National Day fireworks display in HK lure over 340,000 spectators

More than 340,000 spectators gathered at Victoria Harbour for a 23-minute National Day fireworks display featuring eight scenes, including Chinese animated film "Ne Zha" and giant pandas.

Launched on Wednesday night (1 October), this year's fireworks display was themed “Victoria Harbour fireworks shine across the motherland” (維港煙花 閃耀中華), featuring 31,880 fireworks illuminating the sky.

This year’s extended National Day holiday coinciding with the Mid-Autumn Festival, lasting eight days, saw a significant influx of travellers arriving in Hong Kong yesterday to enjoy fireworks with locals. By 9pm last night, the city's entry points recorded over 484,000 arrivals, including 225,000 from the mainland, exceeding the approximately 221,600 arrivals noted on the first day of last year's Golden Week. Many travellers arrived at Victoria Harbour as early as yesterday afternoon, waiting several hours to secure their spot, according to Sing Tao Headline.

The first scene of the fireworks display featured peonies, golden chrysanthemums, and silver sparkles, representing the spirit of struggle and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The fourth scene featured giant panda faces blooming in the sky, accompanied by green salute fireworks symbolizing bamboo forests, emphasising the panda economy and bringing hope to Hong Kong.

The finale, titled “Marching forward on the road to rejuvenation”, featured red, purple, and green fireworks set to the National Games theme song, celebrating the upcoming event co-hosted by Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau in November, while cheering on athletes nationwide. Meanwhile, other scenes were themed around "Ne Zha”, the Dongjiang water supply, and the Shenzhou-20 space mission. 

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, chief executive John Lee said that the eight thematic scenes featured national stories such as the Dongjiang water supply and the dream of space exploration, as well as popular local topics such as "Ne Zha”, giant pandas, and the National Games. "I am thrilled to celebrate the fireworks with all Hong Kong citizens and to witness our country's remarkable achievements together," he said.

Organised by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau and sponsored by the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, the grand display featured over 30,000 firing shells launched from three barges and six pontoons, with the total cost of the event around HK$18 million.

Don't miss: HK expects 8.76m cross-border trips during National Day Golden Week

Hong Kong is set to see a surge in cross-border travel during the National Day Golden Week, with nearly 8.8 million trips estimated by the Immigration Department (ImmD). The number of outbound and inbound passengers using land boundary control points will be relatively higher on 4 October 4 and 1 October 1, with around 660,000 passengers and 610,000 passengers respectively.

In celebration of National Day, Hong Kong also offered citizens free rides on ferries and trams, as well as 76,000 free single-journey MTR tickets. On 1 October, residents could ride trams and the Star Ferry route between Tsim Sha Tsui and Central, sponsored by FWD Insurance, as well as the Sun Ferry routes between North Point and Hung Hom and North Point and Kowloon City, for free.

Apart from free ferry and tram rides, the government offered half-price movie tickets by subsidising half of the ticket cost on 1 October. All commercial cinemas in Hong Kong featured half-price admission that day, with an estimated 190,000 attendees.

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