NAGOYA, Japan, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A three-day celebration for the upcoming Chinese Spring Festival kicked off Saturday in central Japanese city of Nagoya.

The celebration was held on Hisaya Square in downtown Nagoya, where red lanterns and flags were hung high and people cheered in a festival atmosphere.

Some booths were set up around the square, selling traditional Chinese cuisine, including stinky tofu, mutton kebabs, sugar-coated haws and others. Meanwhile, art groups from China and Japan presented a variety of performances on the stage, attracting a large number of visitors.

According to the organizers, every year the celebration has innovation and change. This year, the number of venues has expanded from two to three. Chinese manchu embroidery and cheongsam, a traditional Chinese dress also known as Qipao are displayed at the new venue.

Chinese Ambassador to Japan Kong Xuanyou delivered a speech at the opening ceremony, saying that the celebration provides people in the Aichi prefecture and even the central region of Japan with an opportunity to have a deeper understanding of the Chinese culture and builds a bridge of friendship between the two peoples.

Kong said this year is designated as the China-Japan Cultural and Sports Exchange Promotion Year, bilateral relations especially cultural exchanges will get important opportunities for further development.

It is hoped that through people-to-people exchange activities, people from all walks of life in the two countries will take active actions to deepen mutual understanding, and jointly open up a bright future for China-Japan ties, he added.

Overseas Chinese have been holding Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations in Nagoya since 2007. The celebration has become an important platform for local people to learn more about the Chinese culture and promote mutual understanding and cultural exchanges between central Japan and China.