Spring Festival in Shanghai is not so traditional as that in Beijing. Spring Festival here has its own features. After "sacrificing to the Kitchen God", every family would be busy making preparations for Spring Festival. They would buy various foodstuffs needed during Spring Festival and grind powder to make rice dumping or rice cake, with the former meaning "unity" and the latter implying "joyance" and "progress". Meanwhile, they would prepare new clothes, caps and shoes. Beauty of New Year's Eve is displayed after the nightfall. All family members would get together in house; those staying in other places would try their best to come back home and spend New Year days with their family members. They would sit around the table, having New Year's Eve dinner. At the midnight, some people would head for temples in the downtown area to burn "the First Incense". In addition to paying New Year call to each other, people would participate in various traveling and entertainment activities. Some would stroll about in the open air; most of them would visit Town God Temple and West Garden (Yuyuan Garden) next to it.
Shanghai is a flourishing commercial city in Southeast China, with numerous business opportunities. For this reason, "Fortune God Greeting" activity would be carried out with passions in the fifth day of the first lunar month. People would set off firecrackers outdoors, with the vehemence exceeding that at dawn of the first day of the first lunar month.
