Beijing Letter Clifford CoonanSpring festival fever is picking up all over China - the "Year of the Pig" starts on Sunday and it's a particularly auspicious event for Chinese all over the world.
Gold prices in the Chinese market were high this week, as people stockpiled the precious metal ahead of the lunar new year. A lot of gold has been transformed into pigs - for the Chinese, the pig is a lucky animal, and the fortune tellers say that this is even a "Golden Pig" year, which comes around once every 60 years. No one is asking if 1947 was an especially auspicious year, of course - most people are focusing on preparing to welcome the new moon in style.
Firecrackers were already audible in the night sky in Beijing. During last year's celebration for Spring Festival, the noise was like a barrage of artillery after fireworks were permitted inside the city for the first time in many years, and this year is likely to be just as deafening. The Chinese believe firecrackers ward off evil, and use long strings of red fireworks on New Year's Eve to keep the bad spirits away and to welcome in the good luck of the new year.
A pig is a symbol of plenty, as well as of fertility, and many get married during the "Year of the Pig" to guarantee healthy, wealthy offspring. The labour wards of Chinese hospitals are usually crowded around "pig" years - though with 1.3 billion people and a system already overstretched, the maternity wards are always pretty full.
Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan was in Las Vegas to bring in the Spring Festival, joined by Supergirl Li Yuchun, who was watched by 400 million people when she won Supergirl, China's version of Pop Idol, in 2005. The show took place this week and will be broadcast as part of a major "East meets West" programme on Hunan TV.
President Hu Jintao attended a gala performance on Tuesday to bring in the new year, which according to state media, "included dancing, singing and acrobatics, unfolding a whole picture of a harmonious society, the unity of the army and the people, the festive atmosphere nationwide, and the delight of all ethnic groups in creating their happy life over the past year".
Everyone else is gearing up for the Spring Festival TV show, the highlight of the year's TV and there are lots of news reports running about this year's show, which had to lose one act to meet the 4½-hour time limit. One of the top performers appearing at the show, Song Zuying, has written a special song for the show, which she describes as "a song of cheer and passion".
Chinese radio is broadcasting a Spring Festival party from Nairobi, marking ever closer ties between China and African nations.
While the high-profile gala events were taking place, most Chinese across Asia were preparing their own family-style celebrations for the 15-day holiday, filling their houses with red and gold things, all considered auspicious.
Banks are filled with people paying off any bills before the holiday - carrying debt into the new year is bad form - while hairdressing salons are full of people getting their last haircut of the year, as it's considered bad luck to get your hair cut within the first month of the new year.
And if the South Korean fortune tellers who predict this could be the luckiest pig year in 600 years are correct, it may be just the right time to keep your hair on.
Most Chinese workers receive three weeks holiday every year, known as "Golden Weeks", which fall in May, around National Day in October and at the start of lunar new year, which is the biggest of the holidays and is somewhat later than usual this year. The streets of Beijing were visibly emptier by mid-week, as many of the millions of Beijing residents who come from other parts of the country made their way home.
Beijingers still follow the dictum of famous writer Lao She who wrote: "Before lunar New Year's Eve, every family has to put up spring festival scrolls, do spring-cleaning, and prepare enough food, including different meats, chicken, fish, vegetables and rice cake." A Nanjing university professor has called for the Spring Festival to be listed on Unesco's World Intangible Cultural Heritage register.
At this time of year, the Chinese make over two billion journeys by plane, train and bus to their home towns in what is the globe's biggest annual human migration.
Some richer Chinese are choosing to head abroad for the lunar new year. Chinese tourist numbers have risen sharply in the last few years, and Chinese made 35 million trips in 2006 compared to 620,000 trips in 1990, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
A strong yuan buys many more US dollars, and the Chinese can now afford to travel abroad. They are also allowed to travel to more places these days as travel restrictions are loosened. Hong Kong is a popular destination for those who want to spend the "Golden Week" shopping, and the Chinese traditionally favour other Asian venues with a strong Chinese community such as South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, but are also heading to other more exotic destinations.