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Feature: Spring Festival celebrations in Kobe's Chinatown

Xinhua, February 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

As the Lunar New Year was ushered in, a series of celebrations were held in Kobe's Nanjing town, the second largest Chinatown in Japan.

Since Feb. 19, the first day of the Chinese new year, Nanjing town has been filled with festive atmosphere, with spring festival couplets soliciting good luck pasted on the Chinese archways at the three entrances of the town, and red lanterns and triangular flags hung on the traditional Chinese-styled buildings along the streets.

A simple stage was set up at the center of Nanjing town, where Chinese artists performed during the first four days of the lunar new year, giving shows such as facechanging stunt of Sichuan opera, acrobatics and lion dances, attracting many viewers from both Kobe and neighboring districts.

Along the streets, restaurants and shops showed off their cuisine on display stands, hustling Chinese food such as dim sum, dumplings and Chinese pastries, provoking nostalgia from overseas Chinese.

About 15,000 people were estimated to visit Kobe Chinatown every day during the first four days of the new year.

The visitors included both overseas Chinese living in Japan as well as Japanese citizens who are fascinated by this spectacular festival of Chinese culture.

Mitsuaki, a Japanese woman coming to watch the shows from neighboring city Himeji, said she had read about the Spring Festival celebrations in Nanjing town on newspaper and she found the shows performed by Chinese artists at the center of Nanjing town fascinating.

With a history of over 120 years, Nanjing town is the second largest Chinatown in Japan after the Yokohama Chinatown, with over 100 Chinese restaurants, shops, and a Chinese temple in the area of about 110 meters from north to south and 200 meters from east to west.

Since 1987, Nanjing town has started to celebrate the coming of Chinese lunar new year almost every year. In 1997, the Spring Festival celebrations in Nanjing town were named district intangible folk cultural heritage of Kobe.

"Spring Festival celebrations at Nanjing town every year have become a tourist attraction. We hope there would be more tourists attracted by this cultural feast." said Kizo Hisamoto, mayor of Kobe city. Endi