On the evening of December 31, 2022, the Beijing New Year Countdown 2023 was held by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism at Shougang Park. Under the motto “A new journey, a new chapter”, a panoramic and immersive visual festival in a connection form was presented for the first time in the large industrial area of Shougang Park, demonstrating the charm of Beijing’s integrated tradition and fashion. Vitality of urban renewal and high-quality development in the new era, and the burning desire for a better life. It also expressed our firm confidence to move forward boldly to achieve the next centenary goal.
This event saw new breakthroughs in spatial arrangement and visual presentation. First, a 3km light corridor with a few landmarks was created along the High Line Park – with the iconic 1st and 3rd Blast Furnace as the backdrop to the light show. The entire park was interconnected and interacted with light and shadow to create a large-scale, panoramic and immersive show. In terms of visual presentation, 3D mapping technology was first applied on a huge industrial building with a total area of 3000m2 to present a highly realistic 3D light scene that perfectly integrates architecture with culture, science with art, and exudes innovation of industrial sites and Olympic heritage and also stressed the vitality of our ancient capital for the future.
At 11:50 p.m., a number of landmarks in Shougang Park’s High Line Park were lit up one by one, from the fiery blast furnace to the crystal ski-jumping platform to the morphable and colorful tower, just like a flowing light-shadow corridor that marked the prelude to the turn of the year 2023 In three chapters of “Ancient Beijing Charm”, “Dual Olympic City” and “New Era of Beijing”, the traditional cultures were presented on three huge towers through light-shadow art, including seven world heritage sites, eight wonders of Yanjing and Beijing- Opera that showed the wonderful historical moments and also demonstrated the vitality and colorful life of Beijing in the post-epidemic era. The fourth chapter, “Magnificent China”, was introduced with a brush in the hands of little actors of the Angel Chorus, a long scroll with beautiful Chinese landscapes was slowly unfolded on the three towers, accompanied by the pure and melodious children’s chorus “We Sail Together” . You can feel the majesty of the mountains and rivers in the vastness and appreciate the lively times.
At 11:59 p.m., the fifth chapter, “A Better Tomorrow,” brought the activity to a climax. On the main screen of the water drying tower and a blast furnace, the camera guided people’s eyes all the way along the central axis of Beijing, past the Yongding Gate, the Temple of Heaven, the Zhengyang Gate, the Forbidden City Meridian Gate and the Jingshan Mountain , Bell & Drum Tower and finally return to Shougang Park where the New Year will be heralded with the exciting countdown of “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1”. At 12 midnight, as the New Year’s bell rang through the sky, the entire Shougang Park was brightly lit with the cheerful and warm images of “Happy New Year” and “Hello 2023”. Beijing sent its most sincere greetings to the world. Mayors from Edinburgh, Jordan Petra, Port Louis, Mauritius, Cape Este, Uruguay, and Wellington, New Zealand (members of the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF)) also sent their New Year’s greetings to Beijing via video, and people from five continents collectively welcomed the new year and shared joys together.
Since 2011, the Beijing New Year Countdown has been successfully held for 11 sessions at such places as Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Badaling Great Wall, Olympic Green (two sessions), Imperial Ancestral Temple and Olympic Forest Park (two sessions). , Yongdingmen and Shougang Park (two sessions). This has become a part of New Year celebrations in all time zones around the world and also a cultural card sent from Beijing to the world. In the new year 2023, Beijing will continue to move forward hand in hand, move forward with one heart, seek a new journey, and write a new chapter with its charming urban culture, broad and inclusive spirit, and changing times!
