An Ending with a Bang: Part II

The Chinese New Year celebration has ended!  People are back. The shops and restaurants are open and the streets are filling back up with people. We are happy to see friends and neighbors back home and life returning to normal. Notice the before and after pictures.

We really did enjoy the grand finale of new years though! Usually people send out paper lanterns and set off fireworks at midnight. Our family wasn't quite up to staying up that late. But we enjoyed sending out our lantern the next night.

After 20 or so days, the fireworks have finally wound down. People in China view firework safety much differently than they do in America. Speaking as someone who is very edgy around fireworks, its a bit much for me personally. The general public has easy access to HUGE fireworks. Some that I've seen here are as big as city firework shows in the States. People set them off anywhere. The middle of the street is common place to set them off. However, this does not stop the flow of traffic. Even the sparklers have a bit of an extra bang here as you can see in the picture below.

This is a video that our neighbor made. It was taken on the street right in front of our apartment. This shows the craziness of the fireworks. Check it out. Trust me its worth watching.