Chinese New Year travel guide: 5 cities to experience the magic

Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is China’s most important annual celebration. With a week-long national holiday and millions travelling home for reunions, it is during this time when the country transforms into a sea of red lanterns, fireworks, temple fairs and glowing night skies. This also means that it’s the best time to visit China, as it is one of the most immersive times to experience Chinese culture at its most symbolic and vibrant. For those who are already there or are planning to visit, here are five destinations to bookmark for a truly memorable Spring Festival.

First, let us start with the capital that offers the most iconic images of New Year, with red lanterns hung on ancient alleys, while roasted chestnuts fill the air during winter, under a sky filled with palaces. The highlight of Beijing during Chinese New Year is its legendary temple fairs. Here, travellers may get to experience a lively get-together with traditional food, folk shows, handicraft exhibitions, as well as religious traditions, as they stroll through decorated park grounds, while enjoying acrobatic, opera, and martial arts shows.
Among these most well-known are Longtan Temple Fair, Ditan Temple Fair, and Changdian Temple Fair. With dozens of temple fairs and lantern festivals spread across Beijing, one may expect a classic and ultimate large-scale New Year experience.

If you are interested in witnessing raw, high-energy celebrations, then head south to the city of Shantou in Guangdong province. It is in this city that the celebration of the Chinese New Year is characterized by the Yingge dance, which is described as thunderous and folk-inspired. The dance is said to formally mark the beginning of the New Year as the dancer moves in the streets in the manner of warrior troops, visiting villages and households in the process.
The inspirational stories of heroes and heroines in the Water Margin legend come alive with the combination of martial arts, opera, and dance. It has been designated as a national-level intangible cultural heritage and is ongoing over most of the first month of the lunar calendar. Travelers looking for authenticity and intensity find one of the most riveting Spring Festival experiences in China.

For something a little more poetic and atmospheric, try Anhui Province's Huangshan for a storybook setting. In the ancient village of Huizhou, Zhanqi, Wangmantian, Yuliang, and Chengkan, fish-shaped lanterns drift through the narrow stone passageways at night. Designed in the shape of koi fish, these lanterns embody good fortune and harmony.
From the second day of the New Year until the Lantern Festival, these troupes parade through villages performing classic movements. The beat of the drums resonates through ancient architecture, and the rural scenery becomes radiant. It could be one of the most sincere and enchanting New Year rituals in China.

This city in Sichuan is known as the host of the world-renowned Zigong Lantern Festival. It boasts one of the most spectacular light displays in the nation. Zigong styles lantern-making into a gigantic art form. At the park, giant illuminated art pieces showcase themes on Chinese mythology, folklore, and the Chinese Zodiac; the smaller lantern displays add intricate details to the park premises.
Hundreds of these lampwork creations light up the evening sky as people tour this historical wonderland where art and imagination come together. For travelers looking for ultimate scale and spectacle, there is simply nowhere like Zigong.

For a truly different Spring Festival experience, head north to Heilongjiang Province and the city of Harbin. If much of China celebrates the Spring Festival in red and gold, Harbin celebrates it in ice and light. The city's world-renowned Harbin Ice and Snow World turns winter into a luminous kingdom of iced-over castles, glowing sculptures, and illuminated corridors carved from enormous blocks of frozen river ice.
Sprawling over vast grounds, the tall frozen structure makes the park surreal, where one can slide down ramps of ice, wander through radiating palaces and experience New Year like nowhere else in the country.
For travellers, it is a rare opportunity to witness China not just as a destination, but as a country in celebration.