Tiger Hill goes all colorful to greet visitors for the New Year.[Photo by Siva Sankar/ China Daily]

Day after

The China Art Museum in Shanghai is teeming with visitors before the gates open at 10 am. Entry is free, and serpentine queues form. Takes half-hour to finally enter the humongous building with red beams and pillars.

The grotesque female nude sculptures on the periphery are imaged a lot, with many women posing in front of them and their husbands or boyfriends happily clicking away. But not many visitors really savor the art piece by piece.

Inside, the Indian art gallery on the theme of devotion fascinates many Chinese, especially the wall-mounted sculpture of the flying Hanuman, the monkey-superman of the Hindu pantheon. Maybe because of his resemblance to China's Monkey King.

Back at Nanjing East Road, the shopping areas are chock-a-block with people as families, couples, singles and friends soak in the busy, festive atmosphere, glad to lose themselves in what looks like a happy exodus.

On Shanghai's subway trains, bonny babies dressed in New Year regalia of red or yellow silk suits appear heart-meltingly adorable. Chinese moms love to deck up their dolls for the New Year, don't they?