Happy New Year
Photo: Sina
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Friday, 31 January 2014
Thursday, 30 January 2014
Horses in China's Inner Mongolia
July 20, 2014- Horses wading into a river in Xilingol, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the upcoming lunar new year is the year of horse, which stands for strength, loyalty, boldness and vigorousness
September 12, 2014- Horses wading into a river in Xilingol, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the upcoming lunar new year is the year of horse, which stands for strength, loyalty, boldness and vigorousness
August 7, 2014- Horses in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the upcoming lunar new year is the year of horse, which stands for strength, loyalty, boldness and vigorousness
July 24, 2011- Horses in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the upcoming lunar new year is the year of horse, which stands for strength, loyalty, boldness and vigorousness
August 5, 2014- Horses eating grass on a pasture in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the upcoming lunar new year is the year of horse, which stands for strength, loyalty, boldness and vigorousness
July 18, 2014- Horses running on a pasture in Xilingol, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the upcoming lunar new year is the year of horse, which stands for strength, loyalty, boldness and vigorousness
February 3, 2014- A horse on a prairie in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the upcoming lunar new year is the year of horse, which stands for strength, loyalty, boldness and vigorousness
July 23, 2014- A horse on a prairie in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the upcoming lunar new year is the year of horse, which stands for strength, loyalty, boldness and vigorousness
January 1, 2014- A girl running after horses on a prairie in Xilinhot of Xilingol in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the upcoming lunar new year is the year of horse, which stands for strength, loyalty, boldness and vigorousness
Source: Xinhua
Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Temple Fair to be Held in Beijing's Ditan Park
People visit the Ditan Park which has been decorated with lanterns for an upcoming temple fair in Beijing, China, January 27, 2014. The fair will be held from January 30 to February 6, 2014
Source: Xinhua
Chinese Tourists Bypass Bangkok
Chinese vacationers taking advantage of the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday to go abroad are avoiding the Thai capital and neighboring cities amid mounting political instability.
It is concerning for Thailand's tourism industry, which accounts for 7% of national output, as China has become the biggest source of foreign visitors to the country. They're also some of the most generous shoppers during their holidays.
Chinese package-tour bookings to Bangkok and the neighboring beach resort of Pattaya in the coming Lunar New Year break have fallen by 90% compared with the previous year, said Davidstone Sek, a director at Bangkok-based tour-group operator CCT Express Co., which specializes in serving Chinese tour groups.
"If the political crisis continues into April when tourists are supposed to come celebrate the Water Festival, another peak season for tourists, it will have an even bigger impact on the tourism industry," said Mr. Sek, noting that occupancy rates at many of the company's partner hotels in Bangkok are at just 20%-30%.
The break, which officially kicks off Friday, is to the Chinese what Christmas is to Westerners: the busiest travel season of the year and a time to see family or vacation. Estimates point to some 225 million travelers visiting families or going on holidays during the Lunar New Year, up 11% from a year earlier.
Overseas travel by Chinese citizens has seen robust growth on the back of a stronger currency, and Thailand has been a major hot spot given the nation's relative proximity to China and an abundance of shopping options. Thailand and South Korea were the two biggest international destinations for Chinese visitors in 2013's Lunar New Year holiday, surpassing Japan amid territorial tensions between the two nations.
China has since 2012 replaced Malaysia as Thailand's biggest source of international tourists, with about 4.7 million visitors in 2013, up 69% from a year earlier. They accounted for 18% of the 26.7 million tourists the nation welcomed last year, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
But heightened political tensions, with demonstrations in Bangkok's busy streets turning violent, threaten to disrupt the flow of Chinese tourist spending this year. Mr. Sek said Chinese tourists spend the most of all visitors on shopping, forking out on average between 5,000 Chinese yuan (US$826) and 8,000 yuan each a day during their visits.
Spring Airlines Co., China's biggest budget-carrier, said it has cut two of its three daily flights operating between its hub in Shanghai and Bangkok because of reduced travel demand.
"There are plenty of cancellations," said Zhang Wuan, a spokesman at Spring Air, who declined to elaborate on the numbers. "Travelers are rescheduling their planned holidays elsewhere, such as Taiwan and Hong Kong," he added.
State carrier China Eastern Airlines Corp. said it had originally planned to mount extra holiday flights to Bangkok to meet demand from tourists, but decided to cancel all the additional services because of uncertainties and booking cancellations.
"Overall demand for outbound travel from China remains positive and so we have reallocated available capacity onto other routes," said Zeng Yongchao, an executive vice president at the Shanghai-based airline.
The fall in Chinese visitors to Bangkok mirrors weaker visitor demand from other Asian countries. Singapore Airlines Ltd. said earlier it cut 19 flights on the Singapore-Bangkok route between Jan. 14 and Feb. 25, while Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. said it would cancel flights to Bangkok as needed to align with demand.
In China, outbound travel accounts for about 4% of total travelers during Lunar New Year, and analysts expect the share to grow further as more affluent Chinese prefer to vacation abroad.
Yang Jinsong, associate researcher at China Tourism Academy, a research arm of the China National Tourism Administration, expects the number of Chinese outbound tourists to reach 8.5 million for this year's Lunar New Year break, up 13% from the 7.5 million travelers the previous year.
Still, Chinese travel agencies say Thailand remains an important holiday destination. Nasdaq-listed Ctrip.com International Ltd., one of China's biggest online travel websites, said many visitors to Thailand are opting to bypass Bangkok to visit other cities and resorts.
Mr. Sek at CCT Express said tour group bookings to the island resort of Phuket are down just 10%-20% from last year's holiday, with individual visitors down by 10%. He said he expects occupancy rates at Phuket hotels to stay at around 90% during the Lunar New Year period.
Source: Wall Street Journal by Joanne Chiu
Tuesday, 28 January 2014
Lantern Show Kicks Off in Kunming
Photos taken on January 26 show lanterns displayed on the Panlong River in Kunming, Yunnan province
Source: xinhua
Monday, 27 January 2014
Breathtaking Luoping in China
The small county of Luoping lies in the relatively underdeveloped eastern part of Yunnan province, neighboring Guizhou and Guangxi provinces. It sits 220 kilometers east of the capital Kunming. Every spring, Luoping transforms into an ocean of canola flowers, attracting thousands of tourists
Source: china.org.cn
Rush home for Spring Festival
Passengers wait for their trains at the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, China, January 27, 2014
Source: Xinhua
Sunday, 26 January 2014
Spring Festival travel nears peak
Hundreds of millions of migrant workers will return to their hometowns before the Chinese New Year, which falls this year on January 31.
"The country's transport system will witness the busiest time in the next days, as a vast number of people rush home," Xinhua news agency said in a report yesterday.
The number of road passengers reached 92.63 million on Friday, making a total of 772 million since January 16, up 4.4 percent from last year, Xinhua said, citing Ministry of Transport figures.
Transport officials predict China's population will make 3.62 billion trips during the Chinese New Year period.
"The idea of the Spring Festival is to spend time with family, wrap dumplings, and watch the Spring Festival Gala," a man surnamed Sun said at Beijing Railway Station.
Source: shanghai daily via china.org.cn
Saturday, 25 January 2014
Popular Spring Festival Customs in China
Spring Couplets
On the Chinese New Year, families in China decorate their front doors with poetic couplets of calligraphy written with fragrant Indian ink, expressing the feeling of life's renewal and the return of spring.
It is said that spring couplets originated from "peach wood charms," door gods painted on wood charms in earlier times. During the Five Dynasties (907-960), the Emperor Meng Chang inscribed an inspired couplet on a peach slat, beginning a custom that gradually evolved into today's popular custom of displaying spring couplets.
In addition to pasting couplets on both sides and above the main door, it is also common to hang calligraphic writing of the Chinese characters for "spring," "wealth," and "blessing." Some people will even invert the drawings of blessing since the Chinese for "inverted" is a homonym in Chinese for "arrive," thus signifying that spring, wealth, or blessing has arrived
Red Packets
Giving Hongbao (red packets or red envelopes) during the Chinese New Year is another tradition. A red packet is simply a red envelope with gift money in it, which symbolizes luck and wealth. Red packets are typically handed out to younger generations by their parents, grandparents, relatives, close neighbors, and friends, and usually the immediate family gives Hongbao to children on New Year's Eve. Money given in this way may not be refused and the pretty envelopes add sincerity to the gift.
The money is also called Ya Sui Qian, meaning "suppressing age money," which is supposed to stop children from getting older. This comes from the belief that everyone becomes one year older on New Year's Day. Red is the lucky color and will bring good luck to the person receiving the present.
Firecrackers
They were traditionally set off to frighten away ghosts and monsters so that the New Year would be free of them.
Legend has it that long ago there was a monster that terrorized people and animals at the end of the year. It was discovered that this animal was frightened of loud noises, bright lights and the color red.
At midnight, on the last day of the old year, these things are used to chase away the monster until the next year.
You can hear or see fireworks and firecrackers everywhere, and this usually lasts for a few hours.
Some people will continue to light them occasionally throughout the first half of the first lunar month.
Traditionally, fireworks are a sign of getting rid of the old and welcoming the new. Today, firecrackers are used to add to the merriment of the occasion
Dumplings
People from the north and south have different traditional foods that they eat on this special day.
In northern China, people usually eat jiaozi (or dumplings), which are shaped like crescent moons. It is said that dumplings were first cooked in China some 1,600 years ago.
The Chinese pronunciation of jiaozi means midnight or the end and the beginning of time.
According to historical records, in ancient times people from both the north and south ate dumplings on Chinese New Year's Day.
Perhaps because southern China produced more rice than any other areas, gradually, southerners had more food choices on New Year's Day.
The shape of jiaozi resembles that of ancient gold and silver ingots, or a crescent moon, and symbolizes the hope for a year of plenty.
In some places, people stuff jiaozi with sugar to wish for a sweet life; others put one or two clean coins in jiaozi -- if you happen to come across one with a coin inside, it means you will enjoy good luck in the coming year.
Many families in China prepare enough jiaozi to last several days during the Spring Festival.
Dragon Dance
The Dragon Dance enjoys a vast diversity of models and forms. As a totem of the Chinese nation, among farming communities, it is still heralded as a token of the coming spring rains; it is also danced to drive away ghosts.
The dragons come in various forms, such as the cloth dragon, the grass dragon, the fire dragon and the segment dragon, and the dance varies from form to form. The cloth dragon has a visibly separated head and body, connected by cloth. The longer the dragon is, the more performers are involved. One person leads the dragon, guiding at whim the beast's rise and fall, from rapid undulations to slow ripples. It will alternately seem to fly up to the sky or hide under the ocean, imitating the movement of breaking waves.
The fire dragon takes its name from the candles placed along each section of the dragon's body. When performed at night, firecrackers are set off, adding to the fiery surroundings of the sinuous puppet.
The grass dragon, also called "burning incense dragon", is built from rice straw and green vines, with burning incense contained inside it. Deployed during summer nights, the dragon is like a meteor attracting a lot of insects. When the performance is over, the dragon is lowered into a pool to drown the insects.
Usually, the Dragon Dance is performed by many people using stage props. The song and dance end as the stage props come together to form the head and tail of a dragon. The dance ends with the symbolic ascension of the dragon, pervading the audience with its elegance and uniqueness.
Source: Xinhua
Friday, 24 January 2014
5 ancient towns to celebrate Spring Festival
Wuzhen Town, Zhejiang Province- During the Spring Festival, the streets in Wuzhen are illuminated for the celebration. People put up posters on their doors and walls. Many customs of the lunar New Year holidays are inherited in the town. The most distinctive one is the "long street banquet". In the past, wealthy families would hold banquets for guests in the Spring Festival. The neighbors set out tables and chairs along the street.
Fenghuang Town, Hunan Province
With a name that means "phoenix", you can be assured of a remarkable Spring Festival celebration in this ancient small town in western Hunan province.
The locals keep to the traditional way of celebrating the Lunar New Year. Before reunion dinner, they will have a ceremony to worship their ancestors and after dinner, the older generations in the family will distribute hongbao or red envelops with money to children. And everyone stays up until the wee hours of the morning to usher in the New Year.
Zhoucun Old town, Shandong Province
Zhoucun Old Town, under the administration of Zibo City of Shandong Province, holds the reputation as the "birthplace of Shandong commerce."
Known as the "dry port" for its strategic location along many overland trading routes, trade in Zhoucun flourished in the early 20th century, and it became an important center for bankers and well as silk and tobacco.
Xitang ancient Town, Zhejiang Province
While some of the traditions and customs for the Spring Festival have been fading away among urban citizens, in Xitang, a watertown renowned for its wandering rivers and time-honored architecture, people still perform grand traditional ceremonies to celebrate this most important festival.
Sandwiched between Shanghai and Hangzhou, the two most bustling modern cities in China's east coast, Xitang has succeeded in preserving all the old regimens needed for an ancient style Spring Festival celebration, which has helped to usher in a tourist boom in this tiny town
Hongjiang Ancient Commercial Town, Hunan Province
During this year's Spring Festival, Hongjiang Ancient Commercial Town in central China's Hunan Province will host 10 folk and cultural events to celebrate the lunar New Year. The ancient town is now recruiting five women to play the roles of goddesses of wealth from five directions in the Spring Festival parade.
The Hongjiang Ancient Commercial Town is a characteristic scenic spot in Hunan. The town boasts more than 380 intact ancient structures erected during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, covering an area of 100,000 square meters. The buildings endured the ages with some wear, but they remain vivid reminders of the luxurious lifestyle of wealthy merchants
Source: china.org via xinhua
Thursday, 23 January 2014
Chinese Hotels Drop Stars to Score Political Points
Now, five-star hoteliers appear to be asking the same thing – and, spurred by Beijing’s anti-corruption push, are taking steps to make their properties look a little less fabulous.
According to Hangzhou hotel magnate Chen Miaolin, he and his fellow innkeepers are taking the extraordinary step of removing stars from five-star star properties.
It’s an industry response to pain, Mr. Chen said in comments reported by China Business News and confirmed to The Wall Street Journal by one of his deputies.
Amid China’s anti-extravagance sweep, hotels are downgrading themselves to score political points – and win back business from politicians. A year ago this week, President and Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping declared war on “undesirable practices” by officials that he said risked creating an “invisible wall that separates the party from the people.”
As the Journal reports, the government has introduced a growing list of antiwaste and anticorruption regulations aiming to crimp the use of public funds on items ranging from luxury travel and meals to calendars.
The campaign presents particular trouble for fancy hotels, which have worked hard to build upper-class images.
According to the new modesty trend Mr. Chen describes, hotels are repositioning toward mid-range categories. Fewer stars mean lower prices — all the better to attract what remains of the pinched stipends Chinese officials say they now get for official travel.
In fact, Mr. Chen deployed the strategy at his own chain, New Century Hotels and Resorts.
New Century has repurposed a handful of its five-star properties, though its website still describes the company as China’s “largest private high-star chain hotel group.”
New Century says it is letting lapse the five-star certificate on a hotel in Nanjing, changing another one Tianjin into a retirement home and has recently closed two expensive clubs on the banks of Hangzhou’s famous lake.
The club closures follow a sudden move this month by authorities in Beijing to order shut luxury venues in parks that had operated for years.
Chinese media quoted Mr. Chen describing himself as a role model in the trend, and as “absolutely supporting and agreeing” with the government’s anti-waste campaign. “We made the decision according to the need of the market,” said Zhang Shu, New Century’s brand director, who answered questions by telephone on behalf of Mr. Chen.
China’s campaign is rippling through the global luxury sector. In announcing last year’s financial results, French hotelier Accor SA—which operates brands such as Sofitel, Novotel and Mercure— on Jan. 16 said it had “lower business” in China. Chief Financial Officer Sophie Stabile told analysts the weakness reflected China’s economy and unspecified “political constraints,” according to a transcript of her comments
China’s “campaign to promote morality,” as French Cognac maker Rémy Cointreau SA described it while announcing weak 2013 results this week, is also hurting sales of items offered in hotels.
It is unclear how many Chinese hotels have actually pried stars off the brass nameplates found behind their marbled check-in desks.
New Century’s Mr. Chen was quoted in media reports saying 56 Chinese hotels have officially applied to tourism officials for removal from the five-star category. (Mr. Chen’s colleague said the figure is an estimate.)
Downgrading a hotel isn’t quite so straightforward, according to the government agency that hands out the stars, the China Tourist Hotel Association.
“There’s no such thing as ‘downgrading stars,’ ” said a woman in the rating department who declined to be named. She explained that if five-star properties choose to change their ratings, they will be considered unrated.
Source: Wall Street Joural
Utour listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange
Beijing UTour International Travel Service Co Ltd, one of the main outbound travel agencies in China, was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Thursday and is the only listed private-owned travel agency in China.
Utour raised 169 million yuan ($27.92 million) through issuing 14.58 million shares, with the funds to be reinvested in three projects, including a marketing network, e-commerce and MICE projects, the company announced.
The travel agency, which focuses on outbound tourism, earned 3 billion yuan operation income in 2013, with a 39.78-percent year-on-year growth, and net profit of 87.47 million yuan.
Source: By Wang Wen (chinadaily.com.cn)
Utour raised 169 million yuan ($27.92 million) through issuing 14.58 million shares, with the funds to be reinvested in three projects, including a marketing network, e-commerce and MICE projects, the company announced.
The travel agency, which focuses on outbound tourism, earned 3 billion yuan operation income in 2013, with a 39.78-percent year-on-year growth, and net profit of 87.47 million yuan.
Source: By Wang Wen (chinadaily.com.cn)
Wednesday, 22 January 2014
Boeing Expects to Deliver 140 Planes to China in 2014
Boeing Co. (BA) said it delivered a record number of jets to China last year and expects to hand over a similar number of aircraft this year as growth in the world’s second-biggest economy spurs demand for air travel.
Deliveries this year to China will be in the range of 140 aircraft after handing over a record 143 planes last year, Marc Allen, president of Boeing China, said in Beijing today. Chicago-based Boeing, which delivered a record 648 jets worldwide, also secured orders for more than 230 new aircraft from the country last year, he said.
Asian growth is lifting orders for Boeing and Airbus Group (AIR) with China forecast to supplant the U.S. as the world’s largest market by 2032, the European planemaker forecast in September. China’s economic expansion is helping air travel affordable to more people, increasing demand for planes from carriers such as Air China Ltd. (1055) and China Southern Airlines Co.
“Wow, a really fantastic year,” Allen said. “What I am even more excited about is that we see a trajectory. I can announce today that we expect to maintain that rate in 2014 and into the foreseeable future.”
Aircraft sales and output are surging as carriers globally take advantage of low-cost financing to replace older models with newer, fuel-sipping jets. Boeing’s 1,355 net orders for 2013 was the second-highest annual sales tally, and an increase from the 1,338 a year earlier.
Asia’s Biggest
China Southern, the Guangzhou-based company that’s Asia’s biggest airline by passenger numbers, took deliveries of 37 aircraft last year, according to Boeing’s website. That was the second-most among carriers worldwide, lagging behind only American Airlines’s 39, according to the website.
Of the 230 orders Boeing won in China last year, 130 were from leasing firms and the remainder from airlines, Allen said. A third of those ordered by airlines have already gone through the government approval process, he said.
“The low-cost carriers in China is a big emerging story in 2013,” Allen said. “We are going to bring additional personnel to China, subject matter experts, to work with the low-cost carriers that are starting up.”
China Travel
Qingdao Airlines, a newly established private carrier in China, last year agreed to buy 23 planes from Airbus in a deal valued at $2.3 billion, based on list prices. Zhejiang Loong Airlines, recently approved by the regulator, also agreed with the European planemaker to buy new aircraft. Airbus assembles single-aisle planes at a factory in Tianjin, near Beijing.China is easing aviation regulations and boosting infrastructure spending as carriers are forecast to require more than 5,000 planes in the next 20 years. International travel from China will grow at an annual rate of 7.2 percent in the next 20 years, faster than the 6.8 percent expansion for domestic travel, according to Boeing.
Boeing has already delivered eight Dreamliners to China Southern while Hainan Air has six, Allen said. Xiamen Air will take delivery of its first 787 this year and Air China will get its first 787-9 in 2015, he said.
Source: Bloomberg News
Chinese Tourists Say Aloha to Hawaii
But the country’s flagship carrier Air China concluded that Chinese travelers are now ready for the real thing. This week it begins direct flights from Beijing to Honolulu, and airline officials say they see plenty of demand for the new route.
“We are really optimistic about the flights and we believe the load factor can reach more than 80% this year,” He Zhigang, managing director of Air China’s marketing department told reporters Monday.
Chinese tourists who want to go to Hawaii will no longer have to transfer via Seoul or Tokyo. The airline plans three direct flights a week and hints that if traffic permits, more flights could be in store.
Even without direct flights, some 130,000 Chinese visited Hawaii last year, up 20% from a year earlier, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority. That’s higher than the 18% growth in outbound travelers overall for the year.
Along with the surf and sun, Hawaii also appeals to Chinese tourists with its abundance of shopping.
Average daily spending by Chinese visitors in the first 10 months of 2013 was $391.40, the highest of all visitors to Hawaii, according to the tourism authority. Shopping was visitors’ No. 1 expenditure, followed by lodging, food and entertainment, the tourism authority said.
Air China isn’t the only organization to see growth potential in Chinese tourists. Brokerage CLSA estimates that as income rises, outbound mainland tourist numbers will reach 200 million by 2020, double the 100 million in 2013, and that tourist spending will triple existing levels.
While the brokerage sees Hong Kong and Macau holding onto the top spots in international travel destinations, it says their share of the total will decline as holiday makers seek more exotic destinations.
For Hawaii – exotic fits. “Hawaii rates high as far as being exotic goes,” said Mr. He.
Helping things along, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing has been speeding up its visa processing. An embassy official said it now aims to keep the approval process to one week—down from previous highs of 70 to 100 days.
Travelers between China and the U.S., both inbound and outbound, rose 6%-8% last year to more than 4 million people, Mr. He said, predicting further double-digit growth this year.
The airline already has direct flights from China to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston, and is adding Washington soon too. And Air China knows what fills the seats. Airline officials note that on the way to Honolulu — while passengers are thinking about riding the Hawaiian surf – they can also surf online.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Chinese airlines set up their own express delivery firms
In addition to its subsidiary China Cargo Airlines, China Eastern Airlines announced in September last year that it will establish an e-commerce website to combine logistics and freight operations. Air China has already established its own express delivery firm, while China Southern Airlines has entered a strategic alliance with two leading express delivery firms YTO and SF Express.
A China Eastern spokesperson said that the airline boasts major advantages in developing the express delivery business since it is based in Shanghai — a key air freight hub with a 50% market share. In addition, the airline's courier firm will kick off B2C business under the auspices of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, as B2C relies on air shipment for both import and export, the spokesperson said.
On the other hand, Shu Xiaofeng, president of YTO Express, told the paper, "YTO is preparing to set up its own freight plane fleet, which will not affect its existing cooperation with domestic airlines and third-party agents, since our fleet will focus on safety, speed, and service quality, rather than operational scale."
He added, "We will focus on the deployment of the flight route network of our own fleet, while continuing to strengthen our strategic cooperation with domestic airlines by expanding the scale of chartered planes and full booking of cabin."
YTO plans to build a fleet of 15 freight planes within three years, according to Su, while another leading firm Shentong Express also plans to form its own fleet.
Source: Want China Times
Tuesday, 21 January 2014
Winter cultural festival opens in Xinjiang
A winter cultural festival opened in Zhaotong, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on January 18, 2014. The festival, which lasts until the end of March
Source: xinhua via china.org.cn
Winter Fishing Festival in Ulungur Lake
A fisherman shows the "first fish" to tourists at a winter fishing festival. The 15.8 kilogram "first fish" was auctioned for 298 thousand yuan. The winter fishing festival opened in Ulungur Lake, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Saturday, January 18, 2014, attracting 30 thousand tourists. Winter fishing is a tradition in Ulungur Lake
After 5 hours' hard work, the fishermen get the barrels fully loaded with fish. The winter fishing festival opened in Ulungur Lake, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Saturday, January 18, 2014, attracting 30 thousand tourists. Winter fishing is a tradition in Ulungur Lake
Fishermen pull the fishing net at the winter fishing festival. The winter fishing festival opened in Ulungur Lake, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Saturday, January 18, 2014, attracting 30 thousand tourists. Winter fishing is a tradition in Ulungur Lake
A horse pulls a sledge at the winter fishing festival. The winter fishing festival opened in Ulungur Lake, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Saturday, January 18, 2014, attracting 30 thousand tourists. Winter fishing is a tradition in Ulungur Lake
Source: Xinhua