A VARIETY of cultural activities were held in Qingdao to mark the Chinese New Year, including paper-cutting exhibitions, concerts, intangible cultural heritage exhibitions, acrobatic shows, as well as games.

    The city’s annual turnip fair celebrating the Lantern Festival, featured folk art and shopping. The turnip sculpture competition attracted 380,000 visitors.

    Lion dances by Cangzhou artists, acrobatics from Wuqiao, stilt walkers from Liaoning, percussionists from Beijing and wu shu from Laoshan Mountain’s Taosists were also highlights of the intangible cultural heritage festival from Feb. 15 to 19 at the Laoshan Century Plaza.

    In Qingdao’s Xinhua Bookstore, the annual lantern quiz was held from Feb. 16 to 18. Of the 400 riddles, which covered ancient Chinese poetry, geography and astrology, English-language was a new feature this year.(Martin Li, Wang Ping)