Published:  11:54 Friday - December 16, 2016

Revelers in Hanoi are to be treated to Lunar New Year’s Eve fireworks displays at 30 venues in the city’s center and rural neighborhoods, the municipal government has announced.

Fireworks explode over Hoan Kiem Lake in central Hanoi.

The most impressive pyrotechnic shows will be put on at Hoan Kiem Lake, Thong Nhat Park, Lac Long Quan Park, Van Quan Lake and My Dinh Stadium, whence fireworks will be shot.

In a related development, pedestrian streets around Hoan Kiem Lake will not open during the Lunar New Year because the streets will be largely empty while most people in the city head to their ancestral homes in other provinces, said Hanoi Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung.

He said on December 13 that the project to open pedestrian streets around Hoan Kiem Lake over the weekend would continue to be piloted for another six months starting January 1 next year to evaluate the impact of warmer weather.

The pedestrian streets have attracted large numbers of visitors in the past four months, but this was due to cool weather during the autumn and early winter, Chairman Chung said.

He added that hot weather in the summer could make fewer people go outside to walk the streets, so the time the pedestrian streets are in operation could be shortened.

Pedestrian streets around Hoan Kiem Lake are currently open from 7pm on Fridays to midnight at the ends of Sundays.