Fire in the sky

The sky over the Han River was ablaze tonight with an impressive fireworks display, part of the Seoul International Fireworks Festival.

Tonight's show featured displays from China and Italy, and next Saturday the festival concludes with the United States and Korea. The JoongAng Daily reports that the tab for tonight's show was 1.4 billion won (roughly US$1.3 million), and was picked up by the Hanwha Group.

The fireworks were fantastic, but almost more impressive was the number of people that turned out for the show. It was a sea of people, but unlike the rowdy crowds that have come to characterize the Celebration of Light, the crowd was well-manered and orderly. The police were out in force and did a great job moderating the flow of people into the subway stations to avoid a mad crush. It is a credit to Seoul's amazing transportation system that such a huge mob of people was able to disperse so quickly and so smoothly.

Click here to view more fireworks festival photos on my Flickr page.