The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th of January on the lunar calendar (February 6th on the Western calendar). Lanterns of different styles can be found in the old town bazaar of Shanghai.

The dragon year is here! The new year decorations have been put up all over China, nowhere more so than the Old Town Bazaar of Shanghai. There have been statues about dragon stories...

Tang Bao can refer to XiaoLongBao in Shanghai, but more often as the name of a big soup-filled dumpling. It is a bun with soup inside. You do not find much stuffing like the common meat/vegetable buns. A popular kind of Tang Bao is with crab meat or crab roe inside. You can break a small hole on the skin or put a straw on top for the soup. Either way, be aware of the hot soup.

Mid-lake pavilion has been a tea house since 1885 in the Qing dynasty. The building was originally a pavilion inside the Yuyuan garden, and later turned into a meeting place for cloth business men in 1784. It is located by the zigzag bridge in Shanghai old town bazaar. Visitors can have a break with nice tea in the 200-year-old building while watching lake and passersby.

With the recent opening of glasshouse exhibitions in January 2011, Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden has attracted lots of visitors during the Chinese New Year festival. It is fun to enjoy flowers and plants from all over the world. You can also experience four seasons in one day of visit. The glasshouse exhibition is the biggest of its type in Asia, collecting nearly 9,000 species.

For the Chinese New Year festival, the botanic garden has exhibited plants with Rabbit characters to match the new year of Rabbit. The orchid flowers associated with longevity and good luck also become a big favorite of visitors. Such cheerful plants have made the botanical garden No.1 one-day excursion destination for Shanghai citizens during the holiday. Many families have visited the botanic garden as an spring outing. Isn't it nice to begin a new year with plants and wishing health for all the families?

Shanghai Chenshan Botanic Garden is located west of the city near SheShan resort, covering an area of 207 hectares.