Chinese New year

"People should have an open mind to embrace the new environment, so should businesses," she said. 

Melbourne feng shui practitioner James Zheng said those changes will happen slowly as "unbalance still exists".

"The impact of pandemic is gradually easing, and the world still needs time to recover," Mr Zheng said.

Feng shui is an ancient Chinese traditional practice which uses different systems and calendars, like astrology or solar cycles, to harmonise people with environments.

For some, it is the only time they will see their families all year and is an event not to be missed.

But there are fears the Spring Festival travel season, or Chunyun in Chinese, could become a superspreader event. After all, last year's Chunyun is believed to have played a significant role in the spread of Covid-19.

So the Chinese authorities have been left with a problem: how do you encourage people to stay local, without actually cancelling the country's biggest annual celebration?

The Year of the Rooster - based on the Chinese zodiac - has just ended, giving way to the Year of the Dog.

The trade ministry's advert wished people a prosperous Year of the Dog - but showed a rooster emitting a dog's bark in Chinese.

The ministry apologised for the "technical error".

The cultural quagmire is complicated by a view held by some Malaysian Muslims that dogs are unclean animals.

Lee, manager of Travel Planners, has been living in PNG for the last 25 years, and with every end of the lunar calendar, she celebrates the Chinese New Year.

Yesterday, the celebration of this traditionally recognised event was made possible by the China-PNG Friendship Association.

40 dancers, made of locals, performed the dragon – lion dance, part of closing the old year and welcoming the new year.

But this year, a record number of these red envelopes will be digital and sent online over social messaging services such as Tencent's WeChat, usually via smartphone.

The numbers are breathtaking.

Over the six-day Chinese Spring Festival period last year, 516 million people sent and received 32 billion digital red envelopes - 10 times the number as over the same period in 2015.

And this year forecasters are expecting up to 100 billion digital envelopes to be sent and received by Chinese well-wishers around the world.

Making up some percentage of Papua New Guinea’s population, this event is celebrated every lunar year.

Today was no different, as 24 shops in Vision City prepared to farewell the old year and welcome the new one.

Lunar calendar is very different.

As explained by Joyce Lee – manager of Travel Planners, months, according to the Lunar Calendar, is usually one month behind the globally recognised calendar.

The Opera House and Harbour Bridge were bathed in red light on Saturday night, although the year officially begins on Monday.

With Chinese lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, just around the corner, millions of WeChat users have joined the new fad, sharing their choice of character in their "moments", a feed similar to Facebook's timeline. The applet, developed by China Central Television News, also gives a real-time ranking of the top 10 most written characters.