Shanghai'd

Happy New Year!
The Chinese like to leave no doubt as to who invented fireworks. Starting a full week before the Chinese New Year, reaching it's peak at midnight on Jan. 29th (and lasting another week after that we're told), we have been bombarded with non-stop fireworks. For some reason, the plaza outside our apartment seems to be one of the main launching grounds for firecrackers, M80-like artillery rounds, bottle rockets, sparklers, and even those giant exploding ones usually reserved for professional shows. It's become so regular that we hardly even notice anymore ... just another level of background noise to add to the car horns, scooters, and street hawkers. The price you pay for living in a big city. Laurel and I witnessed the Xin nian kuai le celebration from two landmarks of downtown Shanghai, the Bund and Nanjing lu.