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China marks Year of the Dog with a bang
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-29 11:10
China marked the start of the Year of the Dog on Sunday with fireworks and
dumplings, as the biggest holiday in the Chinese world reached a crescendo.
A Chinese dancer
performs a traditional dance for the Lunar New Year at a park in Beijing,
China January 28, 2006. [Reuters] |
In Beijing, residents were allowed to set off fireworks and firecrackers in
the city for the first time in 12 years, and used the opportunity with gusto,
filling the sky into the early hours with brightly colored explosions.
At midnight on Lunar New Year's Eve in Shanghai, China's richest and most
cosmopolitan city, clouds of smoke and a rain of red wrappings obscured even the
nearest buildings, while echoing explosions shook the windows.
Firecrackers are believed to scare off evil spirits and attract the god of
wealth to people's doorsteps.
Chinese will set off 1 billion yuan's ($124 million) worth of fireworks and
firecrackers over this year's spring festival period, according to state media,
as more than 200 cities lift restrictions on pyrotechnics.
A set of 16 "Venus Walker" fireworks, creating a satisfying burst of color
worthy of a small American town's Fourth of July display, cost less than 100
yuan in Shanghai.
Elsewhere in China, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao spent the
Lunar New Year in the countryside, chatting with peasants about rural poverty
and healthcare issues.
Hu visited the old revolutionary base of Yan'an in dusty, central Shaanxi
province and joined villagers in a folk dance, while Wen went to the eastern
province of Shandong and gave money to a farmer with a sick wife.
In previous years, Chinese leaders have spent new year with everyone from
AIDS victims to coal miners, usually as a way of promoting a particular policy
theme.
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