Shanghai welcomes 2008 with fireworks, parties, temple-bell striking and a sudden blast of cold weather as temperatures dropped below zero.
One of the coldest New Year's Eves in recent years and a freezing blustery wind were not enough to stop thousands of revelers celebrating, from Xintiandi's count-down party to the Longhua Temple's bell striking.
Mayor Han Zheng delivered a New Year speech, pledging to attach more importance to improve the daily life of ordinary people and push Shanghai's development as a modern metropolis in 2008.
Han, on behalf of the city government, wished a Happy New Year to all citizens and expressed gratitude to those who have support the city's development.
As the clock ushered in a new year, many Chinese are focusing on the 2008 Beijing Olympics although local citizens are paying more attention to the 2010 World Expo.
Xintiandi, the city's entertainment center that has come to call itself "Shanghai's living room," presented a traditional count-down celebration in cooperation with Shanghai World Expo organizers last night.
As usual, the party was held by the artificial Taipingqiao Lake. Popular singers, including Taiwan's women band S.H.E and Zhou Huajian, performed at Xintiandi last night.
With the theme "City Lights Life," this year it marked the first time that Xintiandi has worked with the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination. The 2010 Expo theme is "Better City, Better Life" and the Xintiandi show incorporated the "city" elements into its design and program.
Lights shaped like some of Shanghai's landmarks sparkled at the back of the stage.
Among the cheerful crowds were Amy Bharj, an attorney from London and her friends, Martin Blaser from German and Philip Offer.
The attorney was on her first visit to Shanghai and called Xintiandi a place of modernity and tradition.
"It's a city of amazing hospitality and I want to tell people all the good things about Shanghai and China after I return home," she said.
A 10-year-old Hong Kong girl, Stephie Lou, who sat with her mother in the audience, was all happy to welcome the New Year at Xintiandi - she is a devoted fan of S.H.E.
At the city's 1,790-year-old Longhua Buddhist Temple, about 30,000 visitors, including more than 500 tourists from Japan, gathered, praying for good luck to come in the New Year.
From early in the evening, people were jostling to tie written messages to the "wishing tree" at the temple, a New Year celebration tradition.
Monks from the temple also gave a performance of Buddhist music inside the temple while fireworks erupted outside, adding to the cheerful atmosphere.
And keeping the traditions 108 guests rang the bell in the temple, an act believed to bring fortune.
Among the crowd at the temple was a 22-year-old graduate and bank intern, Lin Wei, a Shanghai girl. Her New Year's wishes are to have a good start in her career.
Revelers on the Bund kept the atmosphere warm and cheerful and their enthusiasm was not cooled at all by gusts of cold wind from the river.
Buildings along both sides of the river put on their adding to the cheer.
South Korean tourists told Shanghai Daily they had planned their tour to have a stop-over on the Bund to celebrate New Year's Eve.
Many Chinese believe that the lunar year of 2008 will be a Year of Golden Mouse.
To have babies born in the year of Olympics and the Golden Mouse is doubly auspicious.
A 26-year-old Shanghai journalist, Wang Yajun, said her family had received tons of blessings from friends and relatives on learning that she was pregnant. It's a happy coincidence that the expected date of birth is on August 8, the opening day of the Beijing Olympics.