On Chinese New Year's Eve, we hung red posters on the doorways of family. We made jiaozi (pork dumplings) and stayed up till midnight to set off fireworks from the balcony. While watching the New Year's Eve performance online, my friends played cards while I knitted.
On New Year's day we visited a temple. It was the first time I had ever visited a live temple, a temple that actually had people praying at it. It was so smokey from the incense I could hardly breathe and I was "afraid" of getting separated from my friends. I didn't have a cell phone on me and well, we all "look alike." There wasn't a tall foreigner who stuck out, easy to find.
Then we visited two parks for the rest of the day until the evening. Kaifeng is known for its lakes. The first park had a lake full of pedal boats, a man made mountain with a waterfall, and lots of humans posing as ancient statues scattered around the park. I would not want the job as a statue in China. People get really close, almost touch you, throw things at you and have no respect for space. All of the human statues had their eyes tightly shut.
The next park was a playground for kids and adults. They had military obstacle courses everywhere as well as a huge playground that even adults could play on. I was afraid of the deteroriating two story rope walls and tire walls, ladders and wooden fortresses made of rotting wood. There was a spinning swing set merry go around where you use a crank to make it go. As the adults sitting in the swings laughed while their male friend made the swing go round and round faster and faster, I cringed as I watched a toddler fall out of the seat and get hit in the head with a metal chair. This playground was a law suit waiting to happen, but then I remembered it was China so...
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