I am from eastern China, I've lived in Beijing for 10 years. But I had never seen the lion dance associated with Chinese New Year in person until I came to Australia.

Chinese New Year is marked by colourful celebrations in Australia, but they bear little resemblance to how the holiday is celebrated in much of China.

While Australians enjoy the lion dance in Chinatown, or the Lantern festival in Darling Harbour, Chinese tourists flock to the designer shops at Queen Victoria Building or indulge themselves with a dip at Bondi Beach.

Travelling and shopping overseas during Chinese New Year has become a trend among the Chinese middle class. More than 6.5 million Chinese citizens travelled abroad this Lunar New Year — a 5.7 per cent increase from 2017.

After Thailand, Japan, and America, Australia is the fourth favourite destination for China's middle class to spend the New Year holiday with their families.

Yet many mainland-Chinese tourists are not familiar with the celebrations that Aussies have grown up with.

Cecily was aware that lion dances were popular in Cantonese culture, but had never seen one in person. ( ABC Central Victoria: Larissa Romensky )

Never heard of a fortune cookie

Li Hui from Sichuan province in central China had never heard of a fortune cookie until her Aussie friends brought her to Chatswood and showed her this "Chinese tradition".

Both the lion dance and fortune cookie are from Cantonese culture. You may have been taught the phrase, "kung hei fat choy" ("Happy New Year"). If you say it to Mandarin speakers, they will probably look confused. It's a Cantonese phrase, which translates literally to "I wish that you get rich".

Cantonese culture is presented as Chinese culture in Australia because traditionally most Chinese immigration was Cantonese.

But Cantonese superstitions and traditions are not relevant to most of China. The Cultural Revolution stripped most of the superstition from Chinese culture.

Fortune cookies derive from Cantonese culture and are not common among Mandarin-speakers. ( ABC News )

The largest annual migration on Earth

Traditionally, Chinese New Year runs from New Year's Eve (February 15 this year) until the Lantern festival (March 2 this year). Most Chinese residents can take a week off as a public holiday, but they must work the weekend before and after the Chinese New Year holiday.

In Chinese culture, families are obliged to return home for a family reunion during the New Year holiday. As a result, it's the peak time for travel within China, and the largest annual human migration in the world.

The Chinese Transportation Department have estimated that 393 million people will have travelled by train during 2018's Chinese New Year, while 67 million travelled by air. Tickets are always hard to buy.

Once home, younger Chinese people are "interrogated" by relatives on personal issues, such as "how much do you make now?", or "when will you get married?"

The stress this tradition places on mature single adults means many will travel instead.

The Chinese New Year period runs from Chinese New Year's Eve to the Lantern Festival in early March. ( Supplied: Red Door Asia )

How New Year's Eve is spent

The Chinese New Year Gala, broadcast by China's state TV station, is the dominant entertainment on New Year's Eve, although young Chinese mock and criticise it on social media. It is said that more than a billion Chinese people around the world watched the gala this year.

It is a good window for Aussies into contemporary Chinese culture: you can watch the 2017 gala with English subtitles on YouTube.

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With the fast growth of technology, Chinese New Year has already gone digital in China.

Chinese people are heavy social-media users, sending holiday greetings via text messages and distributing red packets via WeChat, a platform that combines the functions of WhatsApp and Facebook.

My family's WeChat group chat became our central platform for communication and planning this Chinese New Year.

We sent wishes, shared funny stickers and competed to receive red packets from each other — the virtual equivalent of the Chinese New Year tradition of gifting money in red envelopes.

The Lantern Festival is a popular attraction in Sydney's Darling Harbour. ( Supplied: Red Door Asia )

Time to rethink 'Chinese culture'

Since more and more students and visitors to Australia are from the Mandarin-speaking area of China, Australia will have to shift its perception of Chinese culture.

To begin with, they would be more pleased if you wish them "Xin nian kuai le".

Cecily Huang is a producer in the ABC's Beijing bureau.