A young man sells fireworks and other pyrotechnics on the streets. These temporary sidewalk shops are everywhere, right along where everyone walks to do shopping, and right next to the lanes of traffic. It is really dangerous.
Only 24 hours to go until Chinese New Year.
One thing I hate hate hate about Chinese New Year is the excessive fireworks. On Chinese New Year's Eve, it looks like the world has been set on fire. It sounds as if the country is being bombed.
One year I set up a cot in the hallway for Mimi and myself, hoping it would block out some of the scary noises going on all night.
One year a building in my apartment complex, just across from mine, had a fire when the family's stash of 'works caught fire. The fit firemen had to climb 20 flights of stairs to put it out and save the neighborhood.
On the 4th night of the holiday, when the cacophony is even worse than on CNY's eve, flaming bits of paper from my upstairs neighbors' s burning stash floats onto my balcony where I have deck chairs, baskets and big plants. I have to stay awake most of the night, running from one balcony on one side of the apartment to the other one, making sure that nothing catches fire. I try watering things down too, but that's not a good idea when it is below freezing.
It is RIDICULOUS. But people here love it and think the holiday would not be the same without it.
My mission during the first week of CNY is to protect house and doggy from disaster. Mimi is a native of this country, yet even she thinks war has broken out every year during CNY. Poor doggy.
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