Grand Chinese New Year celebrations held in Thai provinces

BANGKOK, February 19 (TNA) - Many Thai provinces have held grand Chinese New Year celebrations to welcome the Year of sheep, attracting both local and foreign tourists. Chinese New Year celebration in the northern province of Chiang Mai was in full swing on Thursday with an opening of the grand Chiang Mai Chinatown Festival. This year’s highlight of the festival was a 40-metre-long Golden Dragon and Lion Dance parade, performed by 6-year old children, which began at the Tha Pae gate to the Waroros Market. The province has drawn around 30,000 Chinese tourists daily during the New Year period, up by 23 percent from the previous year. In Hat Yai district of the southern Songkhla province, Thais of Chinese descents and Malaysian flocked to pay respect and worship sacred statues situated on the Kor Hong Mountain for good luck on the Chinese New Year. Hotel reservations in the province’s trade and economic hub were fully booked, thanks partly the provincial administrative organization’s move to declare the Chinese New Year day as an public holiday. In Krabi province, Thai, Malaysian, and Singaporean tourists visited the famous statue of Guanyin, Chinese Goddess of Mercy, at the Tham Sua Vipassana Temple to pray for good fortune on the New Year. (TNA)