Parties see in Chinese New Year

Millions of Chinese people around world are celebrating the start of Lunar New Year, the most important festival in the Chinese calendar.

• In many homes and towns, the Year of the Ox was greeted in traditional style with firecrackers, parties, feasts and incense offerings at temples.
• But correspondents say the mood this year was subdued, with many people expressing concern about the economy.
• Vietnam is also celebrating its New Year festival – known as Tet.
• The BBC’s Michael Bristow, in Beijing, says many people in the Chinese capital braved bitterly cold weather to light incense sticks at temples and pray for a prosperous year to come.
• He says the police cordoned off roads around the most popular temples, where beggars traditionally gather to benefit from people’s new-year generosity.
• Reflecting widespread concern about the state of the economy, 55-year-old Beijing resident Liu Tieying told the BBC he felt the economy would be a major problem in the coming year.
• But he sounded an optimistic note for China, saying he believed the situation would be worse in other countries.
• The BBC’s Jill McGivering says the Year of the Ox is traditionally associated with calm, fortitude and success through toil.
• But she says China has already seen an outbreak of protests and rioting associated with job losses and factory closures – so one of the biggest challenges for the Communist Party will be to maintain public order and confidence in the year to come.
• China’s state-run Xinhua news agency announced on Monday that the government is to help train as many as one million jobless college graduates over the next three years.
• Graduates will also be offered small loans to help them start their own businesses.
• Analysts say the moves show the government’s increasing concern with rising unemployment.
• China’s top politicians made high-profile trips over the Lunar New Year holiday.
• State television broadcast images of Chinese President Hu Jintao smiling as a baby kissed his cheek on a visit to Jinggangshan, a former base for the communists during the Chinese civil war.
• In a speech, he promised more “equal development across society”.
• Meanwhile, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited survivors of last May’s earthquake which devastated large parts of Sichuan province.
• Chinese people in cities across the world are also marking the festival – with lanterns, incense, lion dances and firecrackers lighting up places as far apart as London, Jakarta and Vancouver.