Frankfurt experiences Spring Festival celebrations with Chinese cultural elements

Overseas Chinese in Frankfurt, Germany, are celebrating the Chinese Spring Festival with diverse Chinese cultural elements, immersing the city in a joyful festive atmosphere.

As the Year of the Horse arrives, streets and alleys in Frankfurt are bustled with crowds. The Dragon Dance of Anchorage Step, a representative performance of China's national intangible cultural heritage with over 200 years of history, made a stunning appearance in the city.

The Spring Festival, which falls on Feb 17 or Tuesday this year, marks the start of the Year of the Horse, the seventh of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac.

Local overseas Chinese have also organized Hanfu (traditional Chinese clothing) performances, attracting many Germans.

Chinese restaurants in the city are packed, and Chinese supermarkets are crowded with shoppers for festive supplies.

A unique event of enjoying reunion dinner and experiencing cuisine of Chaozhou in south China's Guangdong Province attracted many Germans along with local overseas Chinese from Wednesday to Friday.

Zheng Aizhen, who has been working in the catering industry and living in Germany for many years, has been dedicated to introducing Chinese cuisine to Germans, in the hope to allow people understand the profound Chinese culture through taste.

"What the food tastes is where your home is. Gourmet is a language that transcends mountains and seas, connecting your native home and place away from it. We make the Chinese New Year flavor the strongest, make Chinese cuisine the most delicious, and let Chinese culture confidently reach out to the world through taste," said Zheng.

A professional culinary team from Chaozhou have presented the cuisine to Frankfurt.

Many Germans are keenly interested in the stories behind the dishes.

"I really like it, because what I see is it's from the cultural side and you see it with a lot of fish. So [it's] very very delicious. It's amazing," said Jan Werner, mayor of Langen.

The U.S. dollar increased in late trading on Friday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, went up 0.19 percent to 100.218 at 03:00 (1900 GMT).

In late New York trading, the euro lost to 1.1515 dollars from 1.1544 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was down to 1.3192 dollars from 1.3227 dollars in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar bought 159.65 Japanese yen, higher than 159.34 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar was up to 0.8008 Swiss francs from 0.7984 Swiss francs, and it rose to 1.3944 Canadian dollars from 1.3921 Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar added to 9.4828 Swedish kronor from 9.4234 Swedish kronor.