Didn't we just leave this party?

I love fireworks. If anyone had ever asked me how many fireworks are too many? I would've undoubtedly replied that, of course, there is no such thing as too many fireworks. I would've been wrong. In America we value the beauty and visual effects of the fireworks. The sparkles, the changing colors, the shapes and sizes. The Chinese firework decide to bypass such silly fanfare and go for a different sense altogether, sound. It doesn't matter if its pretty as long as it pierces/splits your eardrums. Yesterday was the end of the two week long Spring Festival which welcomes the Chinese New Year. The ending day is called the Lantern Festival but a more appropriate name would've been the Day of the Endless Firecracker. From dawn to far past dusk our home city of Baoding was transformed into a pyrotechnic warzone. The craziest part about it is that there are rarely any main shows put on by any kind of organization. There are no carefully planned displays for people to show up and watch. Instead, every Chinese seems bent on contributing their own personal effort to the chaotic orchestra of sound. We quickly became very wary foreigners as any street corner could be transformed into bombshell of fire and sound almost instantaneously.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I and my 4 fellow Baoding teacher counterparts just returned from a nearly three week trip to southern China. Our travels consisted of three main destinations. The first was the westernized Chinese city of Shenzhen. This city is described as the birthplace of western society's entry into China and it shows. Shenzhen proved to be a large bustling city with a healthy mix of business and pleasure. While the main focus of our stay was attending our IECS conference we had a chance to enjoy some of Shenzhen's attractions including the beach, delicious southern style food, and even a small Chinese theme park! The conference was a chance to enjoy some much coveted fellowship time with all the other American teachers from Langfang and Tianjin. It was an awesome time to be gain a respite from the frigid north and be able to experience some teaching and wisdom from our superior officers.

After a week in Shenzhen we parted ways with many of our friends and departed for the southernmost part of China in the province of Hainan. Hainan used to be known throughout China as the "Hell's doorstep" but now is much more commonly referred to as the "Hawaii of China." I tend to agree more with the latter description. Evidently Hainan used to be a place where China's criminals and riff-raff were exiled to a slow hot demise. However, in the past few decades the island has been hastily converted into a booming haven of seaside resorts for China's growing middle class. Our destination was the southwestern city of Sanya where there was a host of beaches at our fingertips. We found an excellent and very modestly priced hostel (about $20 a night and that was the boosted holiday price) with a single room consisting of six beds and a small attached bathroom. It wasn't the Ritz Carlton but it suited us just fine as we spent little time besides sleeping in the room anyway. The hostel is run by a jokester named Peter "Funny" and his name is aptly chosen. His escapades throughout the week constantly amused us and included but were not limited to lighting Chinese lanterns into the sky with socks drenched in motor oil, repeatedly entreating us to try a scary seedlike drug that he claimed would provide a calm and soothing effect (uh huh), and encouraging the guests to pet a taciturn dog that only bites people "gently." Besides our enjoyable hostel experiences I took to the beach as much as possible. We were lucky enough to have perfect beach weather as the temperatures frequently reached the mid to high 70's during the heat of the day. The beaches were busy but not too crowded and turned out to be every bit as beautiful as we had anticipated with picturesque white sand and sparkling blue water. Unsurprisingly, I was often found half buried in the sand and fully buried in a book (Fyodor Dostoevsky's, The Idiot was my weapon of choice for the week). I would be remiss to not mention one of the crown jewels of the trip was a small restaurant we found nearby humbly called Rainbow Bar & Grill. The menu and quality closely resembled that of a Chili's back in the states and while this may not sound quite impressive to all you idlers back at home it was a little slice of paradise for my 5 month rice infused pallet. Honestly, it was a bit of a struggle not to eat there every night but we did force ourselves (or maybe I was forced...) into trying other cuisines that the island had to offer. After a week of island adventures we sadly embarked on our last leg of the journey.

While we were loath to leave Sanya's sunny beaches, I was eagerly anticipating our final destination of Hong Kong. Our only real business to take care of during our three day visit to this international city included the renewing of our 180 day visas into full working visas complemented by our very own foreign experts card. The rest of our stay was free for sightseeing and shopping (and by shopping I really mean window-shopping). While this was the goal of our comrades, Jon and I both harbored a deeper secret mission that fueled us both. We shared a burning desire to buy a real Hong Kong style Mahjong set. To offer a bit of backstory here, I must confess that during our winter break from teaching I have become more and more engrossed into this famous Chinese game. While I have described the game a small amount in a previous post I believe I have failed to capture the true greatness of this game. It is a game of nearly limitless possibilities that can engross both heart and soul. It is for this reason that both Jon and I wanted to find a set to satisfy our hearts desire and have a Hong Kong Mahjong set of our very own. Finding a set proved a little more difficult task than we envisioned as this is not a popular thing for many foreigners to buy. The shops that sold Mahjong were not in the malls or beautifully decorated high end stores but turned out to be just a handful of small street side stands that were tailored to Mahjong and a few other random Chinese games. In the end, our journey turned out to be a circular one as the best bargain we found turned out to be the first of some four or five stores that we labored to locate. The prize was well worth the paltry price as Jon and I are both well pleased with our precious purchases. But I digress, Hong Kong was more than just a few Mahjong tiles. It was truly an international experience and the only time in China where I have not felt completely like a foreigner. The main language of the city is English with a mix of the southern Chinese dialect called Cantonese. We traveled all over the city marked by it's excessively tall buildings by means of bus, subway, and ferry. Every night at 8 o'clock in Hong Kong there is a light show put on by the enormous skyscrapers that fence the coastline between the island and the mainland. We traveled up to the island's mountain peak and received a bird's eye view of the beautiful illuminated skyline. With all too much quickness our quick stay in Hong Kong had evaporated and we again found ourselves taking to the skies and returning to Baoding just before the end of the 2 week long Spring Festival.

The very second we alighted from our plane we were greeted by the sharp northern chill. I thoroughly enjoyed our southern sojourn but I am glad to be back in our Chinese home town, anticipating the return of our college friends and the beginning of the year of the ox!