2006 is the "Year of the Dog" in the Chinese lunar calendar. To celebrate, Shanghai has already begun to promote their "dog business". They have introduced various new items related to dogs in order to attract tourists.

An art exhibition called "When Dogs Meet with Men" will open at the Shanghai Museum of Science and Technology on January 20th. The artists will be showing the complicated simultaneously close and distant relationships between human beings and dogs. Visitors to the exhibition will have the opportunity to make dog figures with traditional Chinese jigsaw puzzles, toy dogs with pottery clay or paint animals with Chinese writing brushes.

At the Shanghai Wildlife Park, the "Enjoy Dogs in the Dog Year" project is underway. During the program, a World Rare Dogs Show in which more than 20 breeds of rare dogs will take to the stage for acrobatics performances.

There will be another dog show on the 88th floor of the Jinmao Mansion. Visitors can enjoy a performance by narcotics and bomb-detecting dogs, a special treat rarely seen on ordinary days.

"Finding the Most Doglike Faces among Fishes" is the new promotion by the Shanghai Aquarium of the Sea. Scores of new fish species with peculiar doglike heads have been introduced to the aquarium recently. According to organisers, each tourist visiting on January 29th, Chinese New Year's Day, will receive a special gift.

From a long traditional custom stemming from ancient times, Chinese have used a 12-animal astrological cycle to count the years. The Chinese Zodiac thus consists of a 12-year cycle, and each year is named after a different animal that imparts distinct characteristics to those born in that year. 2006 is the year of the Dog after the Monkey of 2004, and, for example, 2007 will be the year of the Pig.