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Handover party to go with bang worth $8m

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/are-fireworks-bad-for-the-environment

click to see what’s in fireworks, like dioxins etc, but soon the public, not only Jesus, will be able to walk on our ‘fragrant harbour’
Handover party to go with bang worth $8m

The night sky above Victoria Harbour will be lit by 50,000 fireworks on July 1 to mark the 15th anniversary of the handover.

Phoebe Man

Thursday, June 21, 2012

The night sky above Victoria Harbour will be lit by 50,000 fireworks on July 1 to mark the 15th anniversary of the handover.

Nine skyscrapers will take part in a pyrotechnics show to beef up the main 23-minute display that begins at 8pm.

The fireworks, to be fired from five barges, will cost HK$8 million.

To make sure everyone knows it’s the 15th birthday of the SAR, the number 15 in Chinese characters will appear 24 times in the first section of the display.

Wilson Mao Wai-shing, of Pyromagic Multimedia Productions, said the specially designed “HK 15” will appear alongside bauhinias and rain brocade willows.

The pyrotechnics display will link nine towers, from the Sun Hung Kai Centre in Wan Chai, to Jardine House in Central.

The others include Central Plaza, Hopewell Centre, Harcourt House, CITIC Tower, Queensway Government Offices, Cheung Kong Center, and the HSBC Main Building.

Owing to the inauguration of the new government on the same day, Chinese General Chamber of Commerce chairman Jonathan Choi Koon-shum said the last scene of the show will be called Scale New Heights.

Dandelions, red suns and red waves will crackle in profusion, and be shown with a Putonghua song, A Better Tomorrow, to signify the hope of a more prosperous SAR under the new administration.

“Had it not been the start of a new government, the fireworks display would have been on a smaller scale,” Choi said.

“The fireworks display can be seen as a present to the new government and all Hongkongers.”

Meanwhile, the head of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, Peng Qinghua, said “isolated conflicts” between the SAR and the mainland should not be exaggerated.

Speaking to Xinhua News Agency, Peng said a fuss should not be made about economic, legal and cultural differences between the two places.

He said they should seek common ground and exercise mutual respect to solve problems.

Asked if measures such as the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement may be seen as presents from Beijing, Peng said to some extent they are, although they are also necessary for mainland development.

Peng said while Hong Kong is facing new challenges – and deep-rooted problems 15 years on from the end of British rule – it has numerous opportunities to turn crises into opportunities.

He believes the economy will continue to progress as long as the SAR seeks changes while maintaining overall stability, as proposed by the new government under Leung Chung-ying.

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