#yanshui

Yanshui Fireworks Festival 

Je suis dans un autre monde. Des milliers de personnes habillées comme des démineurs sont serrées dans les rues, attendant de se faire tirer dessus et exploser par des centaines de feux d’artifices.

L’action très intense ne dure que quelques minutes mais on se prend un énorme shot adrénaline. Ça surprend quand les rockets nous percutent (surtout sur la visière du casque !) et quand elles explosent sur nos pieds mais ça ne fait pas (trop) mal. L’équipement est indispensable par contre… 

Au détour de chaque rue, de nouvelles explosions illuminent les bâtiments et le ciel. Le sol est recouvert de restes de pétards et de fusées et une fumée de souffre inonde la ville. Je viens de vivre quelque chose vraiment incroyable !

> Plus d’infos sur ce festival (histoire, déroulement, etc) dans cet article.

It’s 2 weeks today since we went to Tainan with my colleague Young, his wife Wanwan and their friend Adolph (Jason asked and Adolph is aware that he shares his name with Hitler—he just saw the name in a book and liked it). Jason and I had to get up very early that morning to catch a High Speed Rail train to Tainan from Taipei Main Station. I always find these things highly stressful and so by the time we reached the platform (an hour early) I had already missed the train 3 times in my sleep. We made it successfully onto the real train and promptly fell asleep for the whole 3 hours.

At Tainan station our friends hired 3 scooters but curiously were only asked for 2 driving licenses. The original plan was for me to drive a scooter with Jason on the back, however after zigzagging down the road at a variety of speeds I agreed to Wanwan’s wise suggestion that I ride behind her, and Jason behind Young. For the rest of that day and half the next, we scooted everywhere. I had never travelled this way before and found that I very much enjoyed it. I was able to see everything without having to worry about the traffic or the route.

We saw as much of Tainan as physics would allow within those 24 hours (we didn’t see the night market because it started to rain). We went on a guided tour (in Chinese) around Fort Zeelandia; several times the guide used Jason as an example and asked him to pronounce various Chinese and English words. We explored Anping Tree House, which I realised is not a house in a tree, as I was expecting, but a tree in a house. We also floated through a mangrove tree tunnel, visited the associated sperm whale skeleton exhibit, and the temple next door. The following morning we squeezed in a few more scooter rides to Fort Provintia, Tainan Confucius Temple and another much smaller temple that happened to be preparing for a procession. As far as I understand, the event was to celebrate the union between this temple’s god and that of another. The small courtyard was populated by volunteers in matching T-shirts, drinking beer or sleeping, and their small elderly audience. After some waiting, the time finally came; there was much burning of incense, saying of prayers and jiggling of procession vehicles; accompanied by some extremely atmospheric music that made my hair stand on end, involving a gong and some kind of oboe that looked like a horn. There was an exciting dance performance, involving pink or orange floaty outfits, frenetic hip wiggling and cymbal smashings.

On the evening of the second day, we took part in the Feng Pao firecracker festival. Feng Pao is a famous and dangerous Chinese New Year celebration, unique (I believe) to the town of Yanshui. Huge cages containing thousands of firecrackers are set up along the streets and explode periodically for 6 hours. Participants stand close to the cages and aim to get hit by the firecrackers as it is deemed lucky and good for your health. This festival is the original reason Young invited me to Tainan—the event that sounded too crazy to miss. At last the time had arrived for us to dress up in all the peculiar gear we had purchased over the previous weeks. I wore a single set of underwear, 2 pairs of socks, vest, long sleeved T-shirt, tracksuit bottoms, dungarees, tracksuit top, denim jacket, gloves, trainers, mask, towel and clear plastic rectangle taped to the base of my motorcycle helmet. I tried also to wear a thin mack under the denim jacket but felt so hot I started to panic.

We went under fire 4 times. The first 2 times weren’t too scary as there was a dense crowd and I stayed back from the first row. The fourth time I wanted to get a video from a distance but somehow ended getting hit even more times than the first 3. The third time was one of the most intensely frightening experiences of my life. I was on the second row no more than 2 metres away from the cage of firecrackers, standing amongst a comparatively sparse crowd. The vital difference on this occasion was that it lasted twice as long as the previous 2 occasions. The firecrackers started, and everyone was running on the spot to avoid getting hit too many times on the feet and calves. Running on the spot obviously I was working up a sweat (adding to the lake I was already swimming in) and panting quite hard, this combined with the thick hot smoke outside and steamed up visor meant that I was near blind, and close to suffocating. This experience came with the incidental sting of firecrackers hitting my body and their deafeningly loud soundtrack. After a couple minutes I started to feel claustrophobic and on the verge of hyperventilating. I tried to get away but of course I couldn’t see anything and so it seemed like there were firecrackers flying from all directions. I decided to stand still and wait for the session to end while focusing all my energy on not freaking out, and at the same time thanking God that I didn’t live in a war zone. After 3 or 4 minutes I was able to safely open my visor and breathe. I found Jason and the others who I learned had an equally intense experience. Jason told me that at one point he was standing between the cage and the line of guardians wearing fireproof capes. His jacket, now completely covered in burn holes is an impressive souvenir.

The last day of our trip was spent mostly in the car. We drove quite a distance to see Nanhua Dam and valley, and Chiku salt plains but unfortunately it was too early in the season and Nanhua Dam was still full of water—our intention was to see the dry bed of the dam and the surrounding caves. Chiku salt plains were under construction so we weren’t able to see much of them either. Despite our plans not working out, we still had an interesting day. We stopped for a rest at a reservoir. It was remote and peaceful, as were the Taiwanese kids there watching stuff on their phones. For lunch we found the most incredible ‘restaurant’; basically a grubby garage housing piles of miscellaneous rubbish, a dirty steel kitchen, one peeling round table with lazy susan wheel, ancient karaoke machine and TV set, Taiwanese game show playing in the background, a shy dog, curious cat, an even more curious old man, and a friendly old lady. The lady cooked us a surprisingly delicious homegrown-cabbage noodle soup, and I didn’t even feel car-sick afterwards.

2013 Yanshui Firecrackers Ceremony, Tainan

The most exciting and dangerous firework festival in the world.

It holds during the Lantern festival. If you are crazy and brave enough, give it a try!!!!

鹽水豬頭飯

鹽水臭豆腐