Memories of New Years in China. How dangerous it was to travel just before: everyone was carrying fire works, and occasionally whole railroad carloads of people would get blown up. How dangerous it was coming home early morning of the first day because the fireworks were still going off. Strings of firecrackers hung from balconies and windows, burning their strings, dropping firecrackers onto you as you biked by. That New Year's was really Spring Festival, so no matter how cold it was or early in the year, Spring had indeed begun. That it was two weeks long. Do Chinese know how to celebrate or what?

Then peripheral musings ~~ that Chinese invented gun powder, and then used it for fireworks. That noodles on New Year's probably don't make you live any longer because they are long, and jiaozi probably don't make you any richer because they're shaped like old Chinese gold coins. On the other hand, China has been around, on the same piece of ground, for 6,000 years, so maybe they know something we haven't mastered yet. . . .