Chinese people around the world welcome New Year

INTRO

It's only about one week before the Lunar New Year, the most important traditional Chinese festival.

And not only in China, overseas Chinese are also getting ready for the big day.

Red lanterns are put up along the streets of Chinatown in central London.

Chinese restaurants and supermarkets are busy preparing for the Year of the Snake.

SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) ZHOU HANG, Chinese restaurant owner:

"The Chinese New Year will be a fantastic time for our Chinese restaurants to promote the very traditional Chinese culture. We hope to make full use of this festival to introduce our guests the traditional Chinese meal, Chinese culture. For example, lanterns and Chinese legends."

Apart from culture, Chinese supermarkets have seen the huge festival business opportunity.

Many say, Chinese decorations, such as snake mascots, Chinese knots and scrolls are popular.

SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) LIN HUI, Chinese supermarket owner:

"The Chinese New Year is approaching. We give more shelf space to the traditional decorations, hoping to attract more customers."

And... With dumplings and the music of Pipa, students and their parents in the European School in Brussels are already in the celebration mood.

Besides Kongfu shows, more activities are held to give the students a flavor of the Chinese New Year. They include cartoon movie watching, the calligraphy, tea ceremonies and so on.

SOUNDBITE: Ricardo (12-year-old)

"I love dumplings, I love Chinese food. I love China. It has great culture. A lot of history. It is a beautiful country. I hope I can visit there later and learn Chinese, I really want to visit China. Maybe live there."

SOUNDBITE: Lucas (12-year-old)

"It is really hot."

Elsewhere, Beverly Hills also celebrates the Chinese festival.

SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) Mary De Hoyos, Conference & Visitors Bureau:

"We are celebrating with all of the residents and locals in Beverly Hills. And we are really excited to show all of our community members that Beverly Hills is a China friendly welcoming city, we love our China visitors.

Celebration includes live entertainment with ceremonial lion dance and drum corps, acrobatic performance, martial arts and traditional Chinese dance.

Many local residents have also joined in.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) ALEECE KAY, Local resident:

"I am curious to see what type of dances and the snake. They told me this is the Year of Snake, I want to see the expressions and what is telling us."

The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto has partnered up with the Chinese community to usher in the Year of the Snake with a special day-long Chinese Cultural Heritage Day.

STANDUP (ENGLISH) PHOEBE HO, CNC correspondent:

"Visitors got to sample some Chinese tea, watch some Chinese artists at work and engage in a whole bunch of Chinese-themed events. The purpose of today's event isn't just for Chinese people to celebrate the New Year, but it's also an invitation for Canadians to come out, mingle, and learn more about the Chinese culture."

The Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, falls on February 10 this year.

And that's all for this edition of China Report. Thank you for joining us. More news on our website--www.cncworld.tv... Bye for now.