China yesterday rang in the Year of the Tiger - symbolising strength, vitality and fortune - with tolling bells and fireworks. Many Beijing residents woke to the sound of firecrackers, believed to scare off evil spirits, while financial markets and businesses were closed for New Year's Day, seen as the most important date of the calendar.
Government officials at the Big Bell Temple sounded the 6.75 metre tall Yongle bell 108 times to ward off the same number of misfortunes. Other visitors followed suit. The number of times the bell is rung is linked to the Chinese calendar.
Greetings and photographs of China's communist leaders were splashed across major newspapers, while television and radio broadcast festive activities, ranging from lion dances to calligraphy and cooking.
The People's Daily, mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, quoted the Prime Minister, Mr Li Peng, as saying China would speed up economic restructuring this year.
"While the south-east Asian economic turmoil affected many countries, our country has kept stability in both its financial situation and the whole economic situation," Mr Li said.
In Hong Kong, lion dancers, gongs, incense-waving worshippers and a carnival greeted the Year of the Tiger as the city of 6.5 million people took a rest from months of Asian financial agony to celebrate. But the three-day festival is bitter-sweet, laced with anxiety about job losses and a tough economic year to come.
Hong Kong has been battered by Asia's financial turbulence, an economic downturn and a major scare over a deadly "bird flu" that has killed six people and wrecked the poultry industry.
"The Tiger year should be a powerful year, but it looks like being a pig of a year with lots of trouble," said Ms Josey Lau, a secretary at a local bank, who was visiting a New Year fair.
Pig in more senses than one. Because of the bird flu and a ban on fresh chicken imports from mainland China, people have had to put pork instead of fowl on their festive dinner tables.