Craftsman Zhai Ruichen's wife Liu Shufang sorts New Year pictures they paints in Liaocheng, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 9, 2013. The couple were busy painting New Year pictures recently to meet the demand in local market for the Spring Festival in February.

New Year's Wood Block Paintings are a type of picture pasted on walls and doors during Spring Festival , the most important traditional Chinese festival. In the past, as the Spring Festival approached, every family would clean its rooms and courtyards and paste New Year's Wood Block Paintings on the windows, doors, walls and stoves and in the Buddha niches to add to the New Year atmosphere, and at the same time, to seek good luck in the coming year.

There are many types of New Year's Wood Block Paintings. The Gate Gods are pasted on doors and, according to their roles, there are the main gate god, secondary gate god, back gate god and wing room gate god. There are also New Year's Wood Block Paintings of the God of Stove, the Village God and the God of Wealth. At Spring Festival time, New Year engravings of various types are put in every corner of the room and courtyard, imparting a strong festival atmosphere.

Yangliuqing

 

The Chinese Lunar New Year is around the corner, and if you are in Beijing and will not join the migrant wave to go home, there is a relaxing and interesting place to go. In Beijing's neighbor Tianjin city, there is a historic town imbued with enchanting traditional Chinese culture. Its name is Yangliuqing.