FROM today, factories will close, shops will pull down their shutters and construction sites will fall silent as China ushers in the lunar new year with its traditional five day holiday.
Airports, bus terminals and railway stations were jammed yesterday as people tried to get home for festivities marking the end of the Year of the Rat and the start tomorrow of the Year of the Ox.
In what has become an annual rite of the "Spring Festival", China's President, Mr Jiang Zemin and the Prime Minister, Mr Li Peng, called on China's paramount leader, Mr Deng Xiaoping, at his Beijing home and wished him a long life - though the official media report carried no information on the health of the 92 year old patriarch, not seen in public for three years.
The lunar new year eve is marked in China by paying debts, changing bed linen in keeping with a spirit of renewal, and giving presents in red envelopes to children.
This year the public transport system in the world's most populous country is being stretched to breaking point by millions of migrant workers returning home from the cities.
While there is no countdown as in the west, people will start setting off fireworks as midnight approaches. Five centres on the outskirts of Beijing have been designated "firework zones", where millions of crackers will be let off.
Stock market investors may prefer to see 1997 as the year not of the ox but of the bull (the Chinese symbol is for any form of cattle), In the Year of the Bull, there will be a confluence of opposing elements, water and fire, suggesting a volatile time ahead, particularly going into the third financial quarter, according to Chinese geomancers who study the 4,000 year old practice of Feng Shui, or "wind and water".
By gauging the harmony or lack of it among five elements - metal, water, fire, wood and earth - as each lunar new year approaches, the Feng Shui masters in Hong Kong have each year been able to give Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia an eagerly anticipated forecast for investors.
Long term investors will do well in the Year of the Bull, but traders or speculators may get gored as world markets charge around like a herd of mad cows, the forecast said. Those born in the years of the Tiger, Rabbit Horse and Dragdn will have the best fortune, while Dogs, Roosters, Goats, Snakes and Bulls should avoid the market altogether - or just bet on blue chips for the long term.
In the Year of the Monkey, 1992, the Feng Shui masters correctly anticipated all seven major turning points in Hong Kong's Hang Seng index.
The Feng Shui index predicts a smooth transition for Hong Kong at midnight on June 30th when it reverts to China, but the territory's chief executive, Mr Tung Chee hwa, "will not enjoy 1997, with the world's scrutiny suddenly falling on his shoulders".
The outgoing Governor, Mr Chris Patten, born in 1944, is governed by the year of the monkey. Hong Kong's renowned soothsayer, Mr Sung Siu Kwong, said: "He will need to overcome obstacles that can stand in the way of a glorious withdrawal," and those born in the year of the monkey should "beware of a rival" who will emerge at mid year.