JAKARTA - More than 40,000 fireworks lit the sky on Tuesday night as Xiamen (mainland) and Kinmen staged a joint performance to mark the Spring Festival. The 30-minute attraction started at 20.00 on the first day of the Year of the Horse, with launches from two sides less than two kilometers apart at the closest point.
The annual event, which began in 1987, is said to have become a tradition that highlights the closeness of the Xiamen-Kinmen relationship. Reported by China Daily, visitors gathered on the water's edge on both sides, accompanied by celebratory music. Kinmen residents also performed barongsai dances.
A Kinmen youth, Chang Yang-yang, who watched for the third time, called the simultaneous fireworks a marker of closeness. "When both sides light the fireworks together, it shows that we are one family," he told China Daily as quoted by Wednesday, February 18. For Taiwanese businessmen in Xiamen, Han Ying-huan, the show was "especially meaningful", while expressing hope for cross-strait integration, as reported by Xinhua and China Daily.
Similar celebrations also took place between Fuzhou and Matsu, as residents displayed lanterns to show the same folk tradition. This year is called the 24th edition.
At the same time, cross-strait travel is reportedly continuing to recover. In 2025, cross-strait visits exceeded 5 million, the highest in six years. Fujian reopened group tours to Kinmen and Matsu in 2024, and earlier this month the mainland announced plans to restart similar tours for Shanghai residents. At a high-level meeting on Taiwan affairs, Beijing said it would facilitate cross-strait travel and expand non-governmental and grassroots exchanges.
Peng O-ya, a Taipei resident who has lived in Xiamen for almost 30 years, shared the fireworks moment with his relatives in Taiwan via video call. He hopes that people on both sides of the strait can join hands and realize a common hope.
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