It’s not exactly a surprise that the Chinese like their fireworks. What came as a bit of a surprise is quite how often you hear them. Every shop opening is accompanied by a veritable blizzard of fireworks/ firecrackers. I’ve watched them as they lay out huge snaking coils of firecrackers on the street in front of the shop to be honoured. Apparently this helps scare away bad spirits and welcome in good spirits (I have no idea how the spirits tell the difference).
So what you say? Well the thing about Shanghai is that shops open and close CONSTANTLY. So every day there are many shop openings that are heralded with the loudest and most sustained noise possible. And it appears that the openings are celebrated as early in the mornings as possible. Gah! Actually the shop openings also involve a large number of flowers but I really don’t care how many of them they deploy to encourage the right vibe/spirits/ chi.