Special programs to celebrate the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, the Year of the Dragon, will start to air on multiple platforms including Dragon TV, News Channel, Knews and ShanghaiEye on Monday.

These programs will provide an insight into Shanghai’s distinctive charm and folk customs through city walks, travel, festive activities and flavorsome food.

TV anchors will lead the audience to the city’s landmark and trendy resorts to experience Spring Festival folk traditions such as writing couplets, New Year-themed painting, guessing lantern riddles and hanging lanterns.

Local delicacies of ancient water towns in Qingpu District will also be displayed in the programs. Among them are sausages, babaofan (“eight-treasure rice” puddings), and glutinous rice pancakes.

The lighting ceremony and Spring Festival celebration at the Longhua Temple will also be recorded.

In addition to bazaars and traditional Chinese opera performances, the temple’s vegetarian restaurant is also famous for its delicious noodles.

The significance of the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, has been acknowledged by the UN General Assembly. It has been officially listed as a UN floating holiday in its calendar of conferences and meetings as from 2024.

The programs will also focus on how expats celebrate the festival with their Chinese friends at intangible cultural heritage centers in the city, old streets and time-honored architecturally significant buildings.