Saturday night we were invited to watch a fireworks show with some of the Chinese teachers at our school, and about twenty of their favorite students. The first weekend we were in Taiwan, Mel and I tried to find a fireworks show at Dadeocheng Wharf and never found it. Saturday's fireworks were held at the same spot, so with the Chinese teachers leading the way we were at least guaranteed to see the show! We met at the school and took a public bus to Sanchong to watch the show. When the bus arrived it was already packed, but let me tell you that buses in Taiwan are like clown cars at the circus- there's no limit to the number of people that can somehow crowd in.
When we got to Sanchong I couldn't believe how many people were there. I don't know what was more impressive: the fireworks or the population.
Without a helicopter there's really no way to properly photograph the sheer number of people gathered on the wharf, but imagine the number of people in the above picture times infinity and you'd be pretty close.
We don't actually teach any of the students that went with us, so they didn't really talk to us very much... although they did seem to enjoy taking loads of pictures of us from afar. And one boy cornered me to show me how he could light his hand on fire with a lighter. Anyway, they gave us some comfortable newspapers to sit on and pretty sparklers to play with.
It was one students' birthday so we sang "Happy Birthday" and then the kids tried to light his hair on fire with their sparklers until their teacher told them to stop.
This was probably the best fireworks display I've ever seen. Maybe Disney was better, but probably not. The whole thing was set to music (I heard some Sting at one point between blasts), they shut down a bridge and set fireworks off of that, and then the show continued from the middle of the water. At one point a plane looked like it was flying right through the show and all I could think was that I hope the pilot was keeping his cool! At least I'm sure they had a great view of the show.
It lasted for a half hour and looked really expensive. Everyone knows how hard it is to get a decent picture of fireworks so please enjoy the brief video above.
After walking back to the bus stop through crowds that would have put the L.A. Riots to shame we bailed on the bus idea and piled 5 to a taxi once again to get home. We all went for some shaved ice at the night market by our apartment... surely this is the warmest November of my life. It's been over 30 with the humidex most of the week so all you want to do at the end of the day is eat a big bowl of ice. Afterwards, Melodie and Mark tried something new... a lady at a cart hands you a bowl, which you fill with as many veggies or noodles as possible. If you don't fill the bowl enough she will take a huge handful of what looked to be grass and pile it on top. You then choose your meat and she stir fries it for you, throws it in a take-out box with some rice and off you go for $3 CAN. Still no Arby's-vending street carts to report on, but I'll keep you updated.
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