Festive demand boosts sales of flowers, dragon lanterns ahead of Spring Festival

With the approaching of China's Spring Festival, the country's grandest annual holiday for family reunion, flower markets and traditional craft workshops across the country are entering their busiest season, driven by rising consumer demand for festive plants and decorative dragon lanterns.

At a flower market in Shanghai's Qingpu District, more than 200 vendors operate businesses across an area of over 45 hectares. 

With more than a month to go before the holiday, potted flowering plants with longer blooming periods and easier maintenance are among the most popular. 

Imported varieties introduced this year have also proven popular.

"The colors of flowers on sale here are much richer than before. In previous years, the colors of flowers in supply were relatively limited. Now the plants are also easier to care for. The best sellers right now are pansies, violets and primroses," said Zhang Chen, owner of a flower shop.

Meanwhile, a dragon lantern production base in Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province, has also entered a peak season as orders rise both at home and abroad. 

Workers here have been seen rushing to meet demand, producing more than 30 completed dragon lanterns on average each day for shipment across China and overseas.

"Our order volume has been gradually expanding. Demand for dragon lanterns this year has increased by 10 percent compared with previous years.," said Shi Kebin, a representative inheritor of the Chengnan Dragon Lantern, a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage item.

The Chengnan Dragon Lantern is listed as an intangible cultural heritage project in Jiangxi. 

To make products more attractive to consumers, Shi has introduced new designs this year, incorporating horse design elements, in celebration of the upcoming Chinese zodiac Year of the Horse, through updated color schemes and structures. 

New products include cartoon-style horse lanterns and DIY handheld dragon lanterns, aiming to bring the traditional craft into everyday life in a lighter and more playful form.

Festive demand boosts sales of flowers, dragon lanterns ahead of Spring Festival

At least 15 people were killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Saturday, according to Lebanese official sources.

At least one child was among those killed and several children were among those injured in the strikes, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry and the National News Agency.

The Israeli army on Saturday morning ordered residents of southern Lebanese towns to evacuate before conducting airstrikes and demolishing homes.

Israeli attacks and airstrikes in Lebanon since March 2 had killed 2,795 people and injured 8,586 others, according to the latest data released by the Emergency Operations Center of Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it launched a rocket barrage overnight targeting a gathering of Israeli military vehicles and soldiers along the Lebanon-Israel border, in response to Israeli violations of the ceasefire.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the group was in a "defensive position" against Israeli "aggression" and warned that Israel should expect a response whenever it targets Lebanese villages or Beirut's southern suburbs. An Israeli soldier was seriously injured, and two others moderately injured in Israeli territory near the Lebanese border by an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah on Saturday, according to a statement issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The soldiers were rushed to a hospital, the statement said, adding that additional explosive drones launched by Hezbollah fell in Israeli territory near the border, without causing any casualties.

Another explosive drone hit an unmanned IDF engineering vehicle in southern Lebanon, with no casualties reported, the IDF said, adding that its air force intercepted several projectiles launched by Hezbollah toward Israeli soldiers operating in southern Lebanon.

The exchanges of fire came despite a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that took effect last month following weeks of cross-border fighting tied to broader regional tensions triggered by the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.

15 killed in Israeli strikes in S. Lebanon