Hong Kong Lights Up!!!

21 February 2015

 Last night was fireworks night, and it was amazing!!!!!!

The Chinese invented gunpowder.  And then the Italians added various powdered metals to add colors.  And then the Chinese took that idea and ran with it, making all kinds of absolutely amazing fireworks, just for the beauty of it.

No, these aren't my photos, they are from the internet (but they are from the fireworks we saw last night).  I tried taking a few photos, but they were horrible, so I gave up and just enjoyed the show.

We decided to stay on the Hong Kong side, rather than going over to Kowloon, where it gets even more crowded. 

There were three barges set up in Victoria Harbour, so that the fireworks would be visible through most of Kowloon as well as Hong Kong.  We went down to the area between the ferry terminal at Wan Chai, and the new building that isn't finished.  Perfect place to view - the area by the water was packed, but we stood a little way back on the driveway, which was perfect!  We had a fabulous view of the fireworks from two of the barges and a partial view of the third set.

So, everyone was standing around waiting, and all of a sudden there was the triple blast of fireworks, only multiple triples!!!!!  Bam bam bam bam bam and the sky lit up!  The opening volley was like the grand finale anywhere else in the world!!!  Then on and on, for almost half an hour, all kinds of colors from golden yellow to magenta and hot pink to jade green and bright turquoise!!!!  Even electric blue, lavender, periwinkle!  Unbelievable colors, and some explosions had two or three colors all in one!  

And you know how some fireworks explode, and then the parts flying off explode a second time?  Well these had third level parts flying off and exploding!!!!!  There were the silver hot white explosions turning into gold glitter fading into the night, then hot pink fading into turquoise, then bright red exploding into little white dots like snow fluttering down!  And big white explosions with a red goat outline!!!!

But I think my favorites were the white flowers, that truly looked like three-dimensional petals coming out from various colored centers!  Really, unique fireworks unlike anything I've ever seen before!

The grand finale was like a grand finale on speed, just a non-stop explosion of light and color and sound, boom boom boom for a minute or two!!!!!  I've never seen such an exuberant set of fireworks as that last blast!!!!  Unbelievable!!!!

We were close enough to get the percussive blast that you feel resonating in your stomach, which I love - and we could hear the blasts echoing off the tall buildings in back of us!

For those who have the patience, I've added the youtube video that the Intercontinental Hotel posted, which seems to be the best quality video I found.  Really captures the beauty of the night!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Nu31L3bpeE