Light up The Sky

The first night of the Chinese new year here in Beijing was absolutely spectacular. From 7 pm until daylight the next morning, fireworks and firecrackers were going off nonstop all over the city. It actually sounds like a complete war-zone. The fireworks are in these big boxes that you light and run away from just in time. As for the firecrackers, they leave behind thousands of little red cartridges and the day after new years, there are huge heaps of them along streets.

The most incredible thing is seeing all these fireworks that go off almost in the middle of intersections! I'd love to see the Montreal police respond to that one...

Overall, I never thought it would be as amazing as it was. I thought Disney had pretty good fireworks. . .

Designer Hong Bao

Spending Chinese new year in Beijing has been one of the most amazing experiences ever. I'm used to spending summers in Beijing and so it has been amazing to see the difference between summer time and winter time in this city. As I've been busy every day trying to soak up all the new year festivities, I've fallen behind on what I would like to post.

On new years eve day, I went shopping to catch some of the big sales. I walked into The Gap and was handed an envelope. Then I realized it was an envelopes full of red envelopes (红包 hong bao - usually filled with money and given as gifts for the new year). 

Unfortunaly, they were empty... 

But overall I thought it was a really cute gesture made by The Gap.

...Even though I wish it had been somewhere like Alexander Mcqueen giving them out. Imagine designer hong bao?!?! I think I'm on to something . . . 

新年快乐！ 

ps. more celebration pictures to come!

Semo Namu

Sunday I stayed at a Pension called Semo Namu. Pensions are beginning to be very popular in Korea and the best way that I can describe them is that they tend to be beautiful getaways that might look like villas and that are relatively cheap.

Semo Namu is a little outside of seoul and is in a quite space away from the city bustle. There are only five rooms and each room is its individual modern looking fully furnished cabin. They even provide dinner upon request that is served on your mini private terrace. It's winter time so the pool is frozen over and being outside for more than 5 minutes isn't the most enjoyable but I bet summertime here must be really great too!

*Pictures in this post except the last one are taken from their website www.semonamu.com