London to host Chinese culture celebration

London will host its biggest-ever celebration of Chinese culture next year, featuring an Olympic theme and the largest Spring Festival outside Asia.

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said: "The capital's Chinese New Year celebration is a key event on our cultural calendar. It is now the largest outside China."

As Beijing prepares to stage the Olympic Games in August before handing over to London as host city for the 2012 Games, next year will provide a unique opportunity to celebrate Chinese arts, heritage and culture, and the strengthening ties between London and China, Livingstone said.

The two-month event will be launched on February 6, with a lighting ceremony of Chinese lanterns in Oxford Circus.

The event will culminate on April 6 with London playing host to the Olympic Flame as part of the Beijing Olympics Torch Relay.

It will also mark the final day of the First Emperor exhibition being held at the British Museum.

"Preparations are now well under way," Mark Prescott of the London cultural campaigns team, said Tuesday in Beijing.

"The year will see more organizations, galleries and museums taking part than ever before."

The event aims to engage businesses and creative organizations in China, he said.

Chinese artists will be joined by some of London's great cultural institutions - the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Academy of Music, Kew Gardens, and London Zoo - to celebrate China's cultural life.

There will be an estimated 1.5 million Londoners and visitors attending the event, Prescott said.

Passengers on London's underground will be treated to poems by Chinese poets Bei Dao and Yang Lian, and fortune cookies filled with facts about modern China, he said.

Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, will once again be celebrated in Trafalgar Square on February 10 with musicians, dragon dances and parades.

The event will be associated with CHINA NOW, a six-month festival held across the United Kingdom and focusing on Chinese businesses, education and culture.

Other highlights will include performances by the Beijing Dance Drama and Opera House and the Beijing Modern Dance Company.

The performances will be staged at such well-known London locations as Trafalgar Square and the Royal Opera House.