Today is now the 2nd day of the Chinese New Year. It goes all week long, counting from 1 to 5, and for this whole time, fireworks and firecrackers continue to go off, but with decreasing intensity (which is a relief) as the city slowly runs out of things that go boom. There are still a few good, startling bangs every once in a while, when you think that a building is falling down or something, but they are just less and less frequent.
Today, Chris came over for lunch. My family is really funny when Chris comes over, because I am pretty sure that they just don't know what to do. They tell us to sit down in the living room, and eat, and then just leave. It's a little awkward. But lunch is always good, and the conversation is good.
After lunch, I was dying to get out of the house. I was going stir crazy. This week, there are these things going on called Temple Fairs. I don't know why they are called Temple, because they are in parks and temples. Basically, they are just huge fairs, which an amazing amount of people, with small little things to buy (food, drink, toys.) It's incredible. It only happens once a year, so I really wanted to go see it, because we don't have this kind of thing in America. Chris had already gone to one with his family, but my family doesn't go, and he didn't mind going again, so off we went.
We went to Ditan park, which was the closest Temple Fair to my house. Even when we first got out of the taxi, there were people everywhere. Getting across the bridge was a struggle to cut through the crowds. Everywhere you looked, there was just a sea of black heads: there were so many people you couldn't even see their bodies. We bought tickets, and as we walked closer to the actual fair, people got more and more dense. That term (the title) People Mountain People Sea (meaning a lot of people) is really the only way to describe it.
There were times when there were so many people around, it felt like I was in a mosh pit for a rock concert. The only way to get through it was to grab your friends hand, and just start pushing along with everyone else. Trying to get to a stall was crazy, because there were people everywhere. I pushed my way through, and bought a small New Years red Cow, and a purple lantern, which is rather pretty. Chris and I made our way to the carnival section of the Temple Fair, and he won me a snugglable panda named Pete. I named the cow Jenny.
The biggest draw of the Temple Fairs is the people. So after seeing that (and feeling it) for about 2 hours, we called it a day, and went off to our respective grandma's house, as it is still New Years. I can't even do this Temple Fair justice, but just wait until I show you pictures.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment