Night Kites in Beijing

First night in Beijing:  Even though I was sleep deprived from a long (and complicated connecting) flight, I didn't want to waste any time.  Across the street from the hotel is a shopping mall that contains a surprisingly yummy Sichuan restaurant called South Beauty.  Surprising, because it is in a mall and apparently is part of a chain.  But yummy none the less :)

We had short ribs and sauteed greens to start, then I had an amazing snapper poached in spicy hot chili oil with sprouts, bamboo and fragrant peppercorns that crunched and released an almost perfume-y scent!  D had a thinly sliced pork sauteed with vegetables that was so flavorful it was almost bacon-like.  As expected, the portions were enormous and there was no way to finish it all (lord knows I tried).  I countered all that rich food with a glass of freshly crushed watermelon juice (yum!) and D had a TsingTsao (?) beer.

After all that I had to walk it off a bit, and being one of the cooler nights in Beijing recently (only in the 90's!) we walked down the main thoroughfare (6 lanes) and through some side streets.  Looking up I asked D what those strings of lights were in the sky?  He said they were enormously long kites strung with LED lights!  Look closely in the photo below of the street at night and see the kites strung with tiny lights!  I included a close up of the lights, best I could get so far.

I guess that is a nice alternative to the stars, which are never visible due to the smog.  I couldn't help but think that if you flew those over New Mexico you would get a rash of phone calls reporting UFO sightings! Hmm... future prank?