Charles Liu, You might not need your earplugs this Spring Festival since 700 cities across China are restricting or outright banning the use of fireworks during the holiday.
There has been a slow movement towards banning fireworks, which some argue is outdated, messy, and leads to air and noise pollution. As a result, 138 cities have banned them outright, including five provincial capitals, 30 cities, and 103 county-level cities. We wish we could tell you specifically which ones, but the list wasn’t published.
Another 536 cities across China have implemented restrictions on firework use, including four first-level administrative subdivisions (directly governed cities), 19 provincial capitals, 111 prefecture level cities, and 402 county-level cities.
The clampdown is, naturally, angering some Spring Festival purists who say lighting roman candles is a right of passage and ensures good luck. For those people, we can only recommend these newfangled electronic fireworks.
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