Spring Festival is the most important festival in China. The festival fell on Jan 28 this year, initiating the Year of the Rooster.

At Spring Festival time, families all over China gather to enjoy the annual reunion meal on the evening preceding the first day of the festival holiday period.

Usually the celebrations run from the evening before the first day and continue to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month. Festivities in Baotou, the largest city in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, include fireworks and decorating windows with paper-cuts.

Children let off fireworks in Baotou, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, to celebrate Spring Festival, Feb 3, 2017. [Photo/Baotou Evening News]

Residents gather around a fire and pray for blessing in Baotou. [Photo/Baotou Evening News]

A paper-cut decorates a window in Baotou. [Photo/Baotou Evening News]