Yānhuā zài yèkōng zhànfàng, pō yǒu yíshìyínhéluòjiǔtiān de qìshì.
Fireworks bursting in the night sky had the sweep of 'the Milky Way falling from the ninth heaven.'
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history
From Li Bai's (李白) Tang-dynasty poem 《望庐山瀑布》 (Gazing at Mount Lu's Waterfall). Full quatrain: 『日照香炉生紫烟，遥看瀑布挂前川。飞流直下三千尺，疑是银河落九天』— 'sun lights Incense Burner Peak, purple mist rising; from afar the waterfall hangs like a river in the sky. A flying stream plunges three thousand feet — surely the Milky Way has fallen from the ninth heaven.' A staple of primary-school textbooks.
usage
九天 in Chinese cosmology is the highest of nine heavenly layers. 银河 ('Silver River') is the Milky Way. The line is the go-to simile for any huge waterfall or any shining stream of light falling from above.
