Kim's Blog: National Day Fireworks on Victoria Harbour

Yesterday was National Day in China, a day to celebrate the 59th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Hong Kong celebrated with a grand fireworks display over Victoria Harbour. A friend of David's, Russell, rented a boat to take 30 people out into the harbour for a ride, dinner and viewing of the fireworks show. We met at 6 pm at the Central Ferry piers. It was very busy as many people were similarly going out on boats. We waited for our turn to get on our boat, called Little Twin Star. Once aboard, we headed out to Kowloon Bay where we then stopped to have dinner. Everyone pitched in with food....a few people picked up the main course at a restaurant and brought it aboard...ribs, beef roast and chicken, olives, Greek salad, potato salad, and more. Others brought beer, wine, water, juice, dessert etc. It was a lovely warm evening, not hot, not cold, just very pleasant on the boat. We cruised, listened to music, and I met numerous people, many from Russell's church. Some new mates included an Australian, a South African, an American from Indiana, but more recently from Colorado, and several local Hongkongers (that's how the South China Morning Post (SCMP) refers to Hong Kong people). Russell, I found out, is originally from Miami. It was fun being in the harbour, which was quite crowded. We saw some intersting sea-faring vessels, including a boat with a dragon on the top, and another pretty junk called Spysea. The SCMP said nearly 300,000 lined the harbour to watch the 23-minute fireworks show.