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.