State of the Art Fireworks Paintings above Beijing for National Day

1st of October in China will see the 60th anniversary of new China.

To celebrate, the city of Beijing will host a massive fireworks display. The display will last over a half an hour and will use twice as many fireworks as the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 - That's a lot of fireworks!

Just as exciting is the news that 3 massive fireworks paintings will be hung over Tiananmen Square for about one minute.

The fireworks paintings, 90 m long by 25 m wide each, are the largest of their kind in the world. Six huge cranes, each weighing around 250 tons, will be used to ensure these fireworks paintings hang in the air safely.

Zhang Heping, deputy commander of the event declined to reveal the themes of the paintings but told of how experiments have been carried out at Peking University to ensure the mammoth sized fireworks paintings can resist any strong winds.

With a total surface area of over 2,000 square metres, this is no small feat. Indeed the executive director of the event, Jia Ding, said that the paintings may make it into the Guinness Book of World Records!

The mammoth task of installing the fireworks paintings, which usually takes about 1 week, must be done in less than 5 hours. An operation of this scale could only be achieved by the industrious people of China. Expectations are high.

The Fireworks display itself has been designed by Cai Guoqiang, the man responsible for the incredible and elaborate (if indeed faked) footprints that walked across the Beijing sky during the Olympic Ceremony in 2008, stunning the entire world.

The display for the National Day fireworks is expected to outshine last years display with a massive scale, and artistry and style unrivalled by anything see by the world to date.

There will be 99 separate launching sites around Beijing 16 districts so no matter where you are in the city, the fireworks will be bright. Although the main venue will be Tiananmen Square and its surrounding area.

The fireworks show will use the art form of painting and Chinese calligraphy to surprise audiences around the world. This is going to be a big one people!

Sit back, wait patiently, and prepare yourselves for the grandest fireworks display in history. We will, of course, be bringing you video from the event as soon as we have it.
Since writing this blog post, more news has been leaked about the fantastic fireworks pictures for National Day celebrations in China.

Spectacular 3D displays across the massive 90M by 25M screens will show beautiful scenery from around China, including rivers and mountains.

The Executive director of the event, Jia Ding, said that this will be something special to see. "The pictures are not still, but full of life, as if an invisible pen is drawing them in front of the viewers," he said.

The General Director of the show, Cai Guoqiang, told the Global Times that the three pictures will feature traditional Chinese paintings, children's drawings and contemporary paintings.

"This time, we will present the number '60' vertically to the ground on both sides of Tiananmen Rostrum," said Cai. This should be spectacular and worth seeing by all. It is a shame that the authorities there have told everyone to stay at home to watch it on the TV. People lucky enough to live in buildings overlooking the area have been told not to invite friends over for parties, not to open their windows or stand on their balconies. In other words, do not look.

It has been suggested by some that this will be another occasion for faking fireworks like at the Olympics. The old "look the other way people and we will just stick it on the telly using CGI" routine.

Zhao Weiping, president of Panda Fireworks, the fireworks team responsible for the show, described the achievement as a significant breakthrough. "We have made a technical breakthrough of portraying dynamic three-dimensional pictures after seven months' research," he said. Sounds very cool.

So watch this space once again, we will keep you up to date with what cool and revolutionary technology the Chinese are pulling out of the bag for this one.