62,000 lanterns decorate Beijing for Spring Festival

Government workers have decorated 174 avenues, 27 parks and tourist attractions, and 28 commercial areas in central Beijing with 62,000 lanterns and more than 7,100 Chinese knots ahead of the Lunar New Year festivities.

The Municipal Commission of City Administration and Environment said on Thursday that it had also laid out more than 730,000 meters of landscape lighting across the city.

Wu Yamei, deputy director of the commission, said it had followed official guidelines on frugality in designing the decorations.

"We used normal materials like silk and plastics to make the lanterns," Wu said.

Spring Festival, or the Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 8 this year, is China's biggest public holiday.

The commission said the festival lights will be turned on from 6 p.m. to midnight every night between Feb. 6 and 13. On Feb. 7, Lunar New Year's Eve, the lights will remain on until 1 a.m. on Feb. 8.

The custom of hanging lanterns during festivals in China is believed to adopt the fashion on the traditional Lantern Festival, which could date back to the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD). Ancient people, especially children, go out at night carrying paper lanterns and read and solve riddles pasted onto the lanterns on the festival. They also hung up red lanterns to create festive atmosphere during the festival, which has been kept as a custom up to now. Endi