Chinese New Year festivals: the Year of the Snake

Left it too late to join in China’s New Year celebrations? Don’t worry, says Gabrielle Jaffe, there are some great festivals coming up.At the stroke of midnight tonight, the world’s biggest party will begin, as more than 1.3 billion people across China pour on to the streets and light fireworks to usher in the Year of the Snake. During the following fortnight they will visit temple fairs, watch dragon dances and make dumplings shaped like silver ingots. They will each, on average, spend a month’s salary on pyrotechnics.This year’s celebrations will have a serpentine theme. Performances of the Peking opera Madame White Snake will run on repeat, red paper snakes will be pasted on doors, and shops will stock up on traditional snake wine, as well as goods more in keeping with the country’s economic prowess, such as £3,000 Bu lgari Serpenti watches. With everyone in a holiday mood, New Year is an atmospheric time to visit. But if you cannot make it during this period, there are plenty of other events coming up in China. Here’s a sneak preview of what the Year of the Snake has in store:MarchThe Shanghai International Literary Festival invites leading writers to talk in the delightful setting that is M on the Bund (m-restaurantgroup.com), a modern European restaurant with some of Shanghai’s best views. This year’s event takes place from March 1-17 and features the likes of Simon Armitage and A D Miller, alongside the bestselling Chinese-born author Da Chen.The Hong Kong Sevens (hksevens.com) (March 22-24) is one of rugby union’s premier sevens tournaments. As 24 international teams descend on the island, the whole of Hong Kong takes on a party atmosphere; the streets and the stadium fill with fans in fancy dress.

While most of the country celebrates New Year in February, in China’s Xishuangbanna region festivities are held from April 13-18. Here the Dai minority, who are culturally closer to Thais than to the Chinese, greet their New Year with a Water-Splashing Festival. Grab a water pistol, balloon or bucket and join in the fun.From April 12-14 Formula One comes to Shanghai. At the Chinese Grand Prix, you can watch Lewis Hamilton race for under £45 – a quarter of the price of the cheapest Silverstone tickets.At the end of the month – exact dates to be announced – PhotoSpring brings world-class photography to Caochangdi, the art community in Beijing founded by the dissident artist Ai Weiwei. Elsewhere in the city, the four-day Art Beijing fair (artbeijing.net) from April 30 is given over to classical and contemporary Asian and European art, while Surge (affordableartchina.com) is the perfect place to pick up a bargain – 50 per cent of the works at this fair sell for under £1,500.