It was the ultimate fireworks experience! No pyrotechnics show I've ever seen comes close to the awesomeness that is a Chinese New Year fireworks extravaganza. And from what we are told, it was actually tame compared to last year. The little tents on the street corners that sell the fireworks have only sold about 30% of their inventory from news reports. Last year they sold 70-80% of their inventory. It's hard to imagine what last year must have been like with this year being so impressive.
Justus enjoys waving a sparkler around
on our porch for Chinese New Year.
It is now the Year of the Snake!
Like so many things we have experienced here, I've spent time wondering why we don't have similar events in the US and the conclusion I've reached is that due to many factors, we never will. Fun as it is, I can't imagine regular citizens being allowed to purchase, let alone set off, professional-grade fireworks all around the city for weeks on end. The clean-up alone is a huge issue, but the lawsuits that would come from people getting hurt or being traumatized by the explosions have basically prevented this from ever being a possibility in the United States.
We checked the online pollute-o-meter the day after the big show and saw a huge spike in pollution right around midnight on Chinese New Year! Everyone is obsessed with checking the air quality here as it is often heavily polluted due to lack of enforcement of environmental regulations and the fact that we basically live in a big bowl surrounded by mountains with not a whole lot of wind or rain to clean things out.
