New Year's Eve

China is known for fireworks.  The reputation is well-earned.   Once the sun set on New Year's Eve, then the fireworks started.    Once they started, they really didn't stop for a week.  There were periods when they slowed down.  But they never really stopped.  We went to bed with the sound of fireworks outside.  We were usually awakened by the sound of fireworks breaking out again at dawn.

The Rainbow Walk down along JinJi Lake had a good crowd for New Year's Eve.  A number of people came down to watch the normal water and light show.  The show was scheduled for each night during the holiday period.  Prior to the show, they had a special fireworks display out over the Cultural Center.   The festivities began each evening at 8:00 pm.   That is the top photo.

 After the water show, the JinJi Lake area had a lot of people hanging on to send up paper lanterns for the new year.  The photo above shows them out fighting the wind and drizzle.

The public displays were a minor fraction of the fireworks.  The majority were set off by individuals. They were going off all over the city, as far as the eye could see.  It seemed that a lot of folks came out around 7:00 pm to shoot them off.  I assume this was to break up the boredom after they'd finished their main family meal.   There were explosions everywhere.  They echoed off of the buildings so that every "boom" was followed by three or four reflective booms.  If you were outside, you couldn't carry on a conversation for the noise.  If you were inside, you had to talk over what sounded like rolling thunder.

The fireworks peaked at about 9:00 pm and then tailed off to a calmer pace.  But this was just a pause.  As midnight approached, it seemed as though the dogs of war were unleashed.   Our apartment is 14 stories up in the air, and from our windows we can see pretty far off across the city.  As near and far as the eye could see, fireworks were exploding.   They exploded right next to our apartment windows.  And they exploded all the way across the city to the limits of the horizon. 

If you are old enough to remember the First Gulf War, then you probably remember the images televised by CNN from Baghdad.....of the anti-aircraft guns lighting up the night skies.  It was kind of like that.  But instead of anti-aircraft, it was the Roman candles and flash/bang rockets set off by several million Suzhou revellers.  The photo above is the closest I can come to a representative photo......you kind of see the many flashes of fireworks out over JinJi Lake as far as the eye can see.