As the Chinese Lunar New Year approaches, people around the country are preparing for the important traditional holiday.

In the capital, it has become a tradition to attend temple fairs to enjoy local food, folk arts and traditional snacks during the holiday.

The Ditan park temple fair will be the biggest one this year. Miss Wang is a Beijing resident and says she will set up a stall at the temple fair.

"The temple fair in Ditan has been quite popular in the past years, so my father and I rented a stall here this year."

Besides Ditan, many other temple fairs are also being held. The Longtan temple fair will offer folk customs, as well as interactive physical and cultural activities.

As the year 2005 is the Year of Rooster, related commodities are doing exceptionally well in the market.

Zhang Hongwei is the director of market planning with the Beijing Gongmei Group. She says the special golden rooster signs are picking up.

"We have more than ten kinds of rooster-related commodities for customers. As the Chinese New Year's day is drawing near, our gold sales have risen by nearly 30 percent."

Red paper-cuts, rooster-shaped toys and red Chinese decorative knots are also selling well . This is a customer in the market.

"We can put these paper-cuts hanging in the room and it will be an indication of happiness. When our relatives get together in the new year, they will be happy to see these beautiful paper-cuts ." 

(CRIENGLISH.com February 8, 2005)