After my exploration of the city I decided to take a "quick nap" before New Years. I ended up sleeping a full 7 hour cycle and waking up at 11:00 pm, thoroughly ruining my chances of creating a non jet-lagged sleep cycle. I woke up and quickly made my way to the roof of the apartment because I was told that I was too late to make it to Taipei 101 for the celebrations. When I got to the roof I looked down at the streets and saw thousands of Taipei residents packing the streets moving together towards Taipei 101, a looming beacon of lights standing above the other buildings. I decided that I wouldn't miss out on the celebrations from not trying and made my way down to the ground floor, and into the crowd.
The entire city shut down as residents funneled from all different locations to centralize under the tower and usher in the New Year. After about 20 minutes of walking I made it to the base of Taipei 101 where I saw a big stage surrounding by floating advertisements from big companies, a multi-story image of a phone with a countdown to the New Year, and many many excited faces lighting up for a new start. I had the chance to see a couple performances before the countdown started including a Drum Ceremony and some speeches from people that looked important, but as it was all in Mandarin I kind of just nodded my head and pretended I agreed. I also saw what looked like the Asian version of Justin Bieber come up on the stage to the gasping of a surprised audience. I got a good laugh as he received more applause and cheering then the important looking (probably political) figure that came and gave a speech before the close of the ceremony.
Afterwards there was a massive countdown in Mandarin and a fantastic fireworks show started on the drop of the New Year. I managed to video tape the fireworks show but you will have to bear with be because for some reason I decided to turn the camera twice real quick and forgot that it doesn't stay straight. Oh well. Happy New Year Everyone!
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