SIP offered fantastic experiences for both local residents and tourists to enjoy an unforgettable Spring Festival (also known as Chinese New Year) holiday that started from Feb 10. International and traditional local elements fused well in the festival celebrations.

Many shopping malls in SIP, including Suzhou Center Mall, Suzhou Shin Kong Place and Suzhou Stage Outlets, offered dragon and lion dancing performances on the Spring Festival as a token of good wishes for the customers and passersby.

The Jinji Lake Music Fountain staged amazing audio-visual shows every night based on ingenious integration of lighting, water and music. The oil painting exhibition themed “Flowers”, held at Jinji Lake Scenic Area Tourist Center, attracted many people.

Hotels in SIP made good preparations to serve their guests who preferred a tour during the Chinese Spring Festival (also known as Chinese New Year) holiday than traditional celebrations at home.

Jinji Lake Grand Hotel decorated its lobby with Chinese knots, red lanterns and other decorations. Dragon and lion dancing performances were staged, and diverse events were held following folk customs.

Kempinski Hotel Suzhou was full of festive atmosphere, too. It organized DIY activities for kids, and offered excellent sumptuous dinners on Chinese New Year’s Eve. Guests could make dumplings in person.

SIP recently saw a variety of events designed to offer people from other countries and regions opportunities to experience Chinese New Year which, also known as Spring Festival, fell on Feb 10 this year. In Dulwich College Suzhou, a school for children of expats, the students watched dragon and lion dancing performances, and tried to write Chinese character “Fu” (meaning happiness and luck) and make handiworks that could be used as decorations during the festival.

The SKEMA Business School (Suzhou) on the bank of Dushu Lake organized an event where over 20 international students learned to make dumplings.
Alex, a Portuguese who is one of 34 foreign artists at Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, participated in a performance in Suzhou and spent the rest of his holiday in SIP. He toured the old city of Suzhou, viewed an art exhibition at Suzhou Center and visited the HB World entertainment complex together with his families…[MORE]

The Jinji Lake Scenic Area in SIP recorded 118,900 tourist arrivals on Feb 11, the second day of the Chinese New Year holiday, with a year-on-year increase of 46.17%. The Yangcheng Lake Peninsula Tourist Resort recorded 89,000 tourist arrivals, up 166.59% YoY.

The shopping malls including Suzhou Center Mall and Bicester Village Suzhou provided performances, attractive discounts and various cultural and interactive events to the shoppers. The 500-meter-long Sky Screen at Harmony Times Square attracted lots of people every day with its breathtaking naked-eye 3D LED displays.

In addition to visiting relatives and friends, many people chose to enjoy a tour to art in SIP during the Chinese Spring Festival holiday.

Suzhou Culture and Arts Centre offered a list of performances including concerts, Kunqu opera (one of the oldest forms of Chinese opera) and modern dramas. Six of the latest movies are shown at Suzhou Arts Cineplex.

A calligraphy exhibition and an exhibition of works by Chinese artist Shi Wanwan are underway at Jinji Lake Art Museum.

An exhibition designed to guide youngsters to understand life from an artistic angle of view is going on at SIP Cultural Centre.

A number of enterprises in SIP continued their production during the Spring Festival holiday while several major construction projects were going on with the purpose of pulling off a good start for the economic development of SIP in this year.

A team of employees of Bosch Auto Parts (Suzhou) Co Ltd worked during the holiday in order to complete the order from a client on time. Concurrently, the company was building a manufacturing base in SIP for development and production of core components and automatic driving systems for new energy vehicles. The first phase of the new facility is expected to be completed in the middle of this year.