Spring Festival

We came back to even more changes in our complex, with our security guards now drilling in and running around the center courtyard.We have put up more decorations in the apartment
and have met some other foreigners at Xiada. We joined them to watch the Street Festival in Taiwan Street ( a half hour bus ride from our apartment) where we hoped to see a famous Dragon dance for Chinese New Year.

The street had been closed off to traffic and people were gathering to watch. The uniforms of the traffic police and regular police are winter - this shows the difference with the khaki being traffic police. Although they both have very different functions (but we haven't worked out what as yet) today they were both doing crowd control.
There were around 15 groups who performed various dances - we believe inspired by the various ethnicities of the chinese in the province. The first dance had both Lions and Dragons which Mummy thought strange as usually just the Lions dance or just the dragon. Two dragons and four lions demonstrated their skills (we later saw a dragon dance group practicing at the Xiada sportsground - very hot work).The dragons were looking for the pearls (two balls held on sticks) which signified their continuing search for wisdom whilst the four lions performed various acrobatics (in the south of mainland China, lions dance to exorcise evil spirits and to summon luck and fortune) it was very entertaining.

The costumes were colourful and the music very, very loud. We were thankful not to be near the speakers.
The last group was once that included clowns - Alex enjoyed that. Vantage places were keenly sought - one police truck had 20 or so people in its bed and ended up with a flat tyre!
Sebastien had a great view on Daddy's shoulders.Alex had a curbside seat with the other children. We didn't see any other laowai there. A bamboo seller (you chew it and spit out the cellulose - onto the ground if you're chinese) had a brisk trade with all of those thirsty crowds - no stores selling drinks were in the immediate vicinity.
Alex and Charles hit it off and it turns out that Charles is in another class, the next highest one, at her You Er Yuan (kindergarten) and speaks both mandarin and english.

Once the parade and performances were finished, we dispersed with the rest of the crowds back to the bus stop. On the way we passed some street food vendors - this is the prepared food for grilling.
Red lanterns are everywhere during this festival - you might have noticed them in the trees in some of the photos. At the start of Taiwan street there was this large display - no idea what the hanzi are!
We also saw smoke coming from the top of an apartment building and witnessed the arrival of the fire department - noting that chinese fire engines are red.
We said goodbye to Jamie, Bryan, Charles and William (and their grandparents) as they were going to check out the big mall nearby. We took a bus home and grabbed a dinner of bao zi on the way home. We finally worked out that there was a price list/menu at the shop - we'd just been oblivious all this time! Most savoury bao zi are 5 mao (half a kuai or around 7 US cents) whilst sweet bao zi are 6 mao each. Now we just need to work out what's in the mystery meat!