The Chinese certainly love their fireworks... we have mentioned that fireworks go off at all hours, but that is nothing compared to what happens during Chinese Lunar New Year and the Lantern Festival. The Chinese New Year festival begins on the first day of the first month in the traditional Chinese calendar and ends with Lantern Festival which is on the 15th day. (There is a lot of information on Wikipedia about the festival, if you want to learn more.)
The main thing you notice about the festival is the fireworks. The main shows presented by the city are on the 1st day of Chinese New Year and the last day of the Lantern Festival with the local people doing their best to fill every second in between with their own fireworks. We missed a lot of the fireworks since we were in the U.S. for most of the Chinese New Year celebration, but we did get back in time to see the finale. The fireworks put anything I have ever seen before to shame. Honestly, I think there may have been more fireworks going off in Xinghai Square, where we were, than in all fireworks shows I have ever seen before in my life. It was truly amazing. The show lasted about 30 min and never let down for a second.
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| This was taken from our bedroom window during the Chinese New Year Celebration. The launch site for this firework was the sidewalk outside the building, and the explosion went off around the 8th floor, so I am shooting up at it a little from our 5th floor apt. |
Here is a video from the show. (It gets really crazy around 1:40 into the video.)
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| We were about 800yds away from the launch site so we could get a full view. We picked our spot based on seeing ~40 Chinese people with professional cameras lined up in one area. I think they picked a good location. |
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| Here is where some scale is needed. The 3 big bursts you see here would be "Big Ones" the kind that most US or Canadian shows only shoot off one at a time in between smaller ones. At the bottom of each of these, there are 3 more about to explode, and on the ground there are an additional 3 about to launch. They would "Stack" 9 or more of these going off at once in a 15 second period. In the US this would be at least 5min worth of fireworks. |
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Here again you can see, well I can't count, but 10 or 12 big fireworks going off at once...
I am not joking here, this explosion is easily 400yd wide and each one is as big as any individual fire work you have ever seen. |
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| Here we have 11 going off, right on top of the remains of the last 10+ fireworks as they fall from the sky |
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| This one shot probably has more fire works going off than some entire shows. |
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