KITES

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Looking from the pedetrian bridge linking the Science and Technology Museum to Century Park, you can see all the way up Century Avenue to the buildings on the riverside at Liujiazui. If the weather is clear, you can get a fantastic view of the tall buildings against the darkening sky at sunset, as the lights are switched on. At the weekend, in the evenings of late summer you can find families at the plaza outside the museum making the most of the warm weather and the consistent breeze that blows across the city. They are the kite flyers of 上海.

Their kites have a typical Chinese character to them. They sport a multitude of different coloured LEDs: on the kites themselves, on the tails, and on the strings. I think it's partly so they are visible against the backdrop of illuminated skyscrapers, and partly so they can compete for attention with the millions of other Chinese toys which also have multicoloured LEDs. I used to think that China made all those toys to be exported, while the children here learnt caligraphy and kung fu and studied hard for exams. It seems however that the majority of the worlds brightly coloured flashing toys remain in the country, to be used by adults and children alike.

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Photos

They say it changes when the sun goes down
During the national holiday, each lampost held two Chinese flags. You don't see it from this picture but that is a lot of flags.

Kite lights
The traces of colour are the lights on kites moving in the wind under long exposure.

7pm
Time for Knightrider?