Yānhuā zài yèkōng zhànfàng, pō yǒu yí shì Yínhé luò jiǔtiān 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.
