TRADITIONAL lanterns will decorate the streets of York for the next ten days to mark the Chinese new year, which starts today.

Lion dancing and tai chi will form part of the celebrations.

The year ahead is the year of the dog according to the Chinese calendar - which is determined by astrological phenomena, such as the phases of the moon - and started at midnight last night.

A time for family celebrations and home-cooked banquets, the new year is also known as the Spring festival.

For the next ten days - until Sunday, February 25 - a number of streets, from Stonegate to Coney Street, are being decorated with Chinese lanterns. Co-ordinated by Make It York, the decorations have been sponsored by York Bid and the Mansion House.

This Sunday, the Chinese society at University of York are hosting a new year fete, with stalls and educational activities, and a concert for students. Visit www.yusu.org for further details.

The fete starts at 1.30pm at the university's exhibition centre, while the concert is from 6.30pm at the Roger Kirk Centre at the university.

The Mansion House is hosting a series of events on Saturday, February 24, with music, a tea ceremony, Chinese painting with Danny Ha and a tai chi workshop. See www.mansionhouseyork.com for more details.

Traditional lion dancing will also be performed by Lychee Red Chinese seniors project in St Helen’s Square from 3.30pm and 4.30pm.

Busy Bees nursery in Rawcliffe kicked off their celebrations yesterday with a special cultural event, which saw the youngsters tasting different Chinese foods and experimenting with chop sticks. Some of them even got dressed up.

Manager Belinda Hammond said: “The children really look forward to Chinese New Year because there are so many new things that they learn. They love the festival’s bright colours and learning about the different animals that are celebrated within the calendar.”

As this is the year of the dog, Castle Howard - which has dog-friendly gardens - is launching a dog of the month competition. The winner will be announced at the end of each month and entered into an end of year draw to win dog-themed gifts.

Meanwhile, in Scarborough, Amelia’s Chocolate is running confectionary-making workshops today, Friday, and Saturday, where you can get into the spirit by making dog-shaped chocolate lollies.

Visit York has been seeking to attract more Chinese visitors to the city over the past year, releasing a fourth edition of the York visitor guide in Mandarin, as research shows the number of Chinese visitors to the region has doubled since 2012 to almost 20,000 in 2016.

Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive Sir Gary Verity said: “China is fast becoming the biggest force in world tourism and we’re delighted to see a huge increase in visits to this part of the world.”

At the end of 2017, Visit York marketing manager Michelle Brown went on a sales mission to Guanghzhou, hoping to market York as a tourist destination.

Notably, many York attractions such as the Jorvik centre, the Harry Potter shops on Shambles and the Minster prove a huge draw to the Chinese market.

This year, Visit York has also released a fourth edition of York’s Visitor Guide in Mandarin, with 35,000 copies distributed via five inbound airlines from China, at airport lounges and visa application offices in Beijing and Shanghai.