As the Spring Festival and the Tibetan New Year is close to each other, stores had prepared abundant goods for the two, said a salesman in the market.

A new year party will be on on Wednesday in the county and a series of activities will be held from Wednesday to Friday in Deqen County.

The new year is a special year for the quake-affected people, like herdsman Balo who had lost his house in the fatal quake and recently moved to new tents for the new year festival in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Region, Sichuan Province.

Bola's family with four members now have a home with facilities like solar energy lighting, beds, cabinets and stoves.

He had prepared for many days to invite his family members and friends to celebrate the new year in his big tent together.

The province has launched a residential project for the herdsmen here before the new year, providing new tents for 100,000 herdsmen households by April 20.

It plans to spend 18 billion yuan (about 2.6 billion U.S. dollars) to improve the living conditions of the herdsmen households in 29 counties in the next four years.

Tibetans also gathered in Beijing, Shanghai and Hebei Province for new year celebrations.

"Shanghai and Tibet are both my homes," said Yangjen who has lived in Shanghai for more than 30 years and celebrated the Tibetan new years here for years.

"I never felt lonely over these years. Whenever I met any difficulty, people always came to help me. I can feel the deep friendship between Tibetans and the Han people everywhere," she said.

"Cheers for all the Tibetans!" she toasted in a Tibetan restaurant with many other Tibetans during a party held by the local government.

2009/02/25

Source: Xinhuanet