BEIJING -- At precisely midnight on Sunday morning, when the Lunar New Year officially ushers in the Year of the Dog, Li Mingying intends to be cowering in her small apartment several blocks from Tiananmen Square. It is at that moment that 12 years of pent-up pyrotechnic frustration will be unleashed here in the national capital.
"I'm afraid I'll be injured," said Li, who is 72. "I'm calling some children and telling them not to buy fireworks."
Fat chance. This year, Beijing becomes the latest Chinese city to rescind a ban on fireworks during the Lunar New Year. The bans were instituted because of concerns about injuries, noise, fire and pollution, but public demand has prompted their repeal. Officials attribute the change to a desire for a more "festive atmosphere."
"Beijing people only do two things for Lunar New Year - cook good food and light fireworks," said Dai Qiansheng, 57. "When fireworks were banned, it took the atmosphere out of it. All these things about safety and the environment - don't worry about it. Give people some fun."
Dai is not quite an unbiased observer. His fireworks stand in the center of the city is stacked to the ceiling with boxes of Roman candles, firecrackers, noisemakers and cherry bombs.
In all, a total of 586 temporary stands have opened inside the city's Fifth Ring Road, or beltway, to sell more than 600,000 boxes of fireworks for the holiday this weekend. Demand is so great, The Beijing News reported, that as many as 1,000 stands were needed inside the Fifth Ring Road.
Inside Dai's small shop, Yang Chunxiang, 42, picked out his holiday arsenal as his daughter, Mengke, 15, watched silently, if expectantly.
"She was only a baby when it was forbidden," said Yang as he carried off three shopping bags of fireworks. "At my age, I don't care, but my child is excited. Everyone is buying them, especially people with children."
The process of repealing the ban started last year and offers a small example of how city governments in China are increasingly soliciting public opinion on certain nonpolitical issues. Newspaper editorials as well as individuals had complained the ban deprived ordinary people of an ancient Chinese tradition, which holds that lighting fireworks scares away evil spirits and heralds the New Year.
