Kite Flying at Night in Shanghai
Walk through any park at the weekend in China and you’re more than likely to find groups of people flying wonderfully decorated kites high in the sky. This isn’t a pastime just for kids though, and as I found out in Shanghai a few weeks ago, aficionados of the sport have taken it a step further…
On my way to South Park (南园) I passed over an interesting bridge which had a road on top for cars and a walkway beneath for pedestrians and bicycles.
This unlucky stick man seems to have been involved in a serious accident.
Lit up in burning neon colours the bridge looked pretty cool at night, but beyond it was an even more fascinating sight – hundreds of shimmering lights, arranged in different patterns, suspended on invisible lines in the sky (sadly I didn’t get a good shot).
Close up it turned out that people had attached small LED lights to their kites allowing them to fly at night!
If you want to give it a try yourself you can find kits and pre-built LED kits of Alibaba. I wonder if this will take off elsewhere?