On 1 Oct, National Day, it seems most people in Nanjing had heard the sounds or seen the lights of the firework show over the city’s Xuanwu lake. Away from the facts that the show was truly beautiful and really impressive, there was another interesting aspect to celebration, the drone performance.
As the first part of the evening’s performances, at about 8pm, with the surrounding streets clogged by onlookers, the drones that took to the sky had light emitting properties, which when skilfully piloted could depict different figures as an ensemble; the national flag, the Yangtze River Bridge or, fittingly, the number 70. Xuanwu Lake itself reflected the colourful depictions to show a perfect balance between nature and technology.
The beautiful and inspiring pictures in the sky required 700 drones to participate in the performance, a number which also necessitated lots of volunteers, staff and police to help control the drones or maintain order and safety.
Civilian drone flying is especially popular in China, and Nanjing it is becoming a leading sport. The die was cast during 2014’s Youth Olympic Games, in which there were many drone performances. Nanjing has also abandoned the shows of live fireworks, now permitted only every ten years, a fact which has also spurred the rise of sport droning.
Its advantages over fireworks are plentiful. With less pollution and their reusability, given some creative programming, drones have become the 21st century’s replacement for fireworks.
Once the reserve of professional filmmakers or geographical survey teams, it has take but a few short years for droning to evolve to extreme sports and then to today’s household level. Indeed, top drone maker, Shenzhen based DJI, has seen huge increases in the number of visitors to its shop in Nanjing.
No wonder the the drones’ performance took centre stage in Nanjing’s evening celebrations for the 70th birthday of China.
