Chinese New Year Festivities

Before we begin,  I must come clean with you guys with the photos in this entry, the ones I took the night of the New Year's Eve were all blurred or foggy. So for a better viewing experience, all the photos I used here were from our very own trip photographer, Brian.

Anyways,
It's probably been about 10 years since the last time I celebrated CNY with the traditional festivities around. So As the new year got closer and closer, I was getting more and more excited.The best part though, again, is spending New Year with all the other Purdue students that had no idea what's going on.

I had almost forgotten what it's like, apart from the obvious decorations that were up everywhere, fire works were also being set off every 20 minutes or so (and the frequency only got higher as we approached mid night). Basically noise everywhere you go, and almost no shops were open. Shanghai was particularly bad since it's a major hub for migrant workers and most people had went home.

The otherwise silent street is about to be bombarded with lights and noise for the next week

everyone setting off fireworks everywhere

The program had set up a New Year's Eve banquet for us. It was extravagant, the food just kept coming and coming, and just as the sweet food comes up and you think it's over, another dish would follow! (dessert after main course rule does not apply here!) So although I wasn't offered a Hongbao (red envelope) or gamble through the whole night to satisfy my wallet, at least the stomach was satisfied.

since we are eating with white people, nothing out of the ordinary served

here's us, the foreigners stranded in China during the festivities

After the banquet, some of us went out and bought fireworks at the "fireworks distributors", (the local hardware store who transformed magically over night) and attempted to find appropriate places to set them off. We later found out, it is apparently okay to just let them off on the side of the streets. As post-dinner time came around, walking outside on the streets of Shanghai pretty soon turned into a walk on the battlefield (minus all the blood I'd imagine, and hope)

"we're celebrating, not blowing off windows"

looks safe...

this is a bloc party, cars would just stop by and watch while they wait

When it finally came to our turn, the party quickly died down, since none of us had that kind of cash to blow on fancy fireworks...

follow the loud noises

playing with fire

Don't bother with these boxes, ours were too small to be seen

highlight of my very own firework show

It was still early after the fire works, and there was no way we were skipping count downs. But we couldn't have been more wrong... Not only will there be no count down, we also quickly found out that the bars had reduced hours during New Years (who wants to bar tend during new years right?). But hey, reduced hours are not going to stop our festivities, we eventually found a bar that was opening soon and we camped at the front door china style until they open!

another epic party we missed....

good luck cleaning this up...

Got the whole bar just for us

After some rejuvenation, the Bund was our next destination. When we got there, we realized why everywhere else was empty: It wasn't because it was freezing cold, it's because the best fire works were all gathered here!

When New Year finally came around,  the show was very unexpected. Instead of one giant organized light show, the show was many individually released, unsynced releases all over the city skyline. (Definitely another China disappointment moment, meh)

one of the many fire blossoms that bloomed that night along the Bund

walking home, all the vendors popped out to make some extra holiday bonus

Walking out of the Bund, we went by the Peace hotel and checked out their lobby once again (and to warm up). Then a couple of us bought some lanterns for making New Year wishes and finally called it a night.

let's hope 2013 will be just as good as 2012!

 What's next?