Grand Spring Festival Parade lights up Dubai’s Expo City

A grand parade celebrating the Chinese Spring Festival took place on Sunday at Expo City in Dubai, featuring traditional Chinese folk dances including the Yingge or Hero's Song Dance, dragon and lion dances, and hi-tech displays including dancing robots and self-driving cars.

The parade included representatives from all seven emirates which make up the United Arab Emirates, adding a special touch to the lively performances.

Alongside the parade, a special Spring Festival bazaar was set up, showcasing a variety of delicious Chinese cuisine and offering intangible cultural experiences such as paper cutting and calligraphy. Meanwhile, a range of Chinese tech showcases captured public attention, with crowds gathering to take photos as robots showed off their capabilities.

"We have a saying that technology enhances culture. As we all know, we have wonderful traditional cultures, and our contemporary arts are also remarkable. To make these cultures more appealing, especially to young people, we need to use some technological means to empower them, so they can attract more people to experience them," said Ou Boqian, the Chinese Consul General in Dubai.

During the event, promotional videos for China Media Group's (CMG) 2026 Spring Festival Gala, as well as the short film promoting the "China Travel with Chinese Films" initiative were screened on a loop. The festive and joyful visuals, along with the engaging audiovisual presentation, drew many guests to stop and watch.

Meanwhile, a CMG pavilion was open to visitors, showcasing the content and program selections for the Spring Festival Gala, as well as a variety of the media group’s cultural and creative products. A member of the Dubai royal family visited the pavilion and was briefed on the content and program selections for the Gala.

Hoda Ara, a visitor from Egypt, said that the Spring Festival was the part of Chinese culture that fascinates her the most.

"Spring Festival holds deep tradition in it, but it still can bring a lot like like what we see today, a lot of joy and a lot of beautiful energy to people from different backgrounds," she said.

The Spring festival will fall on Feb 17 this year, ushering in the Year of the Horse, the seventh of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac.