Citizens of a Jiangsu city were recently treated to an entirely-unexpected and completely-free-of-charge fireworks show. And that was the result of thousands of illegal fireworks being soaked in petrol and a match being lit.
江苏某城市的市民最近欣赏了一场完全出乎意料且完全免费的烟花表演。这是数千枚非法烟花被浸泡在汽油中并点燃火柴的结果。
Petrol, known to our American friends as gasoline, or simply gas, should somewhat obviously never normally come into contact with fireworks. “Never the twain shall meet”, as Rudyard Kipling famously wrote.
汽油，被我们的美国朋友称为汽油，或简称为天然气，显然通常不会与烟花接触。正如拉迪亚德·吉卜林 (Rudyard Kipling) 的名言所言，“双胞胎永远不会相遇”。
And that’s what was so eyebrow raising about the manner in which the disposal of fake fireworks and firecrackers was approached in the city of Yancheng on the coast of our very own Jiangsu Province.
这就是我们江苏省沿海城市盐城处理假烟花爆竹的方式令人惊讶的地方。
On 23 September, police in northeastern Sheyang County of Yancheng headed up the effort to destroy all the fake fireworks and firecrackers they had captured within their jurisdiction so far this year.
9月23日，盐城射阳县东北部警方牵头，将今年以来在辖区内缴获的假烟花爆竹全部销毁。
Reporters for The Paper interviewed officer Geng Qichun (耿其春) of the Jiangsu Sheyang Public Security Bureau (江苏射阳县公安局) standing in front of literally hundreds of large boxes of illegal fireworks. Somewhat unbelievably, the police had come across them illegally stored in a residential area.
澎湃新闻记者采访了站在数百大箱非法烟花爆竹前的江苏射阳县公安局民警耿其春。令人难以置信的是，警方竟然在居民区发现了这些物品的非法存放。
At around 16:00 on Friday, on open ground along Sheyang’s coastal beach, stevedores unloaded the fireworks and firecrackers, piling them into a deep ditch, after which police officers soaked them in petrol.
周五16:00左右，在射阳沿海海滩的空地上，装卸工将烟花爆竹卸下，堆入深沟，随后警察将其浸泡在汽油中。
Then the torch was lit and the sky above became ablaze with a firework show that would impress anyone.
然后火把被点燃，头顶的天空被一场绚丽的烟花表演所震撼，给所有人留下了深刻的印象。
All in, more than 9,000 pieces of illegal fireworks and firecrackers had been destroyed by around 18:00.
截至18：00左右，共销毁非法烟花爆竹9000余枚。
China’s near obsession with fireworks for use on auspicious dates means the country has a near-continuous problem with fakes. As The Nanjinger reported at the time, ahead of Chinese New Year last year, authorities in Nanjing even took the step of offering members of the public rewards for reporting the illegal use or sale of fireworks or firecrackers.
中国对在吉祥日子燃放烟花近乎痴迷，这意味着该国几乎持续存在假货问题。据《南京人》当时报道，去年农历新年之前，南京当局甚至对举报非法使用或销售烟花爆竹的公众给予奖励。
