The centerpiece of celebration of the Chinese New Year at the China Folk Culture Villages will be a temple fair and a torch festival.

A temple fair used to be held in antient China near a temple as an occasion for trading and celebrating, while the Torch Festival is originally an important celebration of the Yi, who live in southwestern China.

The two events will feature singing and dancing, delicious food, chicken fight, dragon dance, firecrackers and fireworks.

The park will set off an area near the sea for people to light firecrackers and set off fireworks. "We have invited a dragon dance team, which is called the 'No. 1 dragon under heaven,' from Chongqing in southwestern China, to perform in the park during the Chinese New Year holidays," said La Ma, a publicity officer at the park, who said the team would display some rare feats many Shenzheners had never seen before. "This team has performed all over China and so far it is one of the most popular," La said.

The temple fair will display and sell many Chinese traditional artifacts, such as paper windmills, diabolos, lanterns, flour human sculptures, paper cuttings and puppets. In addition, many old folk customs will be relived by performers, who will stroll with caged birds, play chess, pull a rickshaw, mend shoes and sing local operas. "Many of the performances can only be seen on TV today. But here you will be able to see and mingle with them in person," La said.

As for the Torch Festival whose original focus is Yi dance, La said many modern elements would be put into it, such as artificial lighting, interactive games and a bar celebration.

Located at Xiaomeisha in East Shenzhen, Sea World will continue its routine shows during the Chinese New Year holidays. There is a sea animal show, an extreme diving show by Ukrainian performers and synchronized swimming by Ukrainian girls.

A new addition to the park's programs is an underwater show in its huge glass pool that holds 350 cubic meters of seawater. "The Ukrainian synchronized swimmers will play mermaids and perform a wedding underwater," said Chen Nan, publicity manager of the park, who added the park would also present nearly 1,000 lantern riddles themed on sea animals during the festival.

"We'll offer international jokes during the Chinese New Year period," said a source surnamed Zhang from the Happy Valley theme park.

He said from Feb. 9 through 15, the park would hold a comedy festival to feature more than 20 performers from seven foreign countries: France, Russia, Venezuela, Romania, Kazakhstan, Poland and China.

Each day will have dozens of comedy shows at venues ranging from a theater to a streetside.

"The French performers are good on stilts. So a clown will become a giant at a height of 2.8 meters," said Zhang, adding a clown from Monaco would play a variety of musical instruments.

The park of Fifth China International Landscape and Floral Exposition, which opened late last year, will have an art festival from Feb. 5 to March 8. The festival will feature a lantern exhibition, a water screen movie and a display of music chimes dating back more than 2,300 years in China.

"The lantern will be from Zigong, Sichuan Province, which is a city famous for making festive lanterns," said a source at the park.

Window of the World achieved the best profits among Shenzhen's theme parks last year. As it is mainly a showcase of cultures from around the world, it therefore has themed its Chinese New Year celebration as a world singing and dancing festival.

China Folk Culture Villages

Address: Overseas Chinese Town, Nanshan District, Shenzhen city

Buses: 101, 105, 204, 113, 223, 311

Sea World

Address: Xiaomeisha Beach Park, Yantian District, Shenzhen city

Buses: 103, 360, 364

Happy Valley, Window of the World

Address: Overseas Chinese Town, Nanshan District, Shenzhen city

Buses: 101, 105, 204, 113, 223, 311

Editor: Catherine