China welcomes Year of the Horse with traditional celebrations

People across China are marking the Chinese New Year with a mix of traditional festivities, as they welcome the arrival of the Year of the Horse, the seventh of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac.

The Chinese New Year fell on Tuesday this year.

In south China's Guangdong Province, Xiangshan, a historic town in Zhongshan City dating back more than 870 years, staged a colorful parade featuring lion dances, ribbon dragons and high-pole performances, drawing crowds eager to capture the spectacle.

At the Liujiang ancient town in Meishan, a city in southwest China's Sichuan Province, visitors enjoyed a blend of folk customs and modern light shows, while in Tangmo, an ancient village in east China's Anhui Province, residents staged a lantern parade, carrying giant fish-shaped lanterns through the streets.

In Ningbo, a city in east China's Zhejiang Province, lanterns illuminated the ancient town of Cicheng, where more than 100 events for the Year of the Horse invited visitors to savor local traditions and the spirit of reunion.

On the first day of the Chinese New Year, a riverside firework show was hosted along the Ganjiang River in Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province, offering a feast of sound and light for visitors to admire.

Xiamen and Kinmen, two cities across the Taiwan Strait, jointly staged an annual fireworks display, sending Chinese New Year greetings across the water.

Temple fairs and cultural products drew visitors to parks in Beijing, while families in Bishan District in southwest China's Chongqing enjoyed food and games at a bustling holiday market.

In Yantai City, east China's Shandong Province, dragon and lion dances in temple fairs carried wishes for good fortune. In Qujing, a city in southwest China's Yunnan Province, thousands joined the lively dance of Qilin, a benevolent ancient Chinese mythical creature that is revered in Chinese folklore for warding off evil and bringing good luck.

In Lop County in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, people from different ethnic groups gathered together to celebrate the Year of Horse with traditional performances.

"We brought traditional performances such as dragon dances, lion dances and stilt performances. We want to pass on and promote traditional Chinese culture so people can feel its charm," said Gulmira Abdurishit, a local official in Lop county, Hotan Prefecture.

Travel has also become a key part of the holiday.

China's southern island province of Hainan drew large numbers of tourists during the holiday, the first since the launch of island-wide special customs operations. In Sanya, a popular resort city, water sports and paragliding gave the festival a tropical flavor.

In Hulunbuir, a city in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, scenic spots and villages rolled out special winter activities for holiday makers.

Hong Kong staged a float parade on the first day of the Chinese New Year, with 12 decorated floats and 46 performance troupes from China and abroad.

In Macao, dragon and lion dances filled the streets on the second day of the Chinese New Year, with residents and tourists reaching out to touch the golden lions for good luck.

China welcomes Year of the Horse with traditional celebrations

Days before the fourth anniversary of the start of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the two-day talks among Ukraine, the United States and Russia, marking the third round of trilateral talks this year, concluded in Geneva on Wednesday with no breakthrough on key issues.

The first-day talks lasted six hours in both bilateral and trilateral formats, while the second-day talks lasted two hours, Russian media reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that no agreement on key issues was reached, according to media reports.

"We can see that some groundwork has been done, but for now, positions differ because the negotiations were not easy," Zelensky told reporters on Wednesday.

Zelensky also told Ukrainian media that monitoring of a ceasefire with U.S. participation, as well as sensitive political issues such as Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, were all discussed during the talks.

Ukraine's chief negotiator Rustem Umerov, also Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Secretary, said that the work was intense and subjective.

"There is progress, but no details at this stage," he wrote in a Facebook post.

Umerov said on Facebook that the next stage is to reach the required level of consensus to make well-known decisions for the presidents' consideration. He emphasized that the ultimate goal remains unchanged: a just and sustainable peace.

A separate meeting with representatives of the United States and European countries, including France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, was also held on Tuesday, Umerov wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

Describing the talks as difficult but business-like, Russia's presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky noted that a new round of negotiations will be held in the near future. No documents were signed during the talks, RIA Novosti reported Wednesday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday that the Russian delegation had clear instructions to act within the framework of understanding from the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump that was held in the U.S. city of Anchorage, Alaska in August last year.

Two previous rounds of trilateral talks, held in Abu Dhabi on Jan 23-24 and Feb 4-5, did not resolve key territorial issues.

The latest talks focused on key issues including a ceasefire mechanism, security guarantees, humanitarian issues and territorial disputes.

Analysts said that although some limited progress was achieved, the parties' wide gaps on key issues make a major breakthrough in the near term unlikely.

Latest round of trilateral talks on Ukraine ends without agreement on key issues