The Spring Festival Passes

The Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year or as it is also called in China, the Spring Festival is over today. While most Chinese return to work tomorrow, after a week off, my Western-run office went back to work on Monday. The last two days of commuting to work on the relatively calm streets of Shanghai have been a rare treat. The gridlock will be back in full force tomorrow.

The fireworks were as good or bad as ever this past week. This story by James Fallows nicely sums it up. This year, unlike last year, the community fireworks box did not fall over and blast the smitherines out of the house next door. All the fireworks went skyward and exploded over our heads. In the morning we found a wastebasket-full of spent fireworks on our balcony.