Chinese New Year Fireworks

To celebrate Chinese New Year in China, especially with family, is a fun and fascinating experience: the festive atmosphere, both at home and out on the town; the excessive consumption of food and alcohol; and, perhaps most exciting of all, the fireworks. In 2003 I spent Chinese New Year in Shanghai, and the amount of gunpowder detonated in that city in the 16-day period from New Year’s Eve through the Lantern Festival absolutely blew my mind (no pun intended). As a childhood pyromaniac who hadn’t indulged in fireworks in many years, I was on fire with excitement (again, no pun intended)—though to anyone with normal sensibilities, it was like being in a war zone, with so many fireworks going off at certain times that you could barely have a conversation outdoors. My father-in-law and I burned (no pun intended, of course) a completely unjustifiable amount of cash on long strings of firecrackers, big batteries of rockets, and various other explosives. I strolled through the city streets, tossing firecrackers to and fro and setting them off in every nook and cranny to magnify the sound of the explosions. Obnoxious, mildly destructive, and environmentally irresponsible, to be sure...but also ridiculously fun. If not for my distaste for puns, I would be tempted to say that I literally had a blast. I’m just fortunate to have emerged from the experience with all ten fingers and all five senses intact.

In celebration of the new year, I present some spectacular photos that will give you some idea of what the experience of celebrating Chinese New Year in China is like. We at CIT are anticipating another successful year, and we’d like to wish all of our family, friends, and customers a fierce Year of the Tiger. Thank you for your support!

Fireworks make the city look
and sound like a war zone
(photo by Jaye Zhou)


It's amazing the city is
still standing afterward
(photo by Aapo Haapanen)


Outside viewing on high-rise
balconies is not recommended
(photo by Harry Alverson)


Mile-long strings of firecrackers
scare away evil spirits...
(photo by Ming-Yang Sue)


...and people, too, if they
know what's good for them.
(photo by Ming-Yang Sue)


Firecracker aftermath
(photo by Ming-Yang Sue)


A fireworks display at
Shanghai's Huangpu River
(photo by David Wong)

To see more fireworks photos, please visit the blog page on our website.