උඩට ගිහිං නව වසර සමරන චීන්නු

Shanghai residents ascend height to embrace New Year

Thousands of Shanghai mountaineers and climbers on Wednesday, or the first day of 2025, chose to begin their new year by ascending a height, hoping that the tradition will bless them with good luck in the new year.

In China, climbing to pray for blessings is a time-honored custom, symbolizing good health and longevity.

Around about 9:00, over 1,000 contestants started their tower-climbing competition from the square at the foot of Shanghai's landmark Oriental Pearl Tower.

Their destinations were the two glass sightseeing corridors of the TV tower, respectively at heights of about 90 and 260 meters.

The competition has a history of 30 years and has been widely considered as an auspicious event that will help draw good luck.

"Today is the first day of the new year and I want to send my championship to my daughter who was born on Jan 1 as a birthday gift. For this reason, I ran very enthusiastically today," said Xu Cailong, men's champion of the tower-climbing race.

"Last year, I was the No. 2 and I swore to win the champion this year. I must do better than last year," said Lu Yongyu, woman's champion.

Among the various sports and fitness activities to mark 2025, mountain climbing is many people's favorite and the Shuangzi Mountains on Wednesday welcomed over 2,000 health walkers.

As walkers raced to the hilltop they were expecting that reaching a greater height on the first day of the new year will mean a good beginning of 2025.

"Mountain climbing, I think, is linked to the Chinese idiom 'rising step by step'," said a climber.

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