Global revelers usher in 2025 with vibrant activities

The world has welcomed the arrival of 2025 in style, as revelers around the globe enjoyed a wealth of spectacular celebrations from brilliant fireworks displays to float parades, marking the onset of the new year.

The century-old New Year's Eve celebration took center stage in the iconic Times Square of New York City, with the event also featuring Chinese performances presented by the Sino-American Friendship Association, with Chinese elements having now appeared in the annual celebration for 13 consecutive years.

This year's showcase included a lively presentation of Chinese opera and a mix of traditional and modern Chinese dance, reflecting the dynamic development of Chinese culture while conveying a message of peace, harmony and co-existence between people and nature.

In addition, visual recreations of famous Chinese landmarks, such as Mount Huangshan's ancient "Welcoming Pine" -- a 10-meter-tall, thousand-year-old tree at the tourist spot -- and the iconic Canton Tower in Guangzhou, as well as other vibrant cultural and tourism sites and elements of Chinese folklore were displayed on seven massive screens in Times Square.

Canada's Toronto welcomed the arrival of 2025 with a dazzling 10-minute waterfront firework display on the Lake of Ontario.

"Peace and love for everybody. Give people hugs and smiles. Spread love," said a Toronto resident as she offered her hopes for the new year.

Meanwhile, in Kenya, residents joined the rest of the world in jubilant celebrations to bid farewell to 2024 and usher in 2025. In the capital Nairobi, the night sky was illuminated by a dazzling fireworks show atop the Global Trade Center (GTC) Tower, the tallest building in the country.

Germany's annual New Year's Eve celebration took place in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, a landmark that holds immense historical significance and is a symbol of unity, peace, and resilience. It is one of Europe's biggest gatherings to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one.

The entire route of the event stretched for 2.5 kilometers, and saw 65,000 people gathering to enjoy open-air concerts on the main stage and music at other pop-up locations. More than 90 food trucks dotted along the way provided food from all over the world, adding a strong festive atmosphere to the arrival of the new year.

Over 5,000 police officers and firefighters were deployed to ensure security at the New Year activities in Berlin after a deadly Christmas market attack killed five people and wounded more than 200 others in the eastern city of Magdeburg on Dec 20.

London's annual New Year's Day parade got underway on Wednesday, with more than 10,000 performers braving the wind and rain, with marching bands, dancers, acrobats and giant floats all taking part. The parade started at Piccadilly, making its way past Trafalgar Square and Whitehall, and finished in Westminster.

Since its inception in 1987, the London New Year's Day parade has grown into a massive celebration, attracting over half a million spectators every year.

Global revelers usher in 2025 with vibrant activities

The Zhuhai Port on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge handled 27 million passenger trips and 5.55 million vehicle trips in 2024, both record highs, official data showed on Friday.

In 2024, the passenger flow and vehicle flow through the Zhuhai Port rose by 72 percent and 71 percent year on year, respectively, according to the border inspection station on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.

The 55-kilometer bridge links China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), the Macao SAR and the city of Zhuhai in south China's Guangdong Province. It is the world's longest bridge-and-tunnel sea crossing. In 2024, the Zhuhai Port registered 16.2 million border entries and exits by travelers from Hong Kong and Macao, a sharp increase of 63 percent year on year, and accounting for nearly 60 percent of the total passenger flow through the port, the data showed.

Peak passenger flow through the port occurred frequently on weekends and holidays.

In the year, more than 5.24 million of the border entries and exits were made by tourists, 55 percent higher than 2023. The surge can be attributed to the constant expansion of the Individual Travel Scheme to allow more mainland cities to issue individual travel endorsements for trips to Hong Kong and Macao.

In 2024, there were 50 days in which the daily passenger flow through the port exceeded 100,000 trips, a 10-fold increase over 2023.

On February 13, 2024, the daily passenger flow reached 144,000 trips, the highest since the bridge opened to public traffic in October 2018.

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge sees record high traffic flow in 2024