A woman in China has stirred an online frenzy after spending a small fortune to celebrate her dog’s 10th birthday. This pet lover from central China’s Hunan province dished out a whopping 100,000 yuan ($15,700) to organize a drone light show for her beloved pooch, but local police say the celebration was far from legal.
The woman, whose identity has not been revealed, hired 520 drones to spell out “Happy 10th birthday to Doudou” in Chinese over the Xiangjiang River in the city of Changsha, the South China Morning Post reports.
The drones also flew in formations to showcase patterns of a birthday cake and a jack-in-a-box-like present in the sky as the dog’s owner and her friends enthusiastically sang “Happy Birthday” to Doudou.
Incidentally, the number of drones used for the feat, 520, was also determined on purpose. According to Chinese news agencies, the number is commonly used as a love phrase because the Mandarin pronunciation for the digits sounds similar to “I love you.”
Nonetheless, the celebration didn’t go down too well with the local authorities. As you can see in the video above, the ceremony was organized near a number of residential high-rise buildings. The city’s aviation rules designate such areas as no-fly zones.
The local police department was reportedly not aware of the event. Authorities said if they had spotted the drones in action, they would have shot down the flying machines. People should apply for police approval before flying drones, a police official said.
And that indeed is sound advice, considering the last time a drone light show raised eyebrows in China, the machines came tumbling out of the sky.
That freak incident took place on Oct. 1, 2021, at Wanda Plaza shopping mall in Zhengzhou High-tech Zone. Around 200 drones took to the skies to commemorate the mall’s anniversary with varied formations, but the show barely crossed the two-and-a-half-minute mark before the drones started descending uncontrollably toward the ground. You can watch the video from that drone light show fail here.
Read more: This NYE 2022 drone fireworks display just smashed two Guinness World Records titles
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