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Published: January 25th 2007
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Party at Shenzhen City Hall
The stage is set for the show! China may be known for it's massive celebrations of the Lunar New Year, but it still parties along with the rest of the world during the January 1st New Year, too. Most of the foreigners living in Shenzhen went into Hong Kong to enjoy a drunken New Year's Eve with a zillion other people, but Sen and I chose to stay in Shenzhen and take part in the city's festivities. Actually, we had no plans until January 30, when Judy (my Chinese collegue at the Shenzhen Education Bureau) called me up and said, "Dawn, the city is going to have a big party on New Year's Eve. They want some foreigners to attend. Can you go?" Who could possibly pass up an invitation like that? Of course I said yes and promptly RSVP'd for Sen as well. Because I've been to enough "Mystery Functions" in the past to know that it's always better to have someone along with you in case it turns out to be incredibly boring or just plain weird.
So, at 8:30 on New Year's Eve, Sen and I show up at the designated meeting point where we are met by some nice people from the Shenzhen
VIP's
The army was our neighbor in the VIP section. Foreign Affairs Bureau and, along with 20 other foreigners, are bused to the pary location - Shenzhen City Hall. All the other foreigners were dressed nicely, in dresses and slacks, so Sen and I felt a little out of place in our blue jeans and t-shirts (Judy had assured me this was a casual event), but it turns out we were the wise ones, as the party was held outdoors in the newly opened park in front of City Hall and it was a bit chilly.
As we got off the bus and made our way towards the park, the crowd began to thicken. Suddenly, we were in the midst of 5 million (that's my personal estimate) Shenzheners, all jostling for a good spot to stand for the next 3 hours. Fortunately, as VIP foreign guests, we were led to chairs set up in the middle of the crowd. The chairs faced City Hall (a fabulous piece of architecture that looks like a gigantic piece of modern art) and a massive stage which had miraculously been erected during the 6 hours since I'd last been in the neighborhood.
The "party" turned out to be a show full of
Sen
He loves it when I drag him along to random events. dancing, singing, and some famous people who weren't famous enough for me to recognize but were famous enough for the crowd to ooh and aah over. All in all, it wasn't that fabulous of a show (you could tell it was put together at the last minute), but it wasn't terrible. Sen would probably disagree, but that's because he was personally affronted at the "Brazilian Dance" piece that 1) was set to American music and 2) featured Latin, but not really Brazilian, dance steps. Unfortunately, that was one of the first performances and I'm pretty sure it colored his view on the entire show.
There was a giant electonic countdown clock that was used to count down the last seconds of 2006. At the stroke of midnight, a bunch of government officials went on stage to ring a huge bell and welcome in 2007. And that's when the highlight of the evening occured - 20 minutes of fireworks! They were a fabulous, unexpected surprise! Sen was like, "Yeah, they're pretty good. In Rio we have fireworks at the beach for the New Year," but I'm from Iowa where fireworks are reserved for Independence Day (possibly because it's too cold
Kuai!
Throngs of people looking for a good spot to see the show and some cool buildings in the background. The one on the right says, "kuai" which is part of a scrolling "Xin nian kuai le!" or "Happy New Year!" to stand outside on New Year's Eve), so I was thrilled. I'm not sure I've ever seen so many fireworks all at once. It was amazing!
Besides the fireworks, the coolest thing about the evening was knowing that I was spending a holiday just like the normal Chinese people who live in the city. (Although, granted, I was sitting and they were standing.) The number of people in the crowd made an impression on me. I've seen enough televised holiday shows like this one to know that they are a common activity in China, but I'd never realized much of a community event they were. It reminded me of the 4th of July in the U.S., where the whole town gathers at the local park to watch the fireworks, because that's what people do on the 4th of July. That's the same feeling I had here on New Year's Eve. The whole city gathered at City Hall to watch the show, because that's what people do when the city throws a party.
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coco
non-member comment
good luck
i think this is a good party,i never met. one thing,you can sit you are lucky,i think they like you haha