No bang, no buck: What China has to give up for clean air this Lunar New Year
No delight of seeing fireworks, no income for firecracker sellers ... many Chinese cities have to forego tradition to protect the environment over the festive season
Ning Jiang loved his fireworks. Every Lunar New Year, the Beijing resident enjoyed driving his daughter to a local fireworks stall. He would watch with delight as the girl picked out her favourite pyrotechnics, favouring those shaped as bees, butterflies or even princesses.
But Ning preferred those smaller, basic firecrackers; the kind that always could be counted on to produce a bang so loud and so startling they would echo throughout the neighbourhood.
“There are traditions for holidays for follow and one of mine is to fire firecrackers,” Ning told the South China Morning Post. “What is a New Year’s celebration without firecrackers?”
More and more Chinese municipalities are about to find out.
Government efforts to curb China’s dire smog problem have led to bans on fireworks in 444 cities across the country since last year.
With the fast approach of Lunar New Year – when the sound of fireworks usually echoes across Chinese towns and cities – this year, authorities have extended the bans further, including Beijing, Tianjin and the provincial capitals Hefei and Changsha.