cacophony.all day i've been walking through the mountains or hills or pillars of karst in guilin, astounded by the beauty of these crazy rock formations. every so often, with increasing frequency, my wonder would be interrupted by what sounded like machine-gunfire.
today, just now in fact, the chinese calendar has turned to the year of the pig. pretty fitting for a mcswiney. that has meant an abundance of firecrackers going off during the day, culminating in a huge fireworks display at midnight.
as opposed to the us, where each city has one concentrated show, chinese citizens take matters into their own hands. throughout the day, i would see boys lighting single firecrackers and throwing them into the streets. people would light strings of firecrackers from balconies, and fireworks were for sale everywhere.
at about 11:45 tonight, things reached a crescendo. as i sat inside my hostel avoiding the rain with my fellow travelers/english teachers, thousand of firecrackers seemed to all go off at once. we couldn't hear ourselves talk over the din. i went outside, and there were fireworks all around me. i found a place near some shorter buildings, plugged my ears, and watch the show erupt around me.
after a few minutes of spectating, the neighborhood i am staying at got into the mix, and fireworks began to go off directly over my head. i love how china has no worries about health and safety. luckily, it was rainy, so nothing was gonna catch on fire.
i took as many pictures as i could, but i soon realized that if i was going to try wait until the fireworks were over, i wouldn't get any sleep. so i came here and blogged instead.
happy new year!
xin nian kuai le!
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