Zhang's team is now tasked to reinforce outer-fences for the camps of Ghanaian peacekeepers. To ensure that all team members can have Yuanxiao, a traditional Chinese snack for the festival, Sun Zhi, the team leader, had made good preparations.
Peng Shoucong, another Chinese peacekeeper, told Xinhua that it is his fifth time to come to Lebanon for UN peacekeeping mission, and the third time for him to spend the Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival in the country.
When he was to leave home for the mission, his daughter clinched his legs and would not let him go. He said he misses his family very much.
LANTERN FESTIVAL CELEBRATED OVERSEAS
Grand Lantern Festival celebrations are deeply rooted in China's history, traditions and customs for thousands of years. To date, the time-honored festival has evolved into a globalized cultural feast beyond borders.
Thousands of miles away from China, Chinese opera artists from Chongqing made debuts Monday evening of classic Sichuan Opera and celebrated the Lantern Festival at the northernmost art center in Scotland's Lerwick.
Young performers performed several classic episodes of Sichuan Opera at Mareel, the most northerly music, cinema and creative industries center in Britain on Monday evening.
Performers first exhibited some highlights of the 300-year-old Sichuan Opera, one of the oldest local operas in China, including the five types of characters and various kinds of performing techniques, costumes and music.
They entertained the audience with their wonderful performance and humoristic facial expressions and words, and won warm applause and cheering.
In central Auckland of New Zealand, the annual Auckland Lantern Festival presents 800 lanterns on a showground, attracting a large number of visitors.
The Lantern Festival, moved from city center to a nearby spacious park for the first time in 16 years, includes the focus figure of monkey as China entered the Year of the Monkey on Feb. 8.
"It brings a new dimension to this cultural venue, strengthens the notion that celebrating the Chinese New Year has become a very important part of New Zealand calendar," Chinese Ambassador Wang Lutong said.
Auckland Mayor Len Brown called on all Auckland people to show up at the event.
The festival organizers set up a 100-meter-long arcade for Asian food vendors, making it one of the busiest spots in the venue.
Lantern Festival has become one of the most popular gatherings in Auckland with over 170,000 people turning up for one weekend last year, showcasing a multicultural fusion in a city with 25 percent of its population being of Asian origin.
Not just a symbolic mark in the Chinese calendar, the festival also demonstrates the essence of ancient Chinese civilization and the long-cherished family values held not only by the Chinese people, but also by people all over the world.
