Communities through China celebrate lunar new year

Chinese New Year

It’s the start of a new year on the lunar calendar in China, and across the country celebrations are taking place. CCTV’s Stanley Lee reported this story from China.

In Tibet, performers sang and danced at the foot of the Potala palace.

The Tibetan New Year coincided with the Chinese New Year this year. In Tibetan culture, 2015 is the year of the wood sheep. Every year is assigned a gender and this year is a female year which is said to bring peace.

Meanwhile, a moving new year gala on a train is heading from Northeast China to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in the northwest.

“This took me by surprise, I love the festive spirit and atmosphere,” a passenger said.

In Ningbo in east China’s Jiangsu province, a dozen foreign visitors joined in the festivities at a village, getting their fill of hand-made ginger candy and animal shaped rice cakes.

Dragons, an auspicious symbol, are seen everywhere, and the dragon dance is a lucky part of any new year celebration.

In the east Chinese city of Nanjing, a calligrapher marked the year with 100 seals of different depictions of sheep, and printed them on paper. They are based on drawings from many Chinese dynasties throughout the centuries.