Some days are better than others, but this days definitely wasn’t one of those. I spent most of the day sorting out my tickets and hostels for the rest of my trip. The railway station ticket office didn’t want to sell me any tickets for more than 3 days in advance, and the hostel charged 40 rmb commission per ticket! Suckers. The wifi at the hostel was the worst I encountered my whole trip as well, so getting my hostel reservations was a game of patience as well.

In the evening I set off with some friends, which I’d previously met in Beijing, to the Bund. Getting there was an experience in itself, as there were masses of people trying to get there and police or military standing all over the place blocking off streets or directing us elsewhere.

The firework itself was quite nice, nothing too special though in my opinion. Furthermore, Chinese people are super unenthusiastic about it. They came only to look at the fireworks and as soon as it was done quietly shuffled back to the metro stations. No screaming “Happy New Year!”, no sparklers, no hugging, no drinking, no dancing.