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Chinese New Year parade ready for eyes of the world – Metro US

Chinese New Year parade ready for eyes of the world

This year’s Chinese New Year parade will be earlier and shorter, but organizers are jazzed that the popular annual event will help show off the city’s culture on a massive international stage.

The annual Spring Festival Parade, which traditionally draws tens of thousands of people, takes place on Sunday, the second day of Olympic competition — only blocks from the B.C. Place and Hockey Canada House (GM Place) Olympic venues.

Due to the Games, the parade will start two-and-a-half hours early, at 9:30 a.m., and be wrapped up by 11 a.m.

The route is also shorter, beginning at Columbia and East Pender, and not at the Millennium Gate as it has in past years.

Co-chair Peter Kwok said the event will “enhance cross-cultural understanding” while showing off the best of Chinese culture to visitors from around the world.

Afterwards, five dance troupes and one lion-dance team will head up stairs at the end of Pender Place to the Downtown LiveCity site.

More than 50 groups and 2,400 participants will take part in the parade.