This is the only photo I snapped on the day we traveled back to Beijing from Singapore. We had to leave our hostel at about 4:30 am, so we could get to the airport on time. And we ended up taking a taxi, because we were up before the subways were open for the day. It was actually kind of nice to see a bit of the city above-ground.... It was just all dark.
The day after New Years, we went and took a walk around a Temple Fair grounds. They weren't letting people *into* the grounds by the time we got there, but we still could see the last remnants of a good week's worth of celebrating. And they were still selling these interesting candy apple/orange/something else on sticks.
I tried the apples.
Still not really sure what I think of them.
Looking in to the fair grounds as everyone leaves for the day.
There were decorations all over the city. And everywhere we went that day, and for several days afterwards, the noise of the city was punctuated by firecrackers going off on street corners or in parks, or really just anywhere you could lay down a strip of firecrackers and set them off.
I admit, I jumped a few times. Especially when it was late at night.
The extra haze of smoke made the already smoggy city feel dense and the air even thicker. The city had very few people in it (relatively speaking) as "everybody" goes home for the New Years celebration, and "home" means the family ancestral home in the countryside. Sometimes, it seemed like we had the city to ourselves, and we didn't have to compete with so much traffic (foot and otherwise) to get from one place to the next.
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