Festival atmosphere grows tense

Citizens enter and exit a department store through a seeming red archway decorated with lanterns in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, on Jan. 23, 2005. As the Spring Festival, or China's Lunar New Year, approaches, a happy festival atmosphere is pervading the whole city.

Citizens walk past a department store with clusters of decoration firecrackers hanging over its entrance in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, on Jan. 23, 2005.