Happy Niu Year!

(Niu being the Chinese word for Ox) Happy Year of the Ox!

I have survived my first full Chinese New Year. Phew. I must admit, despite years of studying Chinese and China relations, I hadn't the first clue about the cultural traditions surrounding China's most sacred holiday. Here's what I expected: People in dragon costumes dancing down the street as everyone stands along side streets cheering it on and lighting firecrackers. Blame it on my San Francisco Chinatown experience for being culturally unaware but there were no dragons in site and NO PEOPLE! For a city of 18 million in 2450 sq.m (by comparison: LA is 10 million in 4000 sq.m) this is no easy feat. This has to do with a few reasons- many of Shanghai's residents are migrant workers from the countryside who have come in search of better work and better pay and return home for the weeklong national holiday. Also the city felt empty simply because families stay inside together and eat and watch holiday programming much like the West does on Christmas.

Rohan and I banded together with the few other friends who also stayed in town for a lovely dinner at the JW Marriott where we sat before a 360 view of the city from the 64th floor. From here we had the perfect perch to watch the city-wide fireworks show that was to come later. Now, its no secret that I am not the biggest fan of Chinese food, even still after nearly a year here. But I thought what the heck, it's Chinese New Year, a nice hotel, it must be good. When in Rome, right? I won't say anything else about it now except that my views have not changed and may have even been strengthened following a menu that included...pigeon and fried condensed milk. Enough said.

What I was not at all expecting was the magnitude of fireworks and firecrackers being lit across the city. In the States we are so weary of using firecrackers and fireworks because every year the local news channels run stories of little Billy losing his fingers from playing with illegal firecrackers. To this China laughs. It is an unspoken competition every year between the different housing complexes as to who has the bigger and better fireworks display. There is no government sponsored display so everyone takes to the streets with their own. Shanghai is not a spread out city like LA is, it's more Manhattan-esque with apartment and office buildings towering 35+ stories- EVERYWERE. So imagine the wonderment of colorful fireworks going off in between building after building as far as the eye can see for hours on end. I tried taking pictures but they would do no justice. "But Nicole, isn't that dangerous!?" you ask? YES! It is.

This happened in Beijing on the final evening of the Lunar Festival. The newly iconic CCTV complex (dubbed 'The Trousers') saw an incomplete building, which was soon to be the Mandarin Oriental, catch on fire from wayward fireworks that had been launched from an observation deck. (Note: there was no coverage of this in China. All news of the fire comes from international media outlets as many China blogs covering the fire have been blocked or frozen.)
The luxury hotel was supposed to open in Spring but work had been delayed due to the slowing economy.

So the 15 days of the lunar festival are over and hopefully along with it the fireworks and firecrackers at all hours. It was widely noted by several friends who have been here many years that this year was significantly quiet compared to years past, which is crazy to think of since I thought this year was nuts! It looks like the economy has claimed yet another victim.