New Years or Am I in the Middle of a War Zone?? Not Too Sure.

singing and dancing at KTV
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Our time in China is quickly coming to an end. We are leaving Xi’an for Kunming tomorrow and then hopefully off to Laos the next day. The past two and a half weeks have been absolutely incredible and have just flown by. We have done so much sightseeing it is incredible, but we are ready to start moving around again, since we have stayed in Xi’an now longer than we have stayed anywhere else.

The past couple of days have been full of celebrations.

February 16th - Jon's 25th Birthday

Koren lighting our only big firecracker...Man was it loud!!
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We started the evening off by taking Jon for his birthday dinner to his favorite restaurant for Korean BBQ. On every table there is a small barbecue and you order what you want and they bring out everything raw and you cook it yourself. It was delicious. With our stomachs very full we headed into the city walls to a place called Feeling Bar. This bar is a small little place with live music (in Chinese, so I couldn’t sing along), where you get a table and buy a bottle of booze for everyone to share. The waiters come around and mix your drinks, bring you sunflower seeds (which end up making the biggest mess, especially when people start throwing them at you), platters of fruit, dried anchovies, chickens feet and duck neck. We pretty much just stuck to the sunflower seeds and the fruit, but we did taste and other snacks that were offered and one taste was enough…it was nasty! We met a bunch of Jon’s friend here and then headed to KTV for some birthday Karaoke. We have heard so much about KTV since we have been in China, and we were very excited that we were actually going. Everywhere you go in Beijing or Xi’an you see a KTV, they are absolutely everywhere, but apparently they aren’t all the same, so we jumped into a taxi and made our way to KTV 512. Upon arrival you are given these private rooms, with a computer, tv, microphones, tambourines and fruit platters. It is nice because you sound completely horrible, but it is only your friends laughing at you, not people who you don’t know. The hits of the night included LaBamba, My Way, My Sherona, Just To Be With You and Lean On Me. We sang and danced the night away, and hit the sack before the sun came out.

Erin Jon and Koren infront of the City Walls on New Years Eve.
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February 17th- Chinese New Years Eve

We spent the day preparing for the evening. Since we weren’t sure if any restaurants were going to be open, we hit the supermarket and pushed our way through hundred and hundreds of people doing the same thing as us. When we finally made our way through the check out and outside there was a stand set up on the road selling firecrackers, we figured that for pennies a piece we should invest in some small ones that let off a loud BOOM. We made our way back to the apartment for a delicious dinner of dumplings and green beans and got ready to hit the streets in true tourist fashion, with our matching hoodies, cameras and a bag of firecrackers. We wandered around the neighborhood just watching everyone setting off fireworks. With much difficulty we finally met up with an American guy named Jon. It was so hard to find him, because you couldn’t speak on cell phones because the booms were way too loud. We then proceeded to the city walls. We weren’t sure what to expect, but it wasn’t this. The South Gate was packed with people all shooting off explosions. To quote Paul’s very funny Chinese New Years e-mail, he states nothing but the truth, “It occurred to me that in a funny twist of circumstance that when compared with China, fireworks in the West are really communist. They're state-controlled, planned, centralized. The explosions that are this second preventing me from hearing my music, these are truly democratic fireworks. The city doesn't have anything to do with any of it. These are really the people's fireworks - and everyone, i've seen already an age range of about 5 to 75 partakes, buying whatever kind of glittery explosives they want and setting them off anywhere they damn well please.” We were amazed with the amount of people packed into a small area, but I guess it is to be expected in a city of 9 million people. Once our ears started ringing we headed inside the city walls for a little break and a cup of McDonalds hot chocolate to warm up, and then it was back out to the streets. We made our way back to the South Gate and I didn’t think it was possible, but there were more people and the little firecrackers that we had seen before had all disappeared. There were carts and carts of people selling fireworks and about 11:45pm the sky was completely lit up with explosions. It didn’t matter what direction you were facing, all you could see was fireworks and this lasted for well over an hour. It was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen, and it puts any Canadian firework show to shame. Our night concluded with the hotel workers at the hotel next to the apartment setting off huge fireworks, with the loudest BOOM any of us had heard all night. Our ears were ringing and we couldn’t stop sneezing because of all the gun power and smoke in the air. We made our way back to the apartment walking debris that was left on the streets and shells from firecrackers. This city is a mess, but because we are in China, we know that it will be cleaned up before we get up tomorrow morning. We attempted to fall asleep, but it seemed as though anytime you were about to fall asleep, another “BOOM” would happen.

So Many People... So many vendors
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Febuary 18th- New Years Day

The Banging hasn’t stopped yet and the only thing going through my mind is “Ok…serious, enough with the fireworks!”. I am expecting that it will only get worse before it gets better. Throughout the day all you heard was a loud blast and it starts to be second nature and not bother you anymore. We spent the day walking around East and West Street and looking at all of people walking the streets and through all the stores…the number of people out reminded me of Boxing Day in Canada, but without the Sales. At 11pm the fireworks still had not stopped, we were watching a movie and had to constantly turn up the volume to mask the booming and banging coming from the streets. We were finally able to ignore the noise and finish our movie and get a descent nights sleep.

Xi'an at night
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We are now at the end of our two weeks in China, and we have had an absolute blast. It has been very different traveling through China than anywhere else we have been. No one here speaks English, which presents a challenge, but we have also had personal tour guides since we arrived which has made the experience all that much better.

We have officially hit month three of being on the road, and we are coming to a sad realization that the trip is almost over. In the past 3 months we have covered an incredible number of kilometers, 3 time zones, 5 countries, 19 cities, and countless different kinds of beer. We are having an absolute blast… check back soon for our adventures in Laos.

One of many firework stands lining the streets of Xi'an
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Until next time!