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January 24, 2017

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Home » Metro » Society

City puts on a show with drums, lanterns, bells, crafts and fairs

By Hu Min | January 24, 2017, Tuesday | Print Edition

TEMPLE fairs, exhibitions and lantern shows are among events that will be staged at scenic spots across Shanghai over the Spring Festival holiday.

Tourists will be able to experience traditional customs of Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations, the city’s tourism authorities said.

Nanxiang Old Street in Jiading District will be spruced up with lanterns and a nianhua (New Year’s painting) exhibition featuring posters of Door God, the god who can fend off evil.

Intangible cultural heritage experts will display various crafts such as gourd carving and embroidery.

Shanghai Zoo in Changning District will host a zodiac culture festival during the holiday. It displays 13 rare species of galliformes, an order of ground-feeding birds including golden pheasants and black curassows to mark the Year of the Rooster. There is an exhibition featuring the eggs and feathers of pheasants that allows people to learn about their habits and living conditions. Visitors are also invited to “capture” 185 species of birds at the zoo in a shutterbug contest.

Guyi Garden in Jiading will stage dragon-lion dances and stilt parades, and visitors will be able to write chunlian (Chinese New Year couplets) and learn how to paint Lunar New Year pictures. Craftsmen will display paper cutting, dough modeling and sugar painting, and the garden’s plum blossom will be at its most attractive during the festival.

The annual lantern show at Shanghai’s Yuyuan Garden in Huangpu District features a huge rooster lantern, as well as a peace dove and Great Wall lanterns.

A temple fair at Shanghai Happy Valley in Songjiang District will introduce traditional drum performances from Jiangzhou County, Shanxi Province and dragon-lion dances in the Pudong New Area’s Sanlin Town during the holiday. Craftsmen will display old trades and crafts such as those used by blacksmiths and carpenters, and there will be firework shows at the amusement park. Visitors can also admire ornate lights and try to resolve riddles.

Chenshan Botanic Garden in Songjiang will host a spring blossom exhibition featuring 49 species of peonies as well as tulips and lilies, which will turn the garden into a sea of flowers.

Fengjing Water Town in Jinshan District will host traditional Chinese wedding ceremonies, while Donglin Temple in the same district will host a traditional bell-tolling ceremony.

Shanghai Botanical Garden in Xuhui District will display a rare plant exhibition through the holiday, featuring about 300 plants that are rarely seen.

A ceramics exhibition featuring about 50 works themed on the rooster will be held at Shanghai Ceramics Museum in Baoshan District, and Century Park in Pudong New Area will host a plum blossom garden fair during the holiday.

For those residents leaving the city during the holiday, destinations with warm temperatures and good air quality are the most popular choices, travel agencies said.

Sanya, Xiamen, and Kunming are among the hottest domestic destinations, while beach resorts including Phuket, Bali Island, Cheju and Maldives are the most popular overseas destinations for their good air quality and mild temperature, according to the online travel operator Tuniu.

Because the Lunar New Year is a traditional festival, Ditan Park in Beijing, City God Temple area in Shanghai, and Confucius Temple area in Nanjing are also popular for their festive atmospheres.

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