Padd Solutions

So, last night was lantern festival. Last night was awesome.

Lantern festival marks the last day of spring festival, and as far as I could tell was all about lanterns and explosions. You can't go wrong with lanterns and explosions. So, all day everyone had been saying they'd be out at night watching the fireworks and general shenanigans. Me and Tim left our complex and went up the road to meet Rob (English manager at school) and Cheer (his girlfriend) and commenced walking around town. Rob had bought a whole bunch of fireworks. Absaloutely awesome fireworks with no safety rules or anything. Firecrackers that you "strike" like a match then throw, then they explode... big explosions, you wouldn't want it in your hand when it went off. What with Chinese quality control, these were "fun" to use, the fact they had names like "Petards" said it all. Oh, and the box had mickey mouse on it, playing with fireworks, so you know, all nice, fun, and safe. We watched some of the fireworks while walking around then headed to Cheer's apartment where we were made more than welcome by her parents who had a bunch of traditional dishes. Her dad of course broke out his Baijo (roughly translated is wine...but its not wine... just some ~50% proof spirit that tastes like anaseed.) a few toasts of "Gan bei!" and a few shots later and we were back out walking around town. Pictures say 1,000 words, so here's 28,000 words:

^ The bath house opposite our apartment complex. Loads of awesomely lit buildings on the streets of Weinan.

^ Some firecrackers being set off outside the entrance to our apartment complex. A few lanterns too, what with it being lantern festival.

^ Weinan traffic with fireworks going off everywhere. I can't emphasise enough; it was 6hours of NON-STOP explosions. If you weren't hearing bangs of fireworks, there'd be a distant rumble of firecrackers. 6 hours non-stop. True story.

^ There's always plenty of police around Weinan, they don't really do much, I think crime is so minor they just kinda get used to standing / driving around. They seem to just like making noise with their sirens.

^ Erm, a building! I forget what it is, but it was pwetty.

^ The building next to the previous building. This one has a KTV or "karaoke" bar inside. Also, more lanterns.

^ another pretty building, more lanterns.

^ I love this building. The lights glowing through the polution make it look like some evil corporation overlooking the city.

^ Fireworks set off in the courtyard of apartment complexes were exploding next to windows of the higher apartments. Sucks to be them.

^ Quite a cool shot of Cheer, Rob and Tim walking down the street. Flanked by two Chinamen on bikes. Explosions in background. Very hollywood. :P

^ This one is worth enlarging. (click) The red tree is super awesome, and the floor is COVERED with spent firecrackers. These people LOVE their fireworks. Taken in Cheer's courtyard.

^ Same courtyard as above, a big box o' fireworks being let loose. People light them and walk off, not really watching the fireworks, just enjoying the explosions / sense of pyromania.

^ Opposite corner to the red tree, a blue tree! Super rad. I want one.

^ Cheer's parents apartment. Top middle dish is pig foot I think. Tradition lantern festival dish. Needless to say, I passed. The orange was tasty though. Eating orange with chopsticks is different. Thank God it was already peeled.

^ This shows the sheer numbers. EVERYONE was out on the street.

^ I mean, EVERYONE.

^ More people, more lanterns, more police.

^ Did I mention it was lantern festival?

^ more people, lanterns, pretty buildings.

^ More cool trees, and Tim looking sheepish,

^ This street vendor was pretty awesome. Imagine Toffee Apples, then change the apples for various fruit, and shove it on a stick. Biting into hard toffee orange segments, then having the soft orange squirt everywhere was messy.

^ outdoor pool at night. More lanterns.

^ These were pretty rad. Basically mini hot-air baloons. Looked very pretty when there was a few in the sky.

^ View from Rob's apartment roof. Man it's not safe up there, you feel the floor giving under the weight of your foot. Welcome to China.

^ So, in this unsafe environment, we obviously let of copious amounts of fireworks. We're claiming these were the highest fireworks in the city until someone else calls BS.

^ Tim doing his shilouette impression of Batman on a gotham roof. I like the polution, it gives a nice hazy glow to everything.

^ Rob's dog. He has a Chinese name that translates to "Tiger." I'd look it up, but I'm lazy.

and that was Lantern Festival. Super rad.