Results tagged “fireworks”

Sometimes it seems as though there is nothing the government can't do. As we know, Beijing is going out of its way to ensure National Day celebrations run as smoothly as possible. With everything planned so meticulously and all those security measures put in place, we would hate for it to rain on our National Day parade.

This Lantern Festival, villagers in Nanchuan, China carried out a 500-year tradition - throwing molten iron against a wall to create showers of fireworks. The act, called 打树花 （da shu hua - or beating a tree for flowers), looks dangerous. But the throwers insist that it's not as long as you're not afraid to die.

Caijing has a spectacular article looking at some of the troubles still shrouding the CCTV fire from last month, and they don't all have to do with the destroyed building. The blaze that gutted the TVCC building on February 9 may have also uncovered questionable financial deals made by high-level CCTV executives.

12 people have been detained by Beijing police over the illegal fireworks that allegedly burned up the TVCC complex. Four CCTV staff members and the eight employees connected with the company hired to fire off the fireworks display have been detained for their suspected roles in causing the fire. CCTV said the fireworks had been powerful enough to require a special permit, but the broadcaster had not applied for one and deliberately ignored police safety warnings. Source: AP

While some of us spent Chinese New Year's Eve enjoying grilled seafood on a beach in the Philippines, Luis Tapia of Shanghai-based Daedalum Films was lugging his camera to a Shanghai rooftop to record the fireworks. The results, as you can see above, are beautiful (be sure to watch in HD). Thankfully, the video does not include actual sound (you probably got enough of that last night). Instead, the soundtrack is "El Pico" by Ratatat. You can buy that song on iTunes. Enjoy.

                              

[Monday, 10pm] People are currently aTwitter with news that that Beijing's CCTV headquarters has gone up in flames, and from the following pictures snapped and uploaded by various eyewitnesses (including some amazing on-the-scene photos by real estate tycoon and CEO of Soho China Pan Shiyi), the fire looks pretty damn bad and appears to have engulfed the part of the complex that houses the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Beijing. Given that today is Yuanxiao Jie (元宵节) which marks the culmination of the Lunar New Year festivities, it is not unlikely that stray fireworks were the cause of this disaster. Follow what the China Twitterati is saying at #cctvfire. Videoclips after the jump.

More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here).

More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here).

• About 30,000 cleaners swept up 1,200 tonnes of fireworks debris left over from Sunday night's big celebrations.
• Originally scheduled for launch in August 2008, the much-touted luxury hotel Jumeirah HanTang Xintiandi Shanghai, will now be open for business sometime this year.
• Chinese government officials have denied U.S. Treasury secretary nominee Timothy Geithner's allegations that China is manipulating its currency.

    

Welcoming the New Year a tad prematurely, a fireworks stall on a busy Xi-an street ignited, setting off a chain of explosions that went on for about 20 minutes, burned up at least seven cars and reduced about 100 meters of similar fireworks stalls to ashes.

A fireworks technician died yesterday in an explosion in Century Park, Pudong — and he wasn't even lighting any fireworks. 26 year old Pu Jiliang from Henan province died on the spot at around 12.30pm when he was loading onto a truck near the gate of the park. Fireworks displays by Russian, Japanese, German and Chinese artists had been scheduled at Century Park for Sept. 30, Oct. 3 and Oct.6 as part of the National Day celebrations. No other casualties have been reported and the police have not furnished more details surrounding Pu's mysterious death.

The closing ceremony of the Beijing Games was star-studded and glitzy as promised, but those that came expecting to be wowed off their socks as they were by the opening went away disappointed (read the reactions from China-based twitteratti). After all, Zhang Yimou and company did so spectacularly well in the opening they couldn't have possibly done better. Or could they? Quite frankly, we thought the ceremony was going to end after David Beckham's grand appearance and the Olympic flame was extinguished, but it went on for another good hour or so with Chinese singers belting out one song after another — from traditional Chinese folk tunes to pop to what have you. The grand finale featured performers representing 56 ethnic groups singing, “Please Stay, Guests From Afar,” and as John Branch of the New York Times notes, many of the athletes and fans decided to head for the exits when they realised the happy minorities were taking forever to wave goodbye. The fireworks though were definitely a highlight of the evening and were masterminded by Chinese artist and gunpowder expert Cai Guoqiang, whose personal exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York was the best attended exhibition ever of a solo artist there.

• The World Expo Tunnel, which stretches beneath the Huangpu River, connecting Pudong and Puxi reached its full length on August the 20th: it's 2.67 kilometers long, and located 1.117 kilometers below the river.
• The soccer World Cup qualifier match between North and South Korea has been moved from Pyongyang to Shanghai, because the North had refused to play the anthem or fly the flag of its opponent (technically the two Koreas are still at war). The match is scheduled for September 10, sounds like an interesting game, eh?
• Migrant workers in Shanghai will be able to claim unemployment benefits and have the right to get health benefits while they are employed. This was stated by the department of safety in labor this week. Welcome news for a group who are definitely in need of a few more rights.

A gamer's perspective on Beijing's CGI footprints at kotaku.com.

In Shanghai on the Bund BY RYAN POLLACK

No injuries or deaths were reported¹, surprisingly, but then again we left before it was all over (got tired of getting hit by shrapnel). The video starts sometime before midnight and ends sometime after. And yes, our ears are still ringing.

By Derek Sandhaus