Night Skies

We've had a good view from our apartment windows.  Each evening of the New Year holidays was marked by the water and light show at JinJi lake.  A special version of the show included fireworks in the extra-long performances.  A decent crowd of people turned out each evening, despite temperatures near the freezing mark. In the photo above you can see the red fireworks over the purplish fountains of the water show.  The lights of the Rainbow walk are just behind, and in the background are the colored lights of the restaurants along Li Gong Di causeway.

After the water-show the vendors would come out to peddle paper lanterns to the crowd.  The fourth night of New Year was the most popular for the lanterns.  You see, the fifth day is said to be the birthday of the god of wealth.  So I believe the lanterns were intended to greet him with the first requests for wealth of the new year.  In the photo below, the little points of light in the night sky are all paper lanterns.  If you double-click on the photo you should be able to see the full-sized version.  The flames of the lanterns stand out as orange points in the blackness of the night sky.  The air was thick with them.

At midnight of the fourth day of New Year, as it turned to the fifth day, the city went crazy with fireworks again.  There were just as many as on New Year's eve, if not more.  Again, this is part of the ritual of greeting the god of wealth.  (Fireworks on New Years Eve are intended scare away the bad spirits, but then later they are used to welcome the god of wealth.  This is one of those charming inconsistencies that you can't help but love about the Chinese.)

The fireworks died down about one o'clock in the morning but continued sporadically through the night.  At 5:30, when the sun rose, it once again sounded like the Normandy invasion.   Again, the pollution index went off the charts.