PM Narendra Modi wished China a happy and prosperous year of the Rooster. (File Photo)
Beijing:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today wished China a happy and prosperous year of the Rooster.
"On the occasion of the Spring Festival, I wish all the people of China a happy and prosperous Year of the Rooster," PM Modi said in his greeting posted on his Chinese social media platform, Weibo.
China formally bids farewell to the year of Monkey today and will herald the year of Rooster tomorrow.
China has declared official holiday for a week.
China celebrates the new year as Spring Festival.
Chinese lunar calendar years are grouped into a 12-year cycle, with each year assigned an animal symbol: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
The Prime Minister opened an account in Weibo, a twitter like social media platform which is very popular in China during his visit here in 2015 and continued to make use of it to interact with Chinese people.
British Prime Minister Theresa May also sent her wishes through to the the people of China through her Weibo account.
British PM May said the Year of the Rooster is set to be particularly important for the relationship between Britain and China, because the starting point for bilateral relations is stronger than ever before.
"We receive more Chinese investment than any other major European country. We've got around 150,000 Chinese students studying here and the number of Chinese tourists visiting has doubled in five years," British PM May said.