China Post - Flora Expo set to open with record fireworks

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Taipei International Flora Expo will open this weekend with a dazzling fireworks show that will establish many new records in Taiwan, the Taipei City government said Tuesday.

The more than 110,000 fireworks to be launched will be the most ever for a single show, and the show's one-hour duration will be the longest ever in the country, according to Tuo Chung-hwa, commissioner of the city's Department of Information and Tourism.

The 6-kilometer fireworks relay linking the Dajia Riverside Park adjacent to the Keelung River and the historic wharf of Da Dao Cheng on the Danshui River will also be the first of its kind seen in any fireworks show in Taiwan, Tuo said.

Fireworks master Ricardo Cabeller, who designed the Olympic logo fireworks at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, was hired as the show's chief adviser, he said.

According to the department, the show will begin with five low-sky firework displays at the Dajia Riverside Park that were designed by teams from Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy and Spain. Each group will last six minutes.

They will be followed by the fireworks relay, which will feature the plum blossom — the logo of the Flora Expo and Taiwan's flora emblem — and heart-shaped fireworks that represent heart-to-heart relations between the five continents.

The final session of the show will highlight the theme “let the world see Taiwan,” with an 18-meter-high, 9-meter-wide map of Taiwan featured as its centerpiece, the department said.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2010/11/03/278487/Flora-Expo.htm