NEW YORK — The New York-based Nasdaq Stock Exchange celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year on Monday with a special bell ringing ceremony to kick off the day's trading.

On 9:30 am (1430 GMT), Huang Ping, the Chinese consul general in New York, rang the opening bell at Nasdaq on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Tuesday this year.

In a brief speech, Huang noted that the year of 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. Over the past 40 years, Sino-US relations have been growing steadily, bringing tangible benefits to both peoples and the whole world.