BEIJING—Asia welcomed the Lunar Year of the Pig with visits to temples, family banquets and the world’s biggest travel spree on Feb. 5.
Celebrations took place throughout the Asia region.
The streets of Beijing and other major Chinese cities were quiet and empty after millions of people left to visit relatives or travel abroad during the year’s biggest family holiday.
Families gathered at home for multigenerational banquets. Companies, shops and government offices closed for official holidays that ranged from two days in South Korea to a week in China.
Hong Kong
Worshippers stood in line for hours at Hong Kong’s Wong Tai Sin Temple to welcome the new year by lighting incense.“My first wish is for world peace,” said Lana Wong, a prominent Hong Kong actress, 88. “Everyone has food to eat, employment and houses to live in. The elderly also hope the government will take better care of them.”
Mainland China
In Beijing, vendors sold toys branded with the British cartoon character Peppa Pig, which is enjoying a surge of popularity for the Year of the Pig.“My wishes for new year are a promotion, a raise and finding a boyfriend,” said a spectator, Cui Di, a 28-year-old employee of a foreign company.
The holiday in mainland China is marked by the biggest annual travel boom as hundreds of millions of people visit their home towns or travel abroad.
The railway ministry forecast mainland travelers would make 413 million trips during the three-week period around the holiday.
Thailand
In Bangkok, people lit incense sticks and burned paper money and other symbolic offerings for deceased relatives despite government appeals to avoid contributing to smog.Some shopkeepers sold symbolic ballots to burn as offerings following official promises of an election this year, the first after four years of military rule.
