Fireworks in Vancouver

yesterday evening Vancouver hosted fireworks, sponsored by HSBC, part of a competition titled "Celebration of Light". The event was far more impressive than San Francisco's palty 4th of July fireworks, and it is only a glimmer of the finale on Aug. 5th.

I always found it amusing how we Westerners can say with a straight face that "Sure, the Chinese invented gunpowder, but all they used it for was fireworks, it took Europeans to use it in weapons" as if that suggested superiority of European civilization rather than the exact opposite...