Fire-Breathing Dragon Bridge:
Every Saturday and Sunday evening crowds flock to the Dragon Bridge in Da Nang to see the light and fire display.
The bridge itself crosses the river Han and is 666m long, 37.5m wide and has six lanes for traffic. Built between 2009 and 2012, it was opened to traffic on March 29 2013, the 38th anniversary of the liberation of Da Nang City.
Da Nang's local government is positioning the city as a second Singapore aimed at up-market tourists, for example it is spotlessly clean and street vendors have been banned (though we still saw plenty but none were a nuisance), and the bridge has a key economic importance for the city.
https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/construction-and-building/dragon-bridge-breathes-fire-into-economy
Anyone interested in the detail of the pyrotechnics should click on the link below.
http://www.colorkinetics.com/showcase/installs/Dragon-Bridge/
With the help of Mr Thuygen, our group hired a mini-bus to take us there in time for the display and we were all amazed by the throng of people who turned-out, very many of them Vietnamese.
The Vietnamese love to take their plastic tables and chairs with them when they go out. We'd already seen them set up impromptu on roundabouts (!) and at the road-side, with groups of people eating and drinking.
It seemed that most people had got here by motorbike.
And this is what we had all come here for.
As the lights came to an end, great sprays of water shot out.
Before the end, those in the know had already started to make their way home.
It was a veritable Formula One style starting grid for the motor bikers, revving-up loudly waiting for the signal that the bridge was reopened and hoping for the honour of being the first across!
And then they were off!!
A backward glance and our last glimpse of the spectacle.
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