London celebrates New Year with its "best fireworks", highlighting openness to world

London celebrated the New Year on Wednesday with its world-famous fireworks, as the British capital seeks to highlight its image as an open city amid Brexit uncertainties.

Gathering a 100,000-strong audience around Victoria Embankment, the pyrotechnics featured more than 12,000 fireworks.

Promising "the best fireworks London has ever seen", London Mayor Sadiq Khan told Xinhua he hoped the display would show the world that London is still a confident "global city", as Britain prepares to leave the European Union (EU) on January 31.

"London is open-minded, open to people, trade, and ideas for more than a thousand years. That's not going to change," said the mayor.

He highlighted Chinese tourists, investors and students' contribution to London, noting it's a win-win option for both Britain and China.

"I'm looking forward to even more tourists, visitors, students, investors from China coming to London, investing in our city, and experiencing London's experience going forward in 2020," said the mayor.

The celebration also featured some well-known football anthems as London will be home to parts of the Euro 2020 football tournament from June 12 to July 12, including the final and semi-finals. "We will show that London is open to the world as we welcome sports fans and football stars from all over Europe," said the mayor.

Despite waiting hours in the cold, people's reaction to the huge fireworks display was largely positive. A woman from Iran who came to see the firework for the first time told Xinhua: "It was amazing, much better than I thought."

Another reveller from Manchester, where he runs a supermarket, said he wishes to achieve more in the new year, hoping Brexit will not have much impact on his business.

In his new year message, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he hoped the country would "move forward united" after it leaves the EU on January 31, saying that Britain is on the verge of a "new chapter" in its history.

Big Ben chimed the start of the display and the new decade by ringing 12 times, despite being silent since 2017 due to renovation work. Eye-catching fireworks followed, illuminating River Thames and bringing the atmosphere to a climax.

The London fireworks show, which began in 2000 and has since become an essential New Year's event in Britain, was beamed to TV audiences around the world.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh hosted what it described as Britain's "biggest street party" as part of the Hogmanay celebrations, which also included over 3,600 fireworks let off from Edinburgh castle. Large fireworks shows also took place in such cities as Manchester, Cardiff, Newcastle, Inverness and Nottingham.