“The rich play with fire crackers and the poor perform Da Shuhua.”

But when the sun sets on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year celebrations, hundreds brave the freezing February temperatures to see the town’s unusual pyrotechnic display, part of the annual Yu County Lantern Festival.

In ancient Nuanquan, while the rich celebrated the Chinese Spring Festival or Lantern Festival by setting off fireworks, many blacksmiths couldn’t afford the pyrotechnics. Inspired by iron striking, the blacksmiths started melting iron at temperatures of around 1,000 degrees Celsius and throwing it at a large stone wall to create an effect similar to fireworks. In contact with the cold stone, the splashed molten iron would generate beautiful iron flowers that rained down on the brave blacksmiths.

The effect was so spectacular that Da Shuhua gradually gained more appeal than fire crackers, and people started donating all their scrap metal to be used in the fiery celebration. Throwing molten iron soon became a tradition in Nuanquan and even gave birth to a popular local saying: “The rich play with fire crackers and the poor perform Da Shuhua.”

Over the years the celebration evolved into an even more amazing display, as the blacksmiths started experimenting with other metals, like copper and aluminium, to create green and white flowers instead of just red.

Da Shuhua is usually performed in the evening. The metals are melted in a furnace and placed in special containers at the base of a 10-metre high, 30-metre long city wall built in an ancient style. The performers, wearing thick protective clothing made of sheepskin and straw hats, stir the molten iron with wooden ladles dipped in water for three days in preparation for Da Shuhua. The ladles are just two centimetres thick, but as soon as they come into contact with the burning hot metal, a charred layer forms on them so they are not destroyed during stirring. After the molten iron has been properly stirred, the blacksmiths splash it on the high stone wall and it explodes in a mesmerising sea of sparkles. At the end of the celebration, members of the audience scramble to buy the ladles for their collections.

Meanwhile, Nuanquan’s Da Shuhua “fireworks” are more popular than ever due to an influx of tourists clamouring to witness the unique tradition, and the town’s blacksmiths have enhanced their performances. While the performers still favour traditional sheepskin and cotton clothing rather than modern and unquestionably safer fire-fighting suits, Da Shuhua exhibitions now feature singers, dancers, and professional lighting and sound systems.