Taking a break from South of France, in honour of bonfire night and the fireworks extravaganza that is Nov 5th, here’s some pics from THE best ever fireworks display I have ever seen.
It’s the opening ceremony of the East Asia Games in 2009 in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. As viewed from the Salisbury YMCA hotel in Kowloon.
These went on for about half an hour, solidly. You could even tune your hotel radio into a certain frequency to listen to the music that goes with the display! Epic.
Starts with lasers shooting out of the top of all of the hotels that line the harbour side.
Then come the fireworks, one after the other, being set off at the top of all the hotels, probably about a mile wide, absolutely brilliant!!
Then come the fireworks, one after the other, being set off at the top of all the hotels, probably about a mile wide, absolutely brilliant!!
Amazing circles and shapes in the sky, the Chinese definately know how to do a fireworks display, not surprisingly as they invented fireworks and gun powder!
The invention of fireworks can be traced back several thousand years ago to ancient China, around the time of the Han Dynasty (206-220 BC).
During that period, it was discovered that when rods of bamboo were lit on fire, they began to crackle and eventually exploded with an astonishingly loud sound.
People found the noise so terrifying that they started to use the pao chuk (or “bursting bamboo”) to frighten away evil spirits.
This display will take a lot of beating I have to say, we had a panoramic view across the harbour of the pyrotechnics as well as a flotilla of illuminated boats and performers floating past the dignitaries and audience.
A brilliant first glimpse into China and one that has whet our appetite to go back and see more of this fascinating, chaotic and colourful country.