Happy New Year

As the door closed on the elevator, I asked our group of ten adults and kids “Are we sure this is what we really want to do?” Since this was everyone’s first New Year in Hong Kong, we had decided that we had better bite the bullet and do the Hong Kong-y thing and head down to the waterfront to watch the fireworks over Victoria Harbor. Sure there would be massive crowds, but we would get to see a world-class fireworks display.

The original talk had been to leave about 8:30 p.m.. But 8:30 came and went. We then talked about getting on the road at 9:00. But 9:00 o’clock came and went. I think that we were all postponing the inevitable. We all wanted to do this, but just not for any longer than we absolutely had to. Eventually, we got ourselves mobilized just before 10:00 p.m.

As we stepped out of the train station and turned the corner, we met a massive throng of people.

This could only mean one thing: that the main viewing area along the waterfront promenade was already at capacity. We found a small trickle of people snaking its way through the mass of bodies and heading to the east. We fell in line. We veered left and headed for a secondary but equally promising location.

Knowing where to go was not a problem; we just followed the lava-flow of people. After hopping over a few barricades and traipsing through a hotel’s landscaping, we finally got ourselves to the waterfront. It wasn’t the prime location, but it would give us a great view of the firworks exploding above the harbor with the Hong Kong skyscrapers all lit up in Christmas colors in the background. It was after 11:00 and we had less than our hour to wait for the big show. Perfect.

Over a sea of dark hair, I could see the Bruce Lee statue less than a hundred meters away. Cool, I thought, I’ll be ringing in the new decade with the Master himself.
Midnight arrived. Six or seven of the tallest buildings on the island shot off a synchronized round of roman candles from their rooftops. They were blue. When those were done, they shot off a round of red roman candles. Then came the green roman candles. Then, purple. Then there was a pause. My friend started to mumble under his breath.

“No, no.” I assured him, “That was just the prelude. They are just getting warmed up. After all, the Chinese invented fireworks.” Mumble, grumble. “Prelude,” I assured him. “Prelude.”

And then there was nothing.

Nothing except for a slowly growing tide of Hong Kongers reversing direction and walking past me. Seriously, that was it? No big firework balls exploding in the sky above Victoria harbor? No squiggling red fireworks cascading down? No big booms? No “Ooohs” and “Aaaahs” from the tens of thousands of spectators?

Nope. The whole thing was over and done with in less than three minutes.

Come to think of it, of those buildings across the way with scrolling neon signs, not one of them flashed a countdown to the New Year. There wasn’t any raucous applause or hooting and hollering at midnight. No one broke into a rousing rendition of “Auld Lang Syne.” There had been no noise makers. No silly hats. The ten of us stood there not sure what to do next. I heard my friend whisper under his breath “Prelude. Yeah, right.”

As the crowd thinned, I had a clear view of the Bruce Lee statue. Well, we could at least redeem the evening in part by going to pay tribute to The Dragon.

It was night and the light was low, but as I looked at the statue of Bruce Lee, he didn’t seem to have his usually bravado. He looked a little more chagrinned than usual. As I looked him in the eyes, he seemed to be saying “Yeah, sorry about that.” Apparently, he wasn’t all that impressed with the show his hometown had put on either.

“Its okay, Bruce. I am still glad that we came down. It was fun. And hey, I’m glad that I got to see you.”

As I started to walk away, I turned for one last view of the harbor. Bruce seemed to have regained a little bit of his bravado.

An hour later, we were back at our apartment. I took out my “273 Things to Do Before I Die” list. Let’s see: Run with the bulls at Pamplona, hike the Appalachian Trail . . . ah, there it is: Ring in the New Year while watching fireworks over Victoria Harbor.

Check.

Done.

Boy, I ‘m glad that’s over with.

I certainly hope that Big Wall every one keep talking about comes closer to matching the hype.

-Jack

Apparent the fireworks over Hong Kong photograph well.

This from my mother: Last night I saw a picture of Hong Kong on the tv with all their fireworks. Looks like they do it big over there by you. Did you see any of it?

And this in from my Aunt Joyce: Our paper had the photo of the week. It was a picture of fire works over or near the airport in Hong Kong. Did you see it? It had a big neon sign with "2010"!