solegraphy :: like calligraphy, only better

Last month, I traveled to Beijing for Lunar New Year.

Ok, perhaps more than a month ago.

Crap. Let’s pretend it was more recent and that I am not so far behind on my entries.

A year after I wrote this entry, I was standing in Tienanmen Square staring up at the iconic picture of Mao Zedong hanging over the entrance of the Forbidden City. Although I have traveled through four different Asian countries, arriving in China invoked something different. It felt almost like arriving in London for the first time.

There is a feeling when you enter a place which has been documented in thousands of books and television shows that is almost mystical. My favorite places (Ethiopia and Lao) are far from well-documented travel destinations, but life starts to feel surreal when you look around and suddenly remember that you are standing on the Great Wall.

For Lunar New Year, the locals go to their local grocery and buy giant firework cannons – the type you see at a special event and operated by trained professionals. They then set several hundred of these cannons in various locations around their yards and rooftops and spend the next several days shooting them off in rapid succession. It becomes all the more delightful at one o’clock in the morning. When you are sitting comfortably inside a house drifting between sleeping and watching a light comedy, your response is heart-stopping and dramatic. I think I dove underneath a table.

Inside, it felt like we were in the middle of a highly dangerous war zone, but when we put on our coats and stood on the roof – it was an entirely different story. As we stood surrounded by a veritable garden of blooming flowers of light, our hearts still stopped every time one burst. With one going off every minute from every rooftop in every direction for over a mile – we were in a constant state of heart palpitations. Our adrenaline high, we were giddy in the light of the most amazing fireworks show we had ever seen.

As a frequent nomad, very few things take my breath away. Most unusual things just become familiar. I think I need to look through the lens of naivete more often. I miss far more than I see.