National Day

"Finally those capitalist pigs will pay for their crimes, eh? Eh comrades? Eh?"


This past week was National Day, for those who don't know National Day is on October 1st and it celebrates the communist party's rise to power back in 1949. This being the 60th anniversary of communist rule meant especially ornate fireworks and celebrations all across China. In Beijing there was a massive military parade that brought back memories of old Soviet parades. The parade featured all the branches of the Chinese armed forces in full dress and included tanks, fighter jets and missiles, apparently they debuted a brand new missile technology at the parade, having watched news coverage from the streets of Hong Kong I must say that it seemed a bit garish. Back in HK there was no parade but that didn't mean that there was no celebration, the main attraction of the day were the fireworks over the harbor that when set across the famous skyline were breathtaking . We watched the fireworks from the Kowloon side and got there about two hours before the shows scheduled start, it was packed. There were thousands of people there, some got there as early as nine in the morning, we ended up behind some trees and were rather worried that we wouldn't be able to see the show. Seeing that our view might be obstructed I decided I wanted a better vantage point so I decided I would climb a tree. I repeat, in an area with thousands of people clamoring for viewing spots, I did find it odd that I was the only one who attempted to climb a tree. As soon as I got in the tree I was the main attraction before the show, hundreds of people around me suddenly stared up oohhed and ahhhed. I can only imagine them labeling me the vanilla gorilla. Shortly upon getting into the tree I was quickly told to get down by a member of the Hong Kong police force. I jumped down amid a small round of applause and took a bow or two and headed back to my friends. The fireworks started and the show was great, consisting of 39,888 shells of fireworks it might have been the largest show I have seen personally. After the show we headed back with the masses and walked back to Yau Ma Tei and called it an early night. For tomorrow would bring hiking and cliff jumping...