Various places across China are staging full-featured activities to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, a cherished occasion for family reunions which falls on Sept 17 this year.
For the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival that started on Sunday, Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, has made full use of its characteristics as a city of ice and snow.
The Harbin Ice-Snow World, a landmark outdoor ice and snow theme park, has set many large but exquisite ice sculptures in its ice and snow pavilion, which covers an area of 23,800 square meter, by using 20,000 cubic meters of natural ice.
Many intriguing designs, such as sculptures featuring Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, the pet of Lunar Goddess Chang'e in the Chinese mythology, sculptures in the shape of food and wild animals, frozen roses in ice cubes, as well as ice slides, have attracted flocks of visitors.
The iconic park also arranged firework and drone shows for visitors throughout the three-day holidays for visitors.
In Pingnan County of east China's Fujian Province, residents and intangible cultural heritage inheritors have celebrated the festival with an unique form of fireworks, known as the "fire phoenix", a traditional folk activity.
After the singing and dancing around the bonfire ended, the villagers put out the bonfire, broke the charcoal into chips with bamboo poles, and then put these still burning debris into a cage.
After the preparations were completed, the villagers lifted the fire basket with bamboo poles and swung it freely. As countless sparks splashed from the top of the fire basket, a vivid "fire phoenix" flew out, wowing every spectators.
"The "fire phoenix" symbolizes auspiciousness, harvest and unity," said Lan Changbo, inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage technique in Pingnan County.
"It's very fascinating. As an intangible cultural heritage project, I think it must be passed down and protected," said tourist Lyu Chenxing.
Featured activities held in China to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival
East China's Zhejiang Province has adopted a series of precaution measures against the nearing Typhoon Pulasan, the 14th typhoon of the year, which is expected to make landfall along Zhejiang's coastal areas between Thursday afternoon and evening.
Earlier on Wednesday, the province activated the Level-IV emergency response and raised it to Level III at 09:30 on Thursday.
Taizhou City of Zhejiang, where landfall is expected, has implemented comprehensive measures to brace for the approaching typhoon.
Jiantiao town in Sanmen County of Taizhou is home to more than 30 marine-related enterprises, and local staff have conducted inspections and reinforcements on relevant vessels, gantry cranes, and mobile cranes in advance.
Currently, more than 3,000 workers in the town have temporarily stopped work and evacuated.
The originally scheduled date for the opening of the East China Sea fishing season on September 16 was postponed due to the impact of Typhoon Bebinca and Typhoon Pulasan. Currently, over 3,000 fishing boats in Taizhou have all returned to ports to seek shelter.
In Sanjiangkou of Ningbo City, along the river embankment in Jiangbei District, approximately 55 kilometers of flood barriers have been constructed. In Yinzhou District, about 28 kilometers of flood barriers have also been built to ensure the safety of the shops and residents along the river.
At the same time, Ningbo City has activated a Level-IV response to Typhoon Pulasan. If the emergency response level is raised to Level-I, flood barriers will be further reinforced by approximately half a meter to reach a total height of 4.63 meters.
At present, 170 vessels are temporarily docked at various piers with the assistance of the maritime department. Meanwhile, the maritime authorities are strengthening inspections to ensure all boats are safely sheltered from the typhoon. All four ongoing water-related projects in the area have also been halted.
China has a four-tier emergency response system, with Level I being the most severe.
Zhejiang adopts precaution measures against Typhoon Pulasan
