Americans gathered at parks, beaches, riverbanks and in their backyards to celebrate the 4th of July.

The annual Nathan's hot dog eating contest at Coney Island is one of the popular events among the New York City’s many festivities. The contest marked its 98th year. Contestants have 10 minutes to stuff as many Nathan’s hot dogs into their mouths as they can.

Local residents and tourists from around the globe head to Coney Island in Brooklyn to watch participants compete for the world titles of men's and women's hot dog eating world champion. Despite the heat and the large crowds, onlookers cheered the participants with great spirit, and took advantage of the event to taste the hot dogs from Nathan's Famous.

Later that day, the night sky in New York was lit up by fireworks, with hundreds of thousands of people waiting more than 2 hours along the Hudson River to witness the spectacular light show.

Meanwhile, across the country, other cities also held their own firework displays.

Credits:?

Reporter: Huan CAO

Video: Huan CAO

Supervising Producer: Calvin Zhou, Zhang Yuwei?

Senior Producer: Larry Lee, Baijia Liu