Last weekend my wife and I witnessed the largest firecracker display we’ve ever seen here in China…and that includes during the infamous Chinese New Year.  Usually a single roll of these small crackers is used for a wedding, but the owners of this new bakery and coffee shop down the street spared no expense on over 12 full rolls of firecrackers to be lit all at once to celebrate their grand opening.  As you’ll see, it lasted almost an entire minute.

When the smoke had cleared it became apparent that the only casualty suffered in this fire storm was the 2 meter long cake that had been punctured by numerous firecracker caps.  Don’t worry, though…this specially-made cake was still eaten by all who attended.  I guess they were just happy that no buildings burned down.

If you’ve never seen Chinese firecrackers before I’ll tell you now that this video does not do justice to the deluge of sound that these explosions cause.  It’s enough to drown out passing train.