The grand fireworks display "Tonight is so Beautiful" was splendidly presented along the bank of the Huangpu River on October 20. The magnificent fireworks demonstrated the host’s warm welcome for all the APEC member economies and also its good wishes to them for achieving the common goal of prosperity in the new century.

The display lasting for about twenty minutes was made up of six parts: "Happiness Falling from Heaven", "Peonies Blossoming", "Flying Dragon in the Sky", "Imaginary Universe", "Good Wishes" and "The Pearl Sparkling in the East".

The magnificent fireworks extended for 1,800 meters from the Astronomical Observatory to the dock of the Yangtze River, covering all the 23 Multi-National Buildings along the Bund. 5 ships plus 10 cruisers in the Huangpu River and the three columns of the Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower were also shining with golden light, which melt into the former. Arising from the River surface to the height of 300 meters in the sky, multi-layered and rich-colored fireworks formulated an extremely spectacular picture.

Among all six parts of the display, the first, third and sixth part were the most eye-catching. When the first amazing part of the display "Blessings Falling from Heaven" is to drop, two ships launched simultaneously 1000 sparkling pieces of fireworks along the surface of the water forming a red carpet with 80 meters long and 250 meters wide, together with four large letters "APEC" sparkling brilliantly between the Huangpu Park and the Astronomical Observatory.

The third part was equally wonderful. After fleeting 300 meters long over the water surface, a tiny bit of sparkling suddenly is to spring onto the Multi-national Buildings, racing along them at the speed of 60 meters per second and in no time transformed into a 1000-meter-long dragon. And when it approached the far end of the Buildings, the "giant dragon" turned its head and vanished suddenly.

The most extraordinary one of the whole display, however, was undoubtedly the last chapter "The Pearl Sparkling in the East". The designer with full imagination had compared the Multi-national Buildings Assembly with a huge piano and the 23 individual buildings with its keys. Using a computer-control system, fireworks were shot above the buildings to the rhythmical musical accompaniment. After that, a 10-meter-high and 1800-meter-long waterfall fireworks rushed downwards the Bund and simultaneously 2,001 red lantern-shaped fireworks filled the sky, symbolizing the 21 APEC member economies pursuing together a better future. At the same time, the climax came when fireworks rushed skywards from above all 23 Buildings.

The Shanghai Oriental TV Station, organizer of the display, stated that the most advanced computer system and multi-media means had been applied to the staging of the show and that the newest and most beautiful fireworks in the world had been integrated into the Chinese traditional fireworks arts. The scale and the diversity of the fireworks display were unprecedented within China, prompting the organizer to apply for recognition of the current fireworks display in the Guinness World Records.

( 0ctober 21, 2001)