Chinese New Year, Beijing 2010

Hey Guys,
Sorry I havent put up a post yet, but I have been keeping up with all of yall's posts. It looks like everyone has been having great experiences. Teitje is playing soccer, Strader is getting drunk, Garrett is burning stuff, and Ram is creating a new Empire! lol Well anyway I guess I have been waiting for something good to post this whole time and I finally have it. As you all know we were in Beijing for the Chinese New Year last week. We were kicking out the Ox and welcoming the year of the Tiger. Which all the LSU students here are very happy about. China said that this would be one of the biggest New Years celebrations Beijing has ever seen. We soon found out what they meant. Two days before the actual new year's day people start popping fireworks in the streets. We taught it was cool at first but it lasted for TWO WEEKS! We are so tired of hearing fireworks going off until all hours of the night. It really sounds like a war zone outside because of the booms echoing through the streets and buildings. Even though it was a little repetitive we really enjoyed all the festivities. We actually left Beijing for the week but stayed just in time to catch the celebration new years night. It was amazing! We were in a perfect spot to view all the fireworks going off. They estimated at midnight there were 10 million people setting of fireworks! It is and will always be the greatest firework show I have ever seen. Here is a !5 minute video I took that was condensed down to around 6 minutes. The video is good but really doesn't do the show justice.