60 this week

As many of you may be aware, China celebrated the 60th anniversary of Communism, the dominant political and ruling force of this country, on Wednesday. 3 days before the Moon festival, another big celebration in the Sino-calendar, this celebration was earmarked to be the biggest ever, with many rapid and grandiose preparations visible in little municiple squares, large parks and other official areas.

This event impacted our lives in may ways, not least a notification arriving at school that we were to close early, as many major roads in Shanghai- and a couple of the important river tunnels that link Pudong with Puxi- would be closing to facilitate control of the huge crowds and massive fireworks, prepared around the Bund and Business district areas. The metro system also was under special measures, with an extra million passengers expected every day during the 4 days of holiday.

We duly scuttled home, fearing the worst and expecting the usual massive earthquake of pushing, shoving, shouting and selfishness that typifies celebration here.

In reality, we were shocked to discover a more or less sleeping city around us as we arrived at our home district. The only noticeable difference was the unveiling of an enourmous outdoor 270degree TV screen showing live footage from Tianenmen Square, where endless tanks and soldiers were lined to demonstrate, somehow, the success of the last 60 years. Hu Jintao passed in a car, shouting something every 200 meters or so, commanding a similar response from the lined male and female soldiers accompanying the shiny new untouched equipment. We smiled to think of how all that military hardware would fare in genuine combat, knowing that it had been made in China.

At around 8pm we heard the distant rumbling and feint pink glow of a firework display somewhere north in the city.

We slunk off to bed at around 9pm, earplugs at the ready. Clearly the real deal was scheduled for midnight or something, when people would erupt from their houses, little red flags waving, babies held aloft, while thousands of kilos of explosive propelled all kinds of radiant red beauty into the air around us. We knew what to expect- we had lived through two Lunar New Year's already.

At 7 30 the next morning we awoke, slightly puzzled, after a long and deliciously uninterrupted sleep- not even the usual 4 am dustcart or honking buses, who were still on holiday- had awoken us.