Busan Fireworks

Korea has a great deal of well deserved pride as one of the true Asian success stories. Everyone knows about Japan's remarkable post-WWII success. However, Korea's transformation is just as remarkable. South Korea did not get the support for rebuilding which Japan received after the war. It also suffered from the effects of the Korean war just 10 years later. Its first democratic elections were only 19 years ago in 1987. But in that short time the tiny country of Korea has become the world's 10 largest economy, with the second largest metropolis in the world, Seoul. Last year Busan was very proud to host the 2005 APEC summit. And this year, to celebrate the first anniversary of the event, they put on a spectacular fireworks display. I was told by one friend that the cost of the display was close to a million dollars Canadian. I went with Teal, one of the other teachers from the school. The fireworks were scheduled to start at 8 and we arrived at Gwangali beach at around 7:30.



It was a real madhouse. I will have to ask some of the Korean teachers at my school exactly how many people are supposed to have shown up. But the picture you see above is what the street looked like as we arrived at the very edge of the beach 30 minutes before start time. Gwangali beach is probably 2 -3 km long and the entire beach was like this. I would not be at all surprised to find out that we shared this experience with a million other people.



It took us from 7:30 till 8 just to find a place to see the fireworks. We were finally lucky enough to squeeze in to a great spot on one of the elevated tree planters. We got settled on our spot (right at the very center of the beach) only 5 second before the first fireworks went off. The picture above shows the view we had of the crowd on the beach itself. Everyone below us is on the steps to the beach and the beach itself. It really boggles the mind to imagine a crowd which is 2 km long and 100 meters deep.



The opening salvos were very impressive. The whole thing was choreographed to dozens of pieces of music, mostly classical, classic rock and a few love songs thrown in for good measure. Interestingly it was mostly English music. I really wished I had gotten a picture of the fireworks that accompanied one of the love songs. They had rockets which exploded into dozens of brilliant red flares which formed enormous hearts in the sky.



The whole event went from 8pm till 9pm and must have included more than 10000 fireworks. There were firework boats both in front of and behind Gwangali bridge as well as firework which were set off from the bridge itself. I remember during the 2000 millennium celebrations, many commentators said that the Sydney (Australia) fireworks, set off from the Harbor bridge were among the most impressive in the world. Having the bridge as both lighted backdrop, laser platform and launch pad, added enormously to the event. Especially since the Gwangali bridge is 7 km long.



The final crescendo was incredible, soaring classical music, enormous explosions and a million people cheering. I have posted a link at the bottom of this post to a movie of the last minute of the fireworks. Its not the greatest quality, because it was made with my still camera. Also it does not capture the hight of the fireworks or the noise they were making. But, it's still quite impressive and I hope you check it out and enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkLZ__N3A0Y