Daft Punk or just China Celebrating the New Year?
the temple
A few nights ago we went out on the town and celebrated the last night of the Spring Festival. This marked the final day of fifteen in which the Chinese celebrate their lunar new year. We traveled on the subway to the southern end of the city to attend a lantern festival. I’m not entirely sure that we actually found the festival we were looking for, but we did end up at an enormous gathering near a magnificent temple. The most impressive part of the entire ordeal was the light show. Green lasers covered the night sky, while others shot Chinese characters onto the front side of the temple. The gathering extended out over a lengthy walkway that was lined by trees covered in Christmas-type lights. It was very impressive and proved to produce some of the most interesting pictures. Those who have seen these pictures have asked if I was at a Daft Punk show. It felt like that just without the music.
Awesome lasers!!
In addition to the impressive laser show, the night sky was relentlessly filled with fireworks. I learned that the Chinese invented fireworks—they were showing off a bit on that night. Everywhere we walked on brought more and more of every kind of firework you can imagine. The city had so much fun that the hotel next to Beijing’s newest architectural achievement, the CCTV tower, caught fire. I haven’t been able to read much on this as I think the government is censoring most of the news on the internet about it.
from the end of the walkway
It will be interesting to see how the city is after this. Each day we have been here has been a day of the Spring Festival. We have yet to experience what working Beijing is like… I’ll update on the changes!
Wow….what a light show!
Matt-
It looks like you are having a great experience over there! Keep up the good work-
Kat