i walked the streets of harbin city from 1125pm until 1215am. the first 35 minutes of my walk were the last 35 minutes of china’s new year festival, which began on february 7th, and ended on february 21st. this last day is known as the lantern festival. while every day during the two week spring festival is interrupted by fireworks, lantern day’s fireworks are the most numerous. from the time i woke up at 8am through midnight, the cracks and echos bumped in and lined up next to each other, no time for silence. the shot and singe; bursts of light, bouncing off the stoic gray high rises, each one coated with years of fossil fuel dust. pyrotechnic shrieks rallied down the alley ways. a war was being waged. sulfur filled the air. the gutters were clogged with red paper, obliterated exoskeletons, firecracker shells.
as i clambered up the concrete-slopes and over the floes of frozen-marbled garbage, i looked back down at the train tracks for the train that i kept hearing, but that never came.
doubling back and mounting the avenue sidewalk, the electromagnetic catcalls commenced. red steel vultures, taxis slowed to wait, to honk, to encourage. most of the vehicles on the road that night were taxis, almost all of them empty. drivers hoping to snag a walker, perhaps one last passenger for the night. some had pulled over and resigned themselves to lying in wait— fuel to consider.
further down the avenue, to my right the kentucky fried chicken. had finally closed its doors for the night, only a few scattered flourescent lights remained on to flicker. a woman, expressionless, mops the floor, i see her through the window, a kentucky colonel is etched, smiling into the glass. she walks away.
nearing the front gates of harbin institute of technology, several identical circular lamp post advertisements swoop overhead: ‘painless abortion’, ‘painless abortion’, ‘painless abortion’.
my roommate remembers the day china won the rights to the 2008 olympics. fireworks went off that day. the people were proud, to tell the truth, so was he.
