Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Shanghai has welcomed the Year of the Dog with many a bang. Firecrackers have been going off all day and were in full force by 9 PM. It's now half past midnight, and the noise is just now starting to subside.
Not wanting to wrestle the crowds on the Bund, I watched the fireworks from my apartment window instead. I don't face the river and so couldn't see the spectacle downtown, but it seems each apartment complex has a fine show of its own. From my window, I could see four different sets of firework displays. Each of them was at least as long if not as large as any Fourth of July show I've seen. At the peak, I could see barely 5 feet from my window; the smoke was so thick that I could smell it through the glass of the sliding door. People also set off firecrackers in the apartment stairwells, and the noise ricocheted off the concrete so well that it sounded as if they were right outside my door. (Why do we pronounce "ricocheted" [rik-uh-shayd]?)
Nearly everybody in China goes home for Chinese New Year, so the government provides a week-long holiday to accommodate those who must travel long distances. We worked today (meaning Saturday) and will start again next Sunday in order to have the whole seven days in between as vacation. Travel is nearly impossible the days leading up to the New Year. I'm told that people who live in Hangzhou (a city very close to Shanghai) can normally buy train tickets the day of travel without worry, but for the New Year, they must buy tickets at least 10 days in advance!
We got a half day off today to start the New Year early. This afternoon I went to the Shanghai 'Book City,' a seven-floor book and media store with everything from "Marxism and Leninism texts" to Season 1 of Desperate Housewives on DVD (for less than 200 yuan!). Pirated media is widespread in China, and I always assumed that recording companies were especially upset because the cost of legitimate copies abroad is comparable to that in the States. Not the case - I saw several 'new release' CDs like Coldplay's X&Y and Moby's Hotel in Book City for 25 or 30 yuan a piece. I'm sure media companies still lose billions of dollars on pirated material in China - just far fewer billion than I thought!
By 4 or 5 o'clock this afternoon, pretty much everything was closed - banks, stores, restaurants, even taxis whose drivers were eager to get home for New Year's Eve dinner. Traditionally, people spend New Year's Eve with their families and have a huge home-cooked meal - so huge that they can't finish all the food. Thanksgiving or Christmas feasts in the States always mean a week's worth of boring leftovers, but leftovers after Chinese New Year signify an abundance of good fortune. I wonder what it means, then, that I pretty much skipped dinner today...
Not to worry! As a Dog, this year is supposed to be especially fateful for me. I just have to wear lots of red to ward off evil and encourage good fortune. Oh, and I've been meaning to cut my hair for some time, but now I have to wait a bit longer to do so. Chinese superstition warns against cutting away all one's luck and fortune right after the New Year. Well, superstition aside, if my experiences this past week have been any indication, I think the Year of the Dog will be for me a year full of challenge, excitement, and joy. Isn't it good fortune enough to have the opportunity to live and work in Shanghai?