A spectacular welcome for the year of the dog

The annual festival to celebrate the Chinese New Year wowed shoppers and visitors yesterday with the highlight being a traditional Chinese Lion Dance outside the historic Leeds Town Hall.

There were further performances of dance inside the Town Hall while other Chinese pastimes and traditions such as music, calligraphy, martial arts, crafts and beauty were on display and available for people to try out.

Chinese restaurants and food outlets from around Leeds were also on hand to provide food and drinks for the hundreds of people that come to watch the spectacle.

Leeds Chinese Community Association is behind the main event which was yesterday but, true to Chinese tradition, there have also been fringe events and celebrations for the last few weeks.

Karl Pease is a volunteer with the Association. He said: “Chinese New Year is typically a three-day festival but it can last for up to a month. It is very family-orientated and people have to travel a long way to be with their families so the whole thing can take place over a month to support that.

“Typically we get about 1,000 people that come to the festival, from Leeds and outside Leeds who find out about it and travel in or people that have never been before.”

On Friday there was a lion dance in the city centre while earlier this month the Leeds Chinese Community School welcomed 60 young musicians from Guangzhou, a city north west of Hong Kong, who form the Chinese Traditional Music Orchestra and played a concert at Leeds Town Hall.

There are now more than 5,000 Chinese residents living in the city, with numbers being boosted by students also living in the city.