Lantern Festival 2016

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It’s 11:13 pm in Beijing. There has been a constant barrage of firework for the last five hours, and they’re stronger now than ever. The flashes and booms cascade all over Beijing in celebration of the Lantern Festival.

Floating  paper lanterns are released as the name would suggest.  lantern-festival
The Lantern Festival is a Chinese festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar Chinese calendar. It marks the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations and usually falls sometime during in February or March in the Gregorian calendar. This year it’s February 22nd.

It seems in Beijing the festival is marked by fireworks displays.

Two things are most impressive about the fireworks. There are several displays being launched simultaneously all over the city. A small to medium sized town would be proud to put on any of the displays which typically last for fifteen to twenty minutes.
The other striking feature is the launch location. One display seemed to shoot up the side of a ten or twelve story building. I’ve attached a short video of a few of the displays we could see from our apartment window.  

Orange Crate Gang

China has already corrupted me.  I’ve joined a Chinese gang, the Orange Crate triad. Here’s a pix of me & my new “convertible” with my gangsta’ friends.  Also another pix of my “convertible”.
Finished my first week of classes, so it’s an easy day today.  Been pretty hectic getting ready for what was essentially an unknown.  It went well.  Some of the students are quite remarkable, very intelligent and capable.

There is a lake at the center of campus.  These are some pictures from around the lake.