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Stephen Chen

Safeguarding air quality or upholding an ancient tradition? Cities in China have had to choose whether to ban firecrackers and fireworks during the Lunar New Year holiday next week as the government encourages local authorities to crackdown on smog.
Tradition has won out easily.
While 138 cities have adopted a ban, 536 cities will allow people to celebrate the most important holiday of the year in China in the traditional way, albeit with various restrictions, Xinhua reported, citing data from the Ministry of Public Security.
Some cities with the worst air pollution are among the most determined defenders of the old tradition.
Hundreds of temporary stalls have been set up in Beijing to sell fireworks.
Citizens can set them off around the city, but a ban is in place in some areas such as the embassy districts of the capital.
Most people living in Shanghai appeared ready to give up the tradition for clean air.
Nearly 75 per cent of the people told an official survey that they were against fireworks due to concerns about air pollution.
But the municipal government is sticking with tradition and allowing the public to set them off.
An estimated 150,000 crates of fireworks will be lit in the city during the Lunar New Year festival, according to Xinhua.
Nanjing in Jiangsu is one of five provincial capitals to impose a total ban on fireworks.
Citizens violating the regulation could be fined or even jailed, according to local media reports.
More than half the police force in the city will have to give up their holiday to enforce the ban, the reports said.
Citizens will also be paid 100 yuan (HK$120) if they report their neighbours who set off fireworks, Xinhua reported.
A study by environmental researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University showed that one fire cracker can make 10 cubic metres of air “unbreathable” with harmful pollutants.
Fireworks and firecrackers also injure hundreds of people each year in China during the Lunar New Year holiday.
More than 80 people were treated in hospital and 13 buildings damaged in firework-related accidents in Changchun in Jilin province during the holiday period last year.
Firecrackers and fireworks are set off, under Chinese tradition, to drive away an evil monster that is said to appear at the end of the Lunar New Year.
 
 


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Fireworks explode over a residential area in Beijing. The city has set up hundreds of stalls to sell fireworks this year. Photo: AFP

News

China

Most authorities uphold the tradition of letting off firecrackers during the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar
