a-l-i-n-e.com

I didn’t have my computer at that time so it’s only now that I’m uploading the photos.
I took these pics on the eve (30.09.04) of 国庆节 at People’s Square.

There were many people going to People’s Square that day.

On my way to People’s Square, my friends and I noticed those black cars parked near there on the main road. It looked a bit odd. oh well.. maybe people just love black cars here.

I took this photo at People’s Square.

They were selling those plastic inflatable things at People Square. I wanted to buy one too. There were a few cute ones ( Hello kitty, Winnie the Pooh,etc ) but I didn’t buy any because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to carry them with me in the bus. It would take up too much space.

Many people were playing around, hitting each other with those plastic things but then a fight started. My friend who took me there told me that it’s like that every year.The young people have fun hitting each other but sooner or later a fight starts. Sometimes it’s because someone started hitting a little bit too hard and the other person hits back even harder and it ends up in a vicious fight with their respective friends joining. Sometimes it’s because someone hits another person by mistake and before he can apologize, he gets hit by many other people. It’s easy to tell when it’s a real fight. I saw a guy being hit until his nose started bleeding and his glasses fell to the ground and got shattered. Then people started to call their friends and you see mean looking guys dressed all in black come. Creepy. There were policemen making the rounds in their van every 10 minutes or so but somehow they always arrive after a fight.

Still, it’s usually very safe here in Shanghai. In fact, apart from that fight I saw at People’s Square on that day, I didn’t see any acts of violence here.
In Mauritius, I’d never even think of walking about after midnight but here it’s different. My friends and I go out at night sometimes and take the bus or taxi quite late. We can usually see many other people walking about very late. Sometimes we return to our campus at 4 am and we feel “safe” walking back.

10 Responses to “Eve of Guo qing jie”

• October 16th, 2004 at 3:20 pm

  1

  James
  

  looks like xmas in hk very nice!

• October 17th, 2004 at 3:31 am

  2

  shuey
  

  those are really nice photos, aline. the city looks so bright and cosy at nite. can’t wait to jet off for a holiday in china ‘cos i haven’t been there myself. glad to know that you’re having fun

• October 17th, 2004 at 7:08 am

  3

  Wendy
  

  Thanks for the wonderful pictures, especially the third one!:razz:

• October 17th, 2004 at 10:18 am

  4

  Jeff
  

  “see people still walking late at night” ….guess that u didnt watch tv much in mu huh ??? lol! neways! take care! looks like ure having loads fun there instead of studying! good gurl!

• October 17th, 2004 at 2:26 pm

  5

  bekki
  

  My life has been made so much harder! I’m sorta learning japanese and looking at your site, I’m realizing Japanese is very similar to chinese in that there are the same letters. Chinese did come first so I can’t blame that, but I guess it’s just going to be hard figuring out which language is which! Nice shots from People’s Square!

• October 17th, 2004 at 5:24 pm

  6

  Gretch
  

  wow, shanghai looks nice. and i’d probably buy one of those plastic things. they look cute. haha. they say shanghai has the best night life. but isn’t it expensive around there? take care and glad to know you’ve finally got a pc in your room. tc aline!

• October 17th, 2004 at 8:45 pm

  7

  aline
  

  “see people still walking late at night” … Jeff, when i said that, I was comparing with Mauritius. Were you often out after 10pm when you were still in Mauritius? I lived in Sainte Croix. Maybe now you’ll understand me better. If you lived in Sainte Croix and often go for a stroll or whatever at night, then *claps* . I meant that compared to Mauritius, here I feel safe going out at night. In Canada, where you are right now, I’m sure you go out at night but that in Mauritius, it wasn’t like that.

• October 18th, 2004 at 8:15 am

  8

  Dice
  

  that’s a lot of black cars. hehehe…i want one of those inflatable toys. i must admit that i would love to hit someone with that. it’s just so tempting

• October 18th, 2004 at 5:20 pm

  9

  Karl
  

  plastic inflatable things *bans these objects*

  Nice photo shots you have from People’s Square

• October 24th, 2004 at 2:09 pm

  10

  nirmalyablog
  

  Actually, this is an annual thing every Christmas eve in Chengdu. People gather on the main street with similar plastic inflatable clubs and beat each other up. Preetam Rai posted these pics here