Last updated on August 10th, 2022
33. The Lantern Day arrives on the night of the first full moon of the Chinese New Year.
34. An estimated more than 2 billion people take part in the Chinese New Year celebrations across the world, which is almost 1/3rd of the world’s total population.
35. Hong Kong, another vibrant and tourist friendly country hosts a horse race during this time of the year. Visitors as well as citizens are amused and it is a great time for people to relax and reflect back on their lives.
Travel chaos
36. A large chunk of the world’s population moves during this season. And guess where the majority of these are going? Yes, you are right. They are migrating to their family members to spend time together and be a part of the much-awaited reunion dinner.
37. The migration during the Spring festival is known as Chunyun, is also the largest human migration in the world.
38. The New Year is not a great time for singles, in fact. Many people are not yet hitched up and are living life on their own without the support of any partner. This is a tense situation for those who are struggling to find the love of their soul. However, they can find a temporary fix for this problem by renting a fake partner just for the New Years season. Yes, there are many fake boyfriends available. Some Chinese websites have provisions to book a boyfriend just for the festive season.
39. It is also a myth that the Chinese have descended from mystical creatures – the Dragons.
40. China Rail Service sold a whopping 300,000 tickets through their official rail ticket booking website every hour during the 2012 Chinese New Year. This is a new record for their website.
41. The Chinese New Year’s official celebration began on 1912. So the festival by now is more than a century old.
42. Firework is a huge part of the celebration. Smoke and smog are a huge concern in China. Moreover, firework has also cost a life of a firefighter in 2009 and damages worth $700 million. Not always a nice way to celebrate isn’t it.
43. Also, note that Chinese is home of the world’s largest fireworks industry. And the biggest display of fireworks in the country happens at the mid night of the New Year.
44. Chinese celebrate the New Year day by day, literally. There is a different tradition for each day and they take time to absorb the atmosphere and the charm that this festival brings. The fifth day, for example, is reserved for staying at home and welcoming the good fortune.
45. Gifting flowers and potted plants is a Chinese New Year tradition. And the sale of luxury food and alcohol is dropping in recent years.
46. Greetings: one of the popular Chinese New Year greetings “Gong Xi Fa Cai” which means “congratulations and prosperity” is widely used in the Southern part of the country.
47. Chinese people also use door god as a way to protect their home and businesses from evil. Door god’s decorations are placed on either side of the entrances to their homes and shops.
Quick facts about Chinese New Year – 2017
48. During the New Year, all of China, some 1.357 billion people in the country go on holiday!
49. It is expected that the Chinese will spend a whopping US$100 billion on eating and shopping in the first week of the Chinese New Year.
50. The train tickets in China are currently being sold at a rate of 1000 per second. That’s how big the festival is.
51. China is all set to see an estimated 2.5 billion trips by land and 58 million trip by plane between January 13 and February 21.
52. And they also have the world’s longest high-speed rail network to support the migration. It is 121,000 km long, of which 20,000 km is high-speed.
53. The average individual journey during 2016 Chinese New Year was about 410 km, which is expected to increase in 2017.
54. Roughly 6 million outbound trips are expected to take place this year. And the world is doing its best to woo the Chinese tourists who have an average budget of 1450 US dollars for their outbound trip.
55. Technology giants in China including Alibaba and Tencent have developed a special application in the popular smartphone games that lets users collect red envelopes. The users first scan physical objects in their surrounding to hide the red envelopes, which later can be found by their friends and family with the help of the clues provided by those who have hidden them.