The city of Shenyang in Liaoning province has taken a new approach to the traditional Spring Festival by making it low-carbon and environmentally friendly by setting off fewer fireworks and getting more people to use public transportation to visit family and friends.

So, more people chose public transportation, with more than 18 million people using the buses in the Feb 7-13 period, and locals were asked to put a damper on their traditional passion for fireworks because of the smoggy air, which left much less residue out in the streets.

In viewing this, one local commented, "The amount of fireworks in our neighborhood was a lot less and it meant less work for the street cleaners."