On the first day of January, the brand-new page of 2017, I went to China town in central London to celebrate the beginning of the year like everybody else and with the hope to capture what it entails.

China town was crowded with cheers and laughter. People were bursting out of joy. Some Chinese folks were wearing traditional costumes, greeting each other. There was also display of dragon dance which was especially interesting for me because I remembered that last time I saw it was five years ago. It was extraordinary.

According to some experts, dragon dance denotes beginning of a new era and the dance is supposed to sweep away all bad vibes of the previous year. It was believed to bring luck to people and usually performed by some skilled teams. However, it is like superstition to a lot of us in the west.

As kids, we always related to dragon as the side of righteousness and which holds victory and triumph.

There were three different coloured dragons which were pink, white and black. The dragons moved in a zig-zag pattern moving and in twining with each other, with cheering and drumming in the background. The dance involved spectacular jumping and looping, forming great patterns and one was almost like seeing Kung Fu show with masters flying around and interacting with each other More and more people gathered together to watch it due to the dramatic effect it has produced.

The theme was for the dragons to fight for the price which was made in the form of a jade vegetables. Whichever dragon managed to approach the jade vegetables first would be the winner, at the end of which everybody gave them a big round of applause with cheers and whistles. I was thankful for them to perform the traditional cultural dance. It impacted me to a large extent, because it is east meeting west and I was grateful that people from all cultures appreciated it.

Cherie Lee, Newstead Wood School