February 5 marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year 2019. The Lunar New year which follows the moon calendar has no fixed date for the beginning of the new year. Also called the Spring Festival, this year is the year of the pig.
Beijing and all Chinese cities wore a festive look but with fewer people on the roads as most of them travelled to their villages to spend time with their families or to various travel destinations for holidays.
The Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival or Lunar New Year is the grandest festival in China, with a seven-day holiday.
The new year holidays trigger the biggest human migration within and outside the country every year with millions of Chinese heading either to their villages or to holiday destinations.
In the Chinese lunar calendar, years are grouped into a 12-year cycle, with each year assigned to an animal with symbols including rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
The festival also triggers the biggest human migration as about 400 million domestic trips are expected during the week-long holiday.
In his greetings on the eve of the festival, President Xi Jinping played down the concerns over the slowdown of China’s economy and the trade war with the US saying that the world’s second largest economy made steady progress and his government was carrying out necessary reforms to avert risks.
