rooftop bar and they were incredible....

here's the view we had of the Bund from the rooftop bar....if you look at the walk way next to the river, you will see there is no one there...i have never seen this like this before...ever....this is the edge of shanghai with the old colonial style buildings and some of the most prestigious places along the water...we actually went to the long bar at the waldorf astoria earlier in the evening...la dee dah....they had oysters there that had been flown in from around the world to their oyster bar....this happens every day...i just wonder what they do with the "day old" oysters....it was crazy

here's a shot from the rooftop bar at the roosevelt...looking out into pudong....you have the pearl tower on the left and the shanghai world financial center on the right (the building that looks like a bottle cap opener)....what was really cool were all of the fireworks going off around the buildings...they made some amazing reflections....this night of fireworks is given especially to the money god....it felt like there were even more fireworks on this night than new years eve...but who can be sure....they were also launching lanterns from around the pearl tower.....it was so pretty...but i didn't catch any here....oh well....more lanterns are below...

this is one of my favorite shots of the week, as it is a firework going off between buildings...it looks like the firework is coming from the building....but luckily that was no longer allowed a few years ago...the crazy chinese used to launch fireworks from their balconies...like the box above...they would light it and drop it off the balcony....caused a lot of damage to buildings and people....so its no longer allowed....

this is the front of the hotel i stayed at for the night....i love the lanterns...and they literally are everywhere in the city....lanterns are specifically lit for the god of natural disasters....this is one of the myths about why lanterns are flown....supposedly the lantern was used to please this god who ruled over the heavens and if the festival was good enough...no natural disasters or bad luck would happen for the year....i just like them because they are colorful and really brighten up everything.....

 the last night of cny is actually when the lantern festival happens and the largest lantern display is at Yu Yuan (yu gardens) they actually line the entire area - known as china town - and people come from all over shanghai to see this display at night because they are all lit up....the buildings in the area are decked out with red and gold and emperors and money - the gold things you see above that look like boats or hats, are representations of gold bars used in the past as money....you can get this shape in candy too, and i got some for my students....can't really say what the candy flavor was, as it wasn't chocolate and it wasn't caramel...but it was something like caramel....but i gave them the candy coins and that's all they needed for fortune to be had.....supposedly....

inside of the gardens is the very famous zig-zag bridge that goes over a pond that stilt buildings are in....its a very pretty garden and is always crowded...however, i had no idea just how crowded it could get....lets just say some elbows were thrown by me and at me by those little old chinese ladies....simply amazing how many people can be in one spot....through out the walk across the bridge are all of these blown up figurines and dragons and myths....i loved this one poking his head out of the greenery....

and then it gets dark and all of the different shaped lanterns along the alleys get lit up....i really liked this view with the chinese characters, even though i have no idea what they say.....this was right as the lights started coming on.....

even the "balloon" myths get lit up along the zig zag bridge....this was the story of the turtle at the beginning of the world...i don't know the entire myth...but these things on the water were really pretty...even if it was rainy and there were hundreds of people there :)

 this was my favorite set of lanterns in the alleyways....i loved the kissing fish on the left hand side....

and in this shot you can see just how many lanterns there were...and this is just one of the alleys...you can see the buildings in this area of chinatown (really, that is what they call it) are in old world style, like those in the forbidden city in beijing....and they are all lit up....so pretty....and my pictures don't even do it justice.....

this was the entryway to yu gardens....as you can see the lanterns were sponsored by pepsi...which you really don't see a lot of here....this set of characters was wishing everyone a very happy cny....sorry for the blurry spot...it was still raining at this point....which gave the place a hazy feel to it....i loved it....even if the cab we tried to have take us back home wanted to charge us 100 kuai (about 17 dollars)....total rip off....we eventually found one that would use the meter...and even on a rainy night with lots of traffic, we made it back for about 35 kuai (6 dollars)...gotta love that....

this last shot was my favorite building in the area of yu gardens....i just loved the architecture and the lanterns and the color....just so pretty all lit up....


so that was my cny here in shanghai this year.....i probably will not stay for next year's new year...but you never know...i have been told that some of the new year festivals in vietnam are pretty darn amazing and maybe i will need to get there....we'll see....but it certainly was worth it this year....

my next installment will be some stuff from shanghai that i have been doing the past month or so...but i will not spoil it before you get the pictures.....i am headed to singapore in three weeks for spring break, which i am very excited about....just a four day trip...and then i am back to meet a friend who is coming to town and we are headed to beijing for part of the week....i am actually going to see if we can stay on the wall for a night....in a renovated school house...how cool is that :)

i hope that all of you are well and that your winters/summers are coming to a good close...i have to say i am really excited to see the sun again....although i have been told that sometimes spring only lasts a week before it is HOT like the summer...but we'll see what happens....

happy spring/fall equinox this month, based on where you live and all the best....drop a line and let me know what you are up to :)
have a fab day :) 
dani