Chinese New Year in China

Sunday morning, I awoke to the sound of a car alarm and explosives. The celebration for the Chinese New Year had begun and the exorcism of demons through fireworks was well underway. All of a sudden there were big stalls set up on corners that from afar look like street food and the closer you got you realize they were selling fireworks! The tradition of setting off fireworks literally anywhere and everywhere for two weeks straight strikes me as the manliest tradition I have come across since the Finnish sport of Wife Carrying, (a man carries his wife through an obstacle course and the prize is her weight in beer.) the only women I have seen holding any fireworks are those selling them.

As far as the eye can see there are the most stunning firework displays I have ever seen, non stop. Sure, I have experienced Canada Day in Ottawa, New Years in London, Fourth of July in Chicago but those displays last twenty to thirty minutes at the most. Here anyone can buy fireworks and set them off anywhere. I look out my window and see guys just holding them in their hands with big grins watching the sparks fly as they shoot it into the air. I feel jaded after the last 36 hours of fireworks, I can hear the whiz of the 'good ones' and maybe I will look out the window, I also know the loudest ones are the least impressive.

Last year I didn't even want to go to the display in London for New Years. I thought, Really what innovations have they done in fireworks? Is it really worth my time with all those people? In Beijing I have seen the future, (technically I am in the future due to the time difference but I will keep at a metaphoric level) they are purple and gold with fabulous shapes, like balloons filled with stardust glittering across the sky. I won`t post a picture because no camera could do it justice! In a city where there are no stars due to insufferable pollution, two weeks of the year the sky is filled with an utter spectacle of beauty like nothing I have ever seen before.

A stroll in Beijing.

As I walk the streets of Beijing I find myself reflecting on homelessness. Here in China, there is virtually no visual 'street people'. I regularly see people employed to do jobs that seem completely irrelevant. For example, today I saw two men mopping a parking lot. I mentioned it to a friend and she said they mop the parking lot every day! This just seems like a completely futile task. As I continue my stroll I observe, normal, general upkeep of the city that I would see in any western country. For example, trees being trimmed. The odd thing is an incredibly large team of men are helping to trim each tree. Trimming trees seems to be pretty straight forward but they are having intense discussions over each branch. Each tree is treated like a community bonsai.

As an outsider it seems as though jobs are being made up so that there is no unemployment. When going to the markets to do some shopping each stall has at least three clerks, it is intimidating because they are all trying to pressure me to buy something but the irony is I can't see the merchandise because the stall is too small to have four people in it. This city is definitely not short of rickshaw drivers, street food vendors or guards. I have never seen more guards in my life and they all just stand there in one spot for hours, guarding.

That being said I see next to no one on the street begging. Coming from San Francisco just a couple months ago where there were countless people begging, shooting up, out of their minds living on the street, I thought then, there just aren't enough jobs out there for these people, the economy is in the toilet it just isn't fair! Alas, China of all places, 40 million people in Beijing alone and nearly everyone is working.

It really is a sight to see, hard working people absolutely everywhere. The strange thing is, watching those men mopping the parking lot this morning with a dirty mop I just couldn't help but think that a job like that is a microcosm of the Chinese culture that I have observed up till now.

I really respect the fact that everyone is working here, how much they are being paid is a whole different blog in itself... I really am in a totally different world and society here. I am just taking it in.