February 18 this year is the Chinese Lunar New Year Day. It is the biggest holiday in China. This year is the year of pig in Chinese calendar system. So the image of pig is often shown in the pictures. The following link is a thread for the pictures of Dongguan, a medium size industrial city in Southern China. This city does not snow. All snow in the pictures of shopping mall is artificially made. I give you this so that you can get some feeling how people celebrate the New Year in other culture. Chinese do not have similar tradition like Chirstmas Tree, but they use lanterms a lot in the holiday. The pictures are taken in the parks, city squares, south shopping mall (the world largest), and many other places. Although the pictures are from a single city, atmospheres in other Chinese cities are similar in the Lunar New Year Season. This thread has over one hundred pages. The pictures for New Year start from page 83 to page 100.
http://forum.xinhuanet.com/detail.jsp?id=33742226&pg=84
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These lanterms are from Xiamen city. I was there in the New Year Day. . Please see both pages of this thread, it has very nice lanterms.
http://forum.xinhuanet.com/detail.jsp?id=40325610&pg=1
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New Year Lanterms in other cities
http://forum.xinhuanet.com/detail.jsp?id=40307674&pg=1
PigBrother: you may find some new pictures of pig for your avatar.
