Universal Studios Hollywood celebrates Chinese Lunar New Year

As more Chinese visitors are coming to Universal Studios Hollywood, the theme park's signature Studio Tour is also offering Mandarin-speaking tour year-round.[Photo/Agencies]

The Year of the Rooster gets a wake-up call from "Kung Fu Panda" when Po and Tigress make their first-ever appearance at the Universal Studio Hollywood's annual Lunar New Year celebration, from this Saturday to Feb 5.

The celebration comes to life within Universal Plaza, at the heart of the theme park. Decorated with red Chinese lanterns and a stunning plum blossom arch, the Plaza has a dozen of lampposts featuring banners of 12 zodiac animals with introductions.

Along with Po and Tigress, the 12-foot-fall Mandarin-speaking Megatron, the icon of Transformers, theme park characters Curious George and Woody Woodpecker in Chinese attire also greet and interact with visitors at the Plaza.

"The Megatron is really funny, he speaks Chinese and makes jokes," Annie Zhang, a Chinese American visitor told Xinhua this Sunday, "I really enjoy the Lunar New Year atmosphere here."

As more Chinese visitors are coming to Universal Studios Hollywood, the theme park's signature Studio Tour is also offering Mandarin-speaking tour year-round.

According to the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board, the city welcomed 47.3 million visitors in 2016 and over 1 million of them came from China, which marked LA the first city in the US hosted over a million Chinese visitors.