Rizal Park ‘dancing' fountain draws crowdsABS-CBN News 12/19/2010
MANILA, Philippines - A showcase of water, lights, and music livens up Manila's most famous landmark this Christmas season.
For 2 hours each morning and evening, visitors to the Rizal Park can watch multi-colored jets of water sway and spout in sync with carols near the monument of national hero Jose Rizal.
The park's Central Lagoon Dancing Fountain, long there since 1968, was reopened Thursday by the city government and the Department of Tourism in a cultural spectacle capped by fireworks.
Flocked by tourists during the 1970s for being the first of its kind, the then-named Luneta fountain was neglected in the following decades.
The upgraded one now features a pulsating geyser that gushes water to as high as 88 feet. Around it, 38 smaller jets squirt and slosh water in a spectrum of hues.
Park-goers can also watch videos at a "peacock spray" water screen on the other end of the lagoon. Laser lights also dance along with the synchronized fountain.
The display can be seen from 8 to 10 a.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m. daily. Choral groups also serenade sightseers at those times for the nine days of the Misa de Gallo until December 25.
The new fountain was designed by German-Filipino William Schaare, who also developed the original fountain 42 years ago.
The project was completed in only 45 days, in time for the Christmas season.
Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim told reporters that it is the first phase of his agency's plans to refurbish Rizal Park, also called Luneta, as a tourist spot and public recreational area.
"Manila needs a good tourist attraction," Lim said in Filipino. "Luneta would be the best one."
The area last figured in the international scene during the botched August 23 tourist bus hijacking that left 8 foreigners and the Filipino hostage-taker killed.
More renovations to the fountain and to the park will be unveiled next year in time for the 150th birth anniversary of Rizal, who was martyred in 1986 on the spot where the park now stands.
"Next time, there will be a better surprise," Lim said. "It won't be water."
