beijing okay

新年快乐! Happy New Year!

The Chinese are INSANE with their fireworks, and some guys actually placed bottle rocket types on their side so they shot randomly into crowds of people. (honestly) The air was hot with smoky, gunpowdery smog which stung your eyes and made you cough. It was INCREDIBLE, more like a war zone than anything else, with MANY ambulances running by and police and military men constantly on alert. There were basically six types of fireworks:

1) Very Chinese firecrackers that are red little sticks of dynamite on a string that pop extremely loudly with just a few sparks and last a LONG time.
2) Bottle rockets that people hold really casually or stick into the ground.
3) Beautiful long strands on a single string that wave vigorously while they burn and let off incredibly white light.
4) Small mini bombs that simply EXPLODE very, very loudly and scare the shit out of you.
5) "Traditional" style firework cannons that burst in the air.
6) Horrifying, whirling flaming balls that shoot straight at you and make everyone run and scream in terror.

Pictures will be SLATHERED all other this blog, but right now, this computer is too slow to handle any uploading. Tomorrow I'll try to figure it all out.