Happy New Year!!

Just want to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year! It’s the year of he dog this year, so people are snapping up all sorts of dog merchandise and pampering their four legged friends!

I’m in Tianjin now, where I am spending the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) with my friend here. It’s been great. On New Year’s Eve, all the family had a big dinner. Man, I was stuffed. Then they gave me loads of beer and some Baijiu (Chinese fire-water!) and we watched some of the New Year program on TV. It’s like a variety performance with traditional singing, dancing and acting, as well as modern stuff like comedy and pop music. Interesting to see it!

Then as midnight approached, I thought the world was gonna end! In Ireland ay Halloween, there are quite a lot of fireworks and explosions around the place, but nothing compares to here. Man, it was wall to wall noise for 2 or 3 hours! Like when you see Baghdad on the news! The whole place was filled with firework smoke and the smell of gunpowder was everywhere! Sure was an experience! Must have been enough firepower in Tianjin to blow up a small country!

So, Spring Festival here seems a lot like Christmas back home. All the family gets together and eats and drinks too much!

Yesterday we took a look around Ancient Culture Street (古文化街). It’s a recreation of an old Chinese street, selling lots of traditional stuff. Mainly touristy things. But there was this guy doing something totally amazing that I never saw before. Making art wit sugar syrup. He had a bowl of hot sugary syrup and he used a ladle and would draw with the small flow of liquid from it. The liquid would then dry and you had a sugary work of art! I got a horse done for m, since I was born in the year of the horse. I’ll try and put a picture up. His skill was amazing!