Beijing, China Featured in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which takes place each year in New York City on Thanksgiving morning, featured for the first time in its 88-year history a float focused on Beijing, China. 

The parade’s 3.5 million parade-goers and more than 50 million television viewers witnessed the “Beauty of Beijing” float, which featured red and gold (significant colors in Chinese culture), as well as iconic Beijing sites including the Great Wall and Temple of Heaven. 

The float was presented by the Sino-American Friendship Association (SAFA) and the Beijing Tourism Association in conjunction with Macy’s. 

140 members of the Tottenville High School marching band – a Staten Island, NY school that partners with SAFA to encourage cultural exchange between American and Chinese students – led the float dressed in Chinese costume. 

Chinese lion dance performers also accompanied the float and interacted with the crowd. 

The colors, sights and sounds of Beijing and greater China excited onlookers and, as Xue Yaping, director of the China National Tourist Office in New York said, “deliver[ed] the message that Beijing is forever an ideal destination for tourism.”