国内英语新闻:Around China: Chinese cheer out Year of Rabbit

BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- On the eve of Spring Festival, people across China marked the last moments of the Year of the Rabbit with cheerful celebrations, while exchanging their wishes for a better and prosperous Year of the Dragon.

Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, falls on Monday but the week-long holiday started Sunday, with families, urban and rural as well as rich and poor, dining together and watching the year out in cheer.

In a new community in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan province, villagers relocated there for the nation's South-North Water Diversion project have their festival feasts paid for by the government.

"I've been buzzing around from office to office to get the festival allowances. Today is the third time money has been doled out before Spring Festival," said Lu Songtao, director of the resident committee of Jinyuan.

The 60 households in Jinyuan are among the 330,000 people China has resettled for the central route of the massive water project, which aims to transport water from the Yangtze River to the country's drought-prone northern regions, including Beijing.

Two month after bedding down in new homes with the help of government subsidies, villagers now wish their careers can also take off in the Year of the Dragon.

"There are many factories nearby, and I will start looking for a job right after the New Year, either in a battery plant or a food processing factory," said villager Liu Guizhi.

In Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, sanitation workers who chose to stay on duty rather than be with their families during the festival ended up dining with the mayor.

"I'd like to thank you for a year's hard work that has kept the city beautiful," said Tang Liangzhi, mayor of Wuhan, at a banquet held on Saturday for 100 representatives of street cleaners.

Though Spring Festival is an important family occasion for most Chinese, many cleaners could not leave their jobs as the week-long fireworks frenzy usually litters city streets with tonnes of cardboard and scraps of paper.

"I had been so busy today that I came to the banquet right from the street, with the my uniform on," said 51-year-old Yang Houjian.

"But I am deeply moved -- I feel my work is honored by the whole society," he said.

This year's Spring Festival also brings a festive atmosphere to Xinjiang and Tibet, though celebrating the festival is not a tradition for many ethnic groups there. Young people, in particular, are mesmerized by the festival's "exotic" flavor.

"My friends from the Han community told me that it's their tradition to wear something red when their animal signs coincide with that of the year. So I bought a red bracelet as I'm a 'Dragon,'" said 23-year-old Hanati Kizihan, who is a Kazakh in Urumqi.

Many households and institutions in Tibet have also put up national flags and portraits of Chinese leaders in honor of the national festival. On Sunday, a gigantic picture of China's central leaderships, represented by Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, was unveiled at the regional government building in Lhasa to celebrate the festival.