Fireworks in Chengdu

As I mentioned before, tonight we were going to see the national day fireworks from the 34th floor patio of our hotel. Before we could do that we had to check with the front desk to get our key card activated for that floor. This is the exchange that happened:

Girl at desk: Good morning sir, how can I help you? (I was going to try mandarin but figured this would be easier to explain in English)

Me: Hi. We'd like to check out the fireworks tonight from the top floor balcony.

Girl: Ok. What's your room #?

Me: 1805

Girl: and your name?

Me: Jordan

Girl: Ok. (she then picks up the phone and makes a call. I'm curious as to what's going on now)

Sorry, there's no answer.

Me: Yes - we are here. (I looked at Amy and we were totally confused with what had just happened - I switched to Mandarin)

She understood right away and activated our card. I'm still not sure why she called our room, but we had a good laugh before heading out for the day. I've found Mandarin immensely valuable here even if my level is fairly low. It's quite encouraging!

Anyway, after we had dinner we headed up to the 34th floor with a bottle of great wall red wine. Here is the view, red wine et all:

We got there at 7:45 and the fireworks were supposed to start at 8:00 at the end of the main road in the picture (there is a large public square with a giant statue of Mao). At 8:15 we saw small fireworks way off in the distance. Around 8:30 someone from the hotel stopped by and said they had wrong information and there would be no fireworks. As consolation they gave everyone free beer and snacks to take back. We were a little disappointed but it was still nice up there.

Instead of fireworks we have been watching Disneys "Up" in Mandarin. This is one of the movies I bought in Beijing. I've seen it in English before and have been looking for the Mandarin one for ages. As with the other Disney movies it is really well dubbed. I'll probably write about it more when we get back.