Lights, water and fireworks City of Life: Hong Kong is it!

Hong Kong, a magnificent display of Chinese and Western holiday colors burst out from the side of buildings and later, from a dozen tugboats along Victoria Harbour – coloring the skies with the magical glow of the yuletide season.

CENTENARY GARDEN at Tsim Sha Tsui East, site of the Aqua Fantasia show.

The lights and fireworks announced the launching of CLP Lights Up Hong Kong, the first major program of the “City of Life: Hong Kong is it!” tourism campaign organized by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) in cooperation with the Hong Kong SAR Government’s Home Affairs Department, Leisure and Cultural Services Department and Tourism Commission.

Without a doubt, the extraordinary fountain show of water and fire held at the Centenary Garden at Tsim Sha Tsui East; and later the staccato of lights and pyrotechynics dancing across Victoria Harbour, will attract visitors to strengthen the city’s title as “Asia’s most popular Christmas and Lunar Year destination.”

HKTB’s chairman, Mrs. Selina Chow, said the tourism industry is capitalizing on the perennial popularity of Hong Kong’s magnificent skyline and harbor by adding exciting new elements to its well-established festive decorations.

The whole light-up ceremony was initiated by the lighting up of the buildings in Tsim Sha Tsui East, where the Aqua Fantasia fountain show was launched. All the districts of Hong Kong have prepared huge light-up displays which covered building facades, the skes of the major shopping roads, and even created a wall of glittering lights between street lanes.

One of these lighted walls is set to gain a new Guinness World Record as the world’s largest neon sign. The Sino Land Company Ltd. has constructed a 7,000-square meter lighting display on the walls of the Tsim Sha Tsui Centre and the Empire Center.

Hong Kong already holds the record for lighting celebrations with a display a 1999 display that covered an area of over 5,000 sqm.

On the other hand, the Aqua Fantasia show includes a 40-meter high “Pillar of Heaven” symbolizing the city’s energy and a jet of flame representing courage, creativity and dynamism. The seven-minute water show will be held twice nightly on 31 selected evenings. Visitors can enjoy it for free at the Centenary Garden.

Visitors can enjoy the magnificent lights of Hong Kong until February 26. A Galaxy of Light Tram Tour in a specially decorated MTRC train will travel along the MTR Kwun Tong Line to allow the visitors to take in all the light displays while listening to fascinating legends.

The serious shoppers can still enjoy Hong Kong’s reputation as the shopping capital of the world, this time covering more areas with the help of the “Kowloon Circle”, a hop-on-hop-off sightseeing bus which takes you on a circular route with 15 stops at shopping districts.

More than 200 members of the overseas travel trade and 114 media guests from 18 countries attended last weekend’s events.

The HKTB has prepared a thick volume of activities for “The City of Life: Hong Kong is it!” tourism campaign that will present new tour options aside from shopping and dining. The variety of tours will show the city’s other attractions such as the “green side of the city” in Lamma Island and the New Territories.

CLP Power Hong Kong Limited is the title sponsor of the light-up project.