…is pretty damn hard. Mainly because they don’t run cabs. Not that I could look up cab services easily anyway, because the house ran out of electricity as soon as I got home from the miaohui (just to make things more exciting, the power went out in exactly the same instant as a massive firework exploded so I couldn’t tell if like, a fuse had exploded or not). My roommate forgot to mention that we have an electric bill that works the same way as the gas — namely it runs on a special special card which one may only replenish at the bank.  Guess what sorts of establishments are closed for the holidays? So no heating or internet for a while.

Fortunately these two pretty sucky things combined to be not so bad; because I couldn’t cab out in the morning, I had to subway to the airport and sleep in an airport hotel. Which meant that I was both able to get more sleep and significantly warmer. I was actually going to stay in the airport proper but got accosted by one of those guys who invite you to come stay in their ‘near-the-airport’ hotel. You know those suspicious looking dudes who you’re never ever supposed to trust? Mm. I hope the wind appreciated my caution.

In truth, 200 kuai cheaper and a free shuttle was just too tempting. Was a fun van ride, actually. Just talked about language with the driver, and he had me leave three separate audio recordings of how to say the word ‘elevator’ on his phone. Got to the hotel, successfully haggled a 30% discount from the posted price, got to my pretty-darn-sketchy-but-whatever room and promptly knocked out at like 10:30.
This 5:30am though found me in the same van (meant to seat seven) with maybe ten chinese people, half of whom were very clearly sick. Every once in a while in this country I get hit with a rush of perspective — like, a ‘what the hell i am i doing in this situation? Clearly I do not belong here and instead should really just be in my bed in Austin right now.’ This morning’s was particularly strong, but passed quickly.

Some quick observations on New Year’s in Beijing —

  • Fireworks must cost next to nothing, because from the looks of the sky everyone in Beijing has purchased about seventy-five.
  • If fireworks cost next to nothing, I think stores actually pay you to take their firecrackers. Writing this from 6pm Xi’an time, I can honestly say that in the last 18 hours, with the exception of the subway and the plane, there has yet to be ten solid seconds that haven’t been broken by at least one firecracker, more commonly a four-foot-long string.
  • Aside from groups of people actively setting off fireworks, nobody is in the streets at all with the very notable exception of Germans. I have yet to find an explanation for this phenomenon. But I walked for about a mile, and passed maybe 20 Chinese guys setting off fireworks, and 20 people from Germany all watching them. Maybe this is just the street by my house, but it was hella weird. The subways were empty all day, too. I don’t get it.
  • A lot of fires get started from fireworks hitting trees. You can tell because people will launch them anywhere where there’s a clearing on the ground, regardless of what’s above. Charred branches all over the streets this morning
  • But that’s ok, because instead of trying to ban fireworks, china just hires a fleet of middle aged women to bike around with carts full of fire extinguishers. They wear special white jackets and red armbands and are pretty much the best
  • Did I  mention the fireworks? Because there sure were a lot of those.

Actually caught a random dragon dance happening on the street. Really awesome. Check out that line of black cats though...

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