Beijing Nights

For such a large and modern city, it was strange to find many streets without any lighting. Find yourself in this sort of gloom in any UK city and it would feel oppressive, even dangerous. Not so in Beijing, but that could be my ignorance of course. Yet I don't think so. People were wandering about quite happily and even some large groups were dancing on the pavement, all in near darkness. I have to say group dancing in the dark appeared very strange, yet at the same time, delightful. The only lights were from the shop windows themselves or from floodlights the shops themselves had erected, yet here were groups of shadow people twirling in graceful steps to distorted music from a battered portable tape player. Extraordinary.