Happy Chinese New Year!

I just got back from spending a few days over Chinese New Year in Beijing.  I'm so glad I decided to stay in China for the holidays.  It's the biggest celebration of the year, and people really get into the spirit of it.  The most amazing part though is the fireworks!  I've never seen anything like it.

Remember when we were kids, around Halloween, someone's dad would go to the Indian Reserve and buy firecrackers and fireworks, and that kid would make a killing selling us his Mighty Mites, and Supercharged Thunderbombs, and Jumping Jacks, and my favourite, Whistling Bottle Rockets.

Well, that ain't sh*t compared to what you can buy in China.  We went to this place that looked like a munitions warehouse and they had everything you could think of in there.  We bought a chain of 2000 firecrackers for like next to nothing.  And these things that looked like sticks of dynamite.  And this huge box - the size of a box of oranges - with just one fuse on it (I had no idea what it was going to do).  And I can't even remember what else.  We had so much firepower, I felt like Rambo.

We were kindly invited to a friend's house for a great home cooked Chinese New Year Eve dinner and too much Chinese rice wine.  We ate and drank until close to midnight.  And of course, what do you do when you're drunk off your ass?  Go play with explosives!!

Just walking outside, the air was completely filled with the smell of gunpowder, and it sounded like a war zone.

Here's a video of what the city looked like.  It's unreal.

Beer Testing - Round 6

Still undefeated, Harbin Beer goes up against Snow Refreshing Beer.

Defending Champ

Name: Harbin Beer

Origin: Harbin, China

Alcohol: 3.6%

Price: USD0.40/can USD0.11/100mL

Challenger

Name: Snow Refreshing Beer

Origin: Hangzhou, China

Alcohol: 3.1%

Price: USD0.45/can USD0.13/100mL

Tasting notes:

A literal translation of the large Chinese characters on the can reads something like "Brave Charge To The Corners Of The Earth" (someone correct me if I'm wrong). And you can see a silhouette of a guy mountain climbing. Well, I don't know about you, but if I'm dangling off a cliff, the last thing I want to be is DRUNK! So I find this a weird association. Added to the fact that this is even more watery tasting than the last one, I gave it my lowest score yet: 3/10.

Another easy win for Harbin Beer, with a score of 5.5/10. The winning streak continues!

Remains of the Day

Yesterday we went snowboarding at the indoor snow park.  It was my first time there, so I wasn't sure what to expect, although I set my expectations really low.  Yinqixing park is supposedly the largest indoor park in the world, at 14 stories high and 380m long, which is about the length of 4 football fields.  Above is a picture of what it looks like from the top.

The "snow" feels almost like sand, or like my friend Mike put it, "like riding on a slushie". 

 But the good thing is, it's kind of powdery and never icy or hard packed.  They even have a few boxes and jumps to play with.

The only thing that's not so great is getting up the hill.  They only have this super slow t-bar that I think you can walk faster than.  And I BROKE IT!  It wasn't really my fault, but I basically popped one of the springs inside the bar, so that it wouldn't retract when you let go of it.  They had to shut the whole thing down and make everybody move to the other t-bar which was EVEN SLOWER!  Sorry!! 

But overall, considering it only took us 20 minutes to get there, and it cost about US$30 for the day, it wasn't bad.  The only real downside to the day was that I totally destroyed my bindings. I guess because my board hasn't seen much action in the last couple of seasons, the plastic became brittle.  So throughout the afternoon, it slowly fell apart, until all my straps snapped and I was eventually only connected to my board by my leash!  Someone actually came up to me and wanted to buy my board, even though they new it was busted (I guess Burton boards are expensive here).  I contemplated it as the guy wanted me to name a price, but in the end, I couldn't part with it.  I've had this board for way too long and been everywhere with it - too much sentimental value.  But I guess it's finally time to lay it to rest.  Here's what remains of my little Burton, broken, in it's body bag..

New Kicks

My friends over at Puma sent over these nice looking kicks.  The Deckers are from their Volvo Ocean Race series.  Nice twist on the boat shoe.  I switched out the original waterproof laces and put some fatties on there though.

New Tee for the New Year

Hope you all had a great New Year's Eve!  We had a fun night here.  And what better way to spend New Year's Day nursing that champagne hangover, than over a few beers at Hooters!  It was actually my first time to the Shanghai one, so once the girls knew that, we got the special treatment - they all came over and sang a song for me.  Then we danced around the restaurant together.  Then we met Miss July from the Hooters calendar.  And then to top it all off, we got free t-shirts!  It's actually kind of a dope tee.