Thousands of people lined the streets of this city's Asian neighborhood Sunday to celebrate the Chinese Spring Festival and welcome the Year of the Rabbit.

The Chinese community in the city was joined by hundreds of non-Chinese Canadians who watched dragon and lion dancers' parade to the beat of large drums.

Lions invited by the Somerset Street Chinatown Business Improvement Area, which represents businesses in the Chinese section of Canada's capital, went from business to business to bring good fortune and ward off evil spirits.

Grace Xin, executive director of the BIA, told Xinhua the annual lion parade up the main business street of Ottawa's Chinese neighborhood had become a favorite site of many residents of this city.

"We get many calls at our offices and visits to our website from people who do not want to miss it," she said.

"Each year, the crowds get bigger," she added.

For the first time, the parade passed under a magnificent ceremonial arch built last summer by visiting craftsmen from Beijing.

Built entirely of reinforced concrete and stone, the gaily-colored arch is designed to look like a gigantic wooden gate. Just blocks away from Canada's parliament buildings, the arch is the gateway to the city's Chinese neighborhood.

Ottawa's Chinese community has existed for more than a century, but its numbers greatly expanded in the early 1980s.

It has continued to grow to about 30,000 people in a city of about 1 million.

In Ottawa, the Chinese business community spent 20 years raising money and organizing political support from Canada and China for the new arch, which marks the entrance to Ottawa's nine-block Chinatown.

The twin-city project of Ottawa and Beijing celebrates the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Canada.

Beijing contributed the design and most of the artistic materials while Canada's national government, the administration of the province of Ontario and Ottawa's city council provided 225,000 Canadian dollars (the Canadian and U.S. dollar are near par) in cash and several hundred thousand dollars in infrastructure improvements.

"I think the new arch has really added a lot to the parade, and it has become a big draw for visitors," Xin said, as lions went from business to business to the sound of drums and firecrackers. After more than an hour of parading and dancing, most of the businesses in the neighborhood had carpets of lettuce in front.

Often, children and adults joined the lion dancers, who went inside restaurants and stores to bring luck to merchants.

"This is so much fun!" said Bobby Prudhomme, a 10-year-old boy who had never seen dragon dancers. He was also intrigued by the firecrackers, which are banned in Canada except for the Chinese celebrations.

Opening a red envelope given to him by Xin, he was happy to find a shiny new 25-cent coin, which is enough money to buy a few pieces of candy.

"I really like this," the boy said. "I will make sure I come back next year."