30,000 fireworks to set handover anniversary scene
A 23-minute, $3.5 million fireworks display will light up Victoria Harbour on July 1 to mark the fifth anniversary of the handover, it was announced yesterday.
A total of 30,000 shells, imported from the mainland, Taiwan and Japan, will be fired into the night sky from three barges and eight boats at 8pm, according to sponsor Hong Kong United Youth Association.
Display designer Wilson Mao Wai-shing said the programme would feature 11 scenes depicting the different eras of Hong Kong: as a barren rock; a fishing village in the Qing dynasty; the Opium War; British colonisation; the economic boom of the 1960s; the change of sovereignty; and the present day.
Mr Mao said it would be the first time a Hong Kong fireworks display had featured the history of the former British colony.
A soundtrack accompanying the display will feature 10 songs marking the different historical periods, including music from the film the Last Emperor, Can't Buy Me Love by the Beatles from the 1960s, and the Canto-classic Below The Lion Rock, the theme song from the RTHK programme of the same name in the 1970s.
'But we will leave the Opium War scene silent and colourless. Spectators will only hear cannons and see the scenes of gunshots in the sky because there was nothing happy about that dark time,' Mr Mao said.
'Despite the economic hardship nowadays, we wish to remind Hong Kong people that life in the old days was even more difficult. If our parents and grandparents could live through those difficult moments, we should not give up nowadays.'
The PLA military band is preparing for a show which will include dancing, marching and solo performances to mark the handover anniversary.
It will also demonstrate its traditional training programme at the Hong Kong Coliseum on July 6.
