Sydney gears up for Chinese New Year

Sydney is preparing to welcome the Year of the Horse with the city's 2014 Chinese New Year program revealing the biggest line-up in its 18-year history, according to the Mayor of Sydney.

At the press briefing held Friday, Clover Moore, mayor of Sydney, said this year's celebrations, which features more than 80 events, are expected to attract over 600,000 visitors from Sydney, interstate and overseas.

From Jan. 24 to Feb. 9, Sydney's streets will come to life with the sights, smells and tastes of one of the world's biggest Lunar New Year celebrations.

"We're expecting hundreds of thousands of people to celebrate with us to welcome in the Year of the Horse and experience the excitement of Chinese New Year," the mayor said.

Sydney's Chinese New Year Festival started 18 years ago with a small community event in Chinatown attended by only a few hundred people.

Today, it has become the largest celebration of Lunar New Year outside Chinese mainland, with some 600,000 spectators going to attend the 80 events over 17 days.

It is expected that the festival will generate more than 7 million Australian dollars (about 6 million US dollars) in tourism revenue.