Chinese around the world prepare for Spring Festival

Believe it or not, Chinese New Year is less than a week away and Chinese around the world are gearing up for the most important traditional holiday.

Mr. Liu lives in the Kenyan Capital Nairobi, but he is originally from Beijing. Today he's making a must have snack for the Chinese New Year, sticky rice dumplings. But he's blending a native ingredient from Kenya.

"I added a special type of Kenyan nuts to the recipe. They are a great combination with Chinese dates. It also symbolized friendship between the two countries," Liu said.

Meanwhile, a Cantonese style sticky rice dumpling is also getting creative. Kenyan coffee powder is added with brown sugar to the sticky rice and steamed to make the perfect sticky rich cake.

"Kenyan coffee is very famous, adding it to my recipe makes it more tasty because the powder is very refined," said Xian Weijian, another Chinese expatriate in Kenya.

Meanwhile, the Sydney municipal government has launched the Chinese New Year celebrations for 18 years in a row. The launching ceremony was held on Friday night and announced over 80 activities including dragon boat racing, lantern shows and a Chinese film festival.

The celebrations are the largest series of overseas Chinese New Year celebrations.

In China, the Ministry of Culture has announced a fresh initiative to celebrate the spring festival across the globe. The project includes a number of top performers and festive celebrations in 294 cities around the world.

"We want to explore the core meaning of the Chinese New Year and make it a holiday not just of China but for the whole world," said Zhao Haisheng, Deputy Director of Ministry of Culture.

The initiative will launch 506 international events and will help bring the Chinese New Year to more corners around the world.