The mascots for this year's Asian Games in Hangzhou are helping celebrate Chinese New Year with its Spring Festival ©Hangzhou Government

Hangzhou is celebrating Chinese New Year with its Spring Festival as it looks forward to the unique additional feature of hosting the 19th Asian Games in 2023 - the "Year of the Rabbit".

The opportunity is nearing to put on a Games that had to be postponed from its original date in 2022 because of COVID-19 measures.

The city is also celebrating its ancient status as capital of the Southern Song Dynasty and as keeper of the precious Song Yun culture, prnasia.com reports.

Accordingly Hangzhou has launched the New Year event of: "Collecting Five Blessings, Touring Hangzhou, Tasting Song Yun Culture'".

Apart from the activities of gathering five blessings, Hangzhou also launched the "West Lake Blessing Boat", "DeShou Palace Blessing Red Wall", "New Year's Song Yun Shopping Festival" and other activities in order to provide citizens and tourists with the New Year atmosphere.

Hangzhou is celebrating Chinese New Year with its Spring Festival as it looks forward to the unique additional feature of hosting the 19th Asian Games in 2023 – the Year of the Rabbit ©Hangzhou Government
Hangzhou is celebrating Chinese New Year with its Spring Festival as it looks forward to the unique additional feature of hosting the 19th Asian Games in 2023 – the Year of the Rabbit ©Hangzhou Government 

Last week, the Hangzhou Online Spring Festival Gala was broadcast.

The Gala started with Chinese classical folk music New Year's Melody and was divided into four chapters: "Energizing Asian Games", "Reading Song Yun Culture", "Blooming Smart City", and "Visioning a Shared Future".

Then the "I'm Looking for Song Yun in Hangzhou" feature offered the audience cinematic shots depicting the beauty of DeShou Palace, Ba lazi Alley, Phoenix Mountain and other Song Yun tourist attractions.

The Hangzhou Online Spring Festival Gala also reviewed the best moments of 2022, presented the charm of Hangzhou in traditional festivals and looked forward to the new atmosphere in the coming year of  the Asian Games.