今年是中国的六十周年

It feels strange to say that this is the 60th anniversary of a country that boasts of a 5,000 year-old continuous civilization, but October first marks the 60th year of the People's Republic of China.  I'm sure you all know what that means:  FIREWORKS!  The celebrations are enormous, and yesterday the humble city of Yichang and its one-million plus residents all lined the streets downtown to watch a parade, dancing, and all kinds of fantastic shows.  As "foreign experts" a few of us foreign teachers received VIP cards and sat on a platform overlooking the parade, with the mayor of Yichang and the other important officials in attendance.  After the parade, we were taken to the only five-star hotel in Yichang where we ate dinner on the 39th floor.  We would have had a spectacular view of Yichang had the sky not been so murky.  The Party Secretary of Yichang toasted us and told me to "ganbei"* after he emptied his swallow of wine, and I didn't finish mine in one gulp.  After eating I tried to sneak pictures of the many 白酒 Baijou Faces I saw, after watching some newbies try it for the first time.  Baijou is the Chinese rice-liquor that burns your taste buds off on the way down, leaving each person with a distinct expression of being kicked in the stomach.  I tried to catch these on camera each time someone new tried the stuff.  Six hours into the celebrations the real fun began, as we traversed down to the edge of the Yangtze (长江) River to watch the fireworks display.

We foreigners had been "asked" to sing as a part of the celebrations of Communism's anniversary in China on the same evening but I managed to avoid the obligation due to the Foreign Affairs Office's generous invitation to the aforementioned festivities.  As much as I love to celebrate the birthday of their nation, I didn't feel quite right doing more for China's anniversary than I usually do for my own country's.  Alternating between being scared out of my pants and oooooooing over the explosions that lit up the Yangtze with colored patterns I sat there contemplating the beginnings of our respective countries, and wondered that both nations have come so far from where we began.

"This summer when you're being inundated with all of this bicentennial Fourth of July bruouhaha, don't forget what you're celebrating--and that's the fact that a bunch of slave-owning aristocratic, white males didn't want to pay their taxes."
-Dazed and Confused

*bottoms-up