Adorable snake dances in CMG promo video marking 10 days to 2025 Spring Festival Gala

China Media Group (CMG) kicked off the final countdown to the 2025 Spring Festival Gala with the release of a charming animated promotional video on Saturday, marking just 10 days until the grand show airs on January 28, the eve of Chinese New Year.

The Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is China's most cherished traditional celebration, uniting families across the country in joyous festivities.

As the Year of the Snake approaches, the gala unveiled its official mascot "Si Shengsheng." Drawing inspiration from a 3,000-year-old bronze snake, the mascot has a round head and serpentine body, resembling the character "si" in the oracle bone script, which stands for snake in the Chinese zodiac.

An animated Si Shengsheng puts on a playful performance in the video, capering with a large persimmon, a symbol of good luck and longevity which often has a place at Chinese New Year celebrations.

In a remarkable milestone, UNESCO inscribed the Spring Festival on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in late 2024, officially recognizing the global significance of this vibrant tradition.

Initiated in 1983, CMG's annual Spring Festival Gala has become an iconic part of the Chinese New Year celebration, drawing hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide with its star-studded performances. The gala is a rich mix of comedy skits, songs and dances, acrobatics, and magic acts.

On Friday, the 2025 Spring Festival Gala concluded its third rehearsal. For the first time, sub-venues in Chongqing Municipality, Wuhan of Hubei Province, Lhasa of Xizang Autonomous Region, and Wuxi of Jiangsu Province made their appearances, joining the main venue in Beijing for a combined rehearsal.

More than four decades since its inception, the gala, also known as "Chunwan" in Chinese, has evolved beyond a mere television show. It represents a nationally shared experience, a collective memory, and its evolution is in many ways representative of China's wider technological growth and social development.

Adorable snake dances in CMG promo video marking 10 days to 2025 Spring Festival Gala

Adorable snake dances in CMG promo video marking 10 days to 2025 Spring Festival Gala

Adorable snake dances in CMG promo video marking 10 days to 2025 Spring Festival Gala

Adorable snake dances in CMG promo video marking 10 days to 2025 Spring Festival Gala

Adorable snake dances in CMG promo video marking 10 days to 2025 Spring Festival Gala

China exported 187 high-end liquid cargo vessels in the first five months of 2026, with a total value exceeding 64.3 billion yuan (about 9.49 billion U.S. dollars), up 188.8 percent year-on-year, according to the latest data.

Liquid cargo vessels are specially designed for transporting crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG), ranking among the ship categories with the highest added value in the maritime industry. Recently, two large-scale LNG vessels, each with a capacity of 174,000 cubic meters and built by Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd. under China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), were officially delivered in Shanghai. "Our clients are the world's leading oil and gas companies. Our current order book for LNG carriers accounts for more than 20 percent of the global market, and we are basically able to deliver one vessel per month," said Wang Jiaying, general manager assistant at the shipbuilding group.

In the same period, the country exported a total of 2,637 vessels, with a total value exceeding 170 billion yuan (about 25.09 billion U.S. dollars), up 22.5 percent year-on-year.

China records 188.8 pct increase in liquid cargo vessel export in Jan-May period