Lighting Up China

We heard the lantern festival was supposed to be pretty amazing with some sites saying 50k people and others reporting 500k people. Well, if that many people go then it must be pretty cool. Some girls thought it would be the lanterns that you light and send into the sky so they went and bought them. We knew it wasn't that kind of festival but we wanted to check it out anyway. 

We hopped on a metro and away we went. First problem was the metro stop was closed due to way too many people. So we got off a metro stop further and found some people to help us get there. 

Once there all we saw was a sea of people. Oh and cops. Cops everywhere every SWAT. More cops that we have ever seen. 

Look at all these people. As we walk around we were very disappointed because there was nothing but people and just a few lanterns on the street. We could barely move due to the amount of people. Finally we got to a place where you had to pay to go in. So we decide to pay and head in. There were some large lantern sculptures but it was actually pretty lame. 

So we pulled over and decided to spice things up by lighting our lanterns and sending them in the sky. We got close to the water in case of a fire. Then we tried to do this inconspicuously. That is very hard to do when you are a group of white people with fire. Lighting the lanterns was very difficult. The instructions made no sense and the and let had no wick. We had a broken lighter and so it was quite the situation. We finally got one of these lanterns lit and sent it off. By this point we had a crowd watching us. 

We tried another one but it burst into flames and landed in the water. Then again we tried. By this point the lighter was melting and we were running out of fuel but we wanted to try one more time. 

So Tara gets hers lit and tried to send it off. Well it starts going towards people and we are yelling duck! Then it goes into the bushes! The chinese run for it, grab it from the bush and start stomping. I knew it was time to get out of there so I pack my things and then I see the cops. I pull up my hood and walk off. I am not going to chinese prison. 

My girls on the other hand all stay there. From my vantage point I took photos to document this experience. Luckily they 

Just told tem we don't do this type of thing in China and sent the girls on their way. Good thing. 

What an experience. Almost lighting China on fire and ending up in Chinese prison. 😂