Buenos Aires readies to celebrate Chinese New Year

BUENOS AIRES, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Buenos Aires is preparing to celebrate the Chinese New Year from this weekend with cultural, culinary and artistic events, organizers said on Monday.

"Our goal is to recreate the same festive atmosphere as in China during the Spring Festival or, as it's known here, the Chinese New Year," Ana Chen, president of Phoenix Dorada, a private-sector sponsor and organizer, said at a press conference.

Yang Chuanying, the cultural counselor at China's embassy in Argentina, also attended the press conference.

The celebration will provide a stage for traditional music and dance performances by a 30-member troupe from Hangzhou, the city in east China that hosted the G20 Summit in 2016.

The event will also have stands offering food, handicrafts and other goods from China.

This is the fifth year that Argentina's capital will celebrate the annual Chinese holiday with the Chinese community.

The festival aims to promote cultural exchanges between the two nations so that "our compatriots can enjoy this special celebration alongside the Argentinean people," Chen said.

Last year, Chinese New Year celebrations took place in 500 cities across 140 countries and regions, with some 280 million people attending more than 2,000 cultural events.