Hundreds of Bulgarians on Saturday enjoyed a special show dedicated to the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival in a park in the center of Sofia.

Dance of an over 30-meter-long dragon opened the celebrations, organized by the Confucius Institute in Sofia.

That was followed by a lion dance, Chinese acrobatics and juggling, singing, dancing and martial arts, tasting moon cakes and demonstrations of traditional Chinese artistry such as calligraphy, paper cutting and games with chopsticks.

A student at Confucius Institute in Sofia also won a plane ticket to China in a lottery in which all the spectators participated.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Angel Marin, Chairman of the Bulgaria-China forum and former Bulgarian Vice-President, said the celebrations were the beginning of a long way to understand one another.

He was confident that the Bulgarians and the Chinese would celebrate together more and more holidays, Marin said.

In turn, Liu Yonghong, cultural counselor at the Chinese embassy in Sofia, said with the joint efforts, exchanges between China and Bulgaria in all areas would continue to evolve.

Antonia Tsankova, Bulgarian Director of the Confucius Institute in Sofia, also said that through the show they wanted to present to the Bulgarian public various interesting aspects of traditional Chinese culture, and enrich the cultural life of Sofia.