The China Media Group (CMG)'s 2026 Spring Festival Gala reached its climax after nearly four hours of on-air performances with a special countdown to usher in the Year of Horse, which officially started on Tuesday.

As the giant clock on screen struck midnight, the chime of bells sounded the start of the Chinese New Year. Excitement erupted among participants and audience members at the gala's main venue in Beijing and at the four sub-venues located across the country, which had each added its own unique cultural flair to the grand television spectacle.

The culmination of the night's celebrations came as the gala hosts led viewers through the final few seconds of the countdown, before the new year was loudly welcomed with enthusiastic cheers, as people expressed festive wishes at the various gala sub-venues.

Taking the grand show to a different set of locations each year has become a new tradition for the gala, shining a spotlight on more of China's varied landscapes and cultural traditions.

The four sub-venues this year included Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang in northeast China known as the "ice city", Yiwu in east China's Zhejiang, which has been dubbed "the world's supermarket", Hefei, the provincial capital of the eastern Anhui Province which has emerged as a hub for sci-tech innovation, and Yibin in the southwestern Sichuan Province, known for its ancient architecture and picturesque scenery along the banks of the Yangtze River.

The Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year, is the most important traditional holiday for the Chinese people, and watching the Spring Festival Gala, also known as "Chunwan," is a cherished part of the celebrations every year in hundreds of millions of Chinese homes.

Since first being broadcast in 1983, the gala has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the most-watched annual television program on the planet.

The Spring Festival itself was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2024.