For Chinese people, the Spring Festival is the most important and significant traditional holiday of the year. It is like a grand cultural celebration, carrying a rich history and deep-rooted folk traditions. In 2024, the “Beijing Central Axis” was successfully inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the “Spring Festival – Chinese New Year Celebrations and Social Practices” was also added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The year 2025 marks the first “intangible cultural heritage edition” of the Spring Festival since Beijing’s Central Axis gained World Heritage status. As part of the “My Spring Festival Story” series, we will explore the festive atmosphere of Beijing with two foreign friends, visiting iconic sites along the Central Axis, including Jingshan Park, the Bell and Drum Towers, Zhengyangmen Arrow Tower, and Qianmen Pedestrian Street.