Today marks the start of the Chinese New Year, with millions around the world set to take part in celebrations.
To ring in the year of the dragon, the mightiest sign in the Chinese zodiac, here are some recent record breaking displays from China.
Largest cookery lesson
Earlier this month in Changchun City, Jilin Province, an incredible 2,012 participants took part in the world's largest ever cookery lesson, smashing the previous record of 440 pupils.
Organized by Changchun Agricultural Expo, Zhongzhijie Food Co., Ltd and New Culture View, the attempt took place on January 16, which is Minor New Year's Day, a traditional festival commemorating the "Kitchen God" in Chinese legends.
With the festival in mind, the subject of the cookery lesson was "how to make dumplings" a food customarily ate on the day.
The lesson saw famous cooks from the region teach the participants and join in with making the dumplings.
Largest parade of bicycles
The start of 2012 saw 72,919 cyclists ride their way into the record books in Taiwan where a new benchmark was set for the world's largest parade of bicycles.
Setting set off from 1,000 different checkpoints around the country and outlying islands, the one hour parade saw each person ride for about three miles.
Organized by the Council for Cultural Affairs, the Sports Affairs Council, Executive Yuan of Republic of China (Taiwan), and the Republic of China (Taiwan) Centenary Foundation in Taiwan, the "One Bike One" event marked the last day of Taiwan, Republic of China's centenary celebrations.
Longest Anamorphic Painting
The recent Christmas period was marked in the heart of the One Central Macua shopping mall with this incredible piece of art by renowned 3D painter Qi Xinghua.
Entitled Macau's One Impression, the 128.7-meter Qi says the piece was inspired by Macau's culture and western architectural style
Longest parade float
Measuring 204.538 m (671.06 ft) long and 1.89 m (6.2 ft) the Traditional Centipede Procession of Ying-yuan Temple in Jiali, Taiwan took the title for the world's longest parade float at the beginning of December last year.
Over a thousand of adults and 108 children kids helped the float march over an in-credible 20km during the region's traditional parade, breaking a record that was set in February last year of 201.8m by Jiali Jin Tang Dian Temple, also from Taiwan.
The largest camel race
Back in November, 555 people took part in the world's largest ever camel race in Alateng Aobao Town, Alxa Right Banner, Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region.
The region has become well known for its camel races, which are increasingly attracting more riders and spectators.
The successful record attempt took part at the opening ceremony of the First Alxa Wanfeng Camel Cultural Festival. While most of the riders were local people some participants travelled great distances from other cities in Inner Mongolia to take part in the 12-hour event.
The 5K race was organized by Alxa League Administrative Office of Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region.
Largest medicinal herb garden
Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants in Nanning City, Guangxi Province, was recently recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest medicinal herb garden
Founded in the 1950s for medical science research and tourism, it spans a total area of 201.57 hectares (498.09 acres) with 5,600 varieties of medicinal herbs planted.
Tallest lantern
October last year saw the unveiling of the world's tallest lantern in n Jilin City, Jilin Province.
Measured 20.48 m (67 ft 2.3 in) tall, the lantern entitled "North Mountain Beautiful Sceneries" depicted the scenes of the North Mountain in Jilin City.
Lit by 850 light bulbs, it was created by the Culture of Bureau of Jilin City during the first Lantern Cultural Festival of Songhua River.
Largest bronze bowl
The same month saw Rugao City, Jiangsu Province, claim the record for the world's largest bronze bowl.
Measuring 1.7 m (5 ft 6.93 in) high, with an upper diameter of 3.16 m (10 ft 4.41 in), it was created by the People's Government of Rugao City, a district well known for its reputation of human longevity. The record setting bowl is an exact up to scale version of a normal sized bronze "longevity bowl"used for meditating.
Weighing 1,294 kg (2,852.78 lb), with a volume of 8.5 cubic meters (1,869.74 gal), the giant bowl has since been put on display at the Rugao Shouxing Park Gardens and enjoyed by locals and tourists.
