I went downstairs and outside at ten to midnight. I was a little disappointed to see that all the businesses opposite the hotel patently had nobody living above them, as was the case in Tongling two years ago when the owners came down and detonated explosives on the road outside their shops. Hence, the only fireworks visible were the approximately 120 rockets the hotel had placed at each entrance, so about 360 in total plus enormous ten foot lengths of bangers. Equally disappointing was the proximity of tall buildings which meant I would not get a shot of the city skyline itself, which from the college is too far away (without really expensive camera equipment) to photograph. At midnight the entire city erupts with aerial light and I would dearly love to grab a magnificent snap of that but it was not to be.
Nonetheless at about five to midnight some people behind the surrounding buildings either had inaccurate watches or simply couldn’t contain their joy, the “war” started. Unlike Tongling when I was in such close proximity to the ordnance that I was showered with shards of red paper, ash and blinded by smoke I was nevertheless treated to a deafening orgy of blinding flashes and thunderous bangs. I was grinning from ear to ear as I reminisced on bonfire nights when I was about seven or eight in the UK. Sparkler in one hand, sausage in a roll in the other, I would revel in the rockets, roman candles, catherine wheels (you don’t see them here) and bangers.
Puzzlingly, I was the only guest who had actually gone outside to witness it (although at about 0010 plenty of them returned in cars or on foot, so heaven only knows where they had been) so it was just me and the guards. I didn’t care, I am a monkey and it’s my year and finally I was (sort of) in Chizhou for the fireworks instead of sitting in deathly quiet on my tod at home. I wouldn’t even have been able to have a drink with Andrei and Juliette at midnight had I wanted.
When I had left for the hotel I noticed their moped had disappeared and assumed they had gone shopping. A text from Andrei wishing me happy new year after I posted last night revealed all - they were at the time waiting to board their flight to Bangkok! I had no idea.
When the explosions had diminished a trifle I went back to my room, having interrupted watching a nail-biting Ireland v Wales game (the most exciting of the three I have seen so far) and fully expected to be able to turn in at about 0300 in peace. My habits of late would ensure I wasn’t ready to sleep until then or even later so I was hardly bothered. Once the match was over I watched YouTube films, the western channels on TV showing such delights as Honey I Shrunk The Kids, real mind-stretching viewing for my pleasure!
By three there was still no sign of the fireworks stopping completely (I am sure it’s a competition to see who can keep everyone awake ALL night!) so I resigned myself to calling it a day at four. At about ten past three my phone rang. Who on earth was calling me at that unearthly hour?? +33? Brain now fully awake, for a second I searched my memory, where was +33? France!!!
Yes, it was Ollivier! They had been celebrating Chinese new year in Marseille seeing as Coco is Chinese and the two sons are, as one of my students innocently and highly inappropriately put it, hybrids. I spoke briefly to Ollivier, Coco and Ollivier’s parents (I reckon I would get on better with the parents!) and they all exhorted me to visit them in France. One day, once my job is sorted and I have enough cash, I may well just do that, I am guessing I could seriously damage my liver over the course of a few days with them.
Anyway, even though I hit the sack at four-thirty (bitterly ruing not taking earplugs) with a second pillow covering my head, the fireworks continued, in fact they were still being let off when I left this afternoon. I set my alarm for noon. Check-out time is almost universally twelve but when I booked on Ctrip it stated 1400 and by God I was going to use that! When I did check out at 1330 I complained that the hotel was noisy. The receptionists faces were pictures! Until that is, they realised I was joking. There’s not a hotel on the planet that can screen that sort of noise.
And so it was back to normal life and in a way, thankfully, a considerably quieter one. But on my ride home I was stunned by yet another first - the buses were running for the first time ever on new year’s day! If only I had known I may well have stayed in the city proper but then again for more money and I do like Dong Rong, I wish I had known of it much earlier.
So you have plenty of photos to look at, many of which I deleted due to blurring and I do have a slight regret that I don’t have hideously expensive gear to produce better quality images but you will get the general idea from them.
This post is also a milestone. As far as I can tell (remember my hard drive blew up and I lost a lot of data) this is blog number 1,000. I have been blogging hard of late to make it fall on an important day and I did it!
I never envisaged five and a half years ago still teaching, still being in China and even more amazingly, still at the same university. Whatever happens to me this summer, nothing and nobody can take away my memories of those years.
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