Omaha billionaire Warren Buffett strummed the ukulele, singer Leehom Wang played a dragon-shaped guitar and Premier Wen Jiabao visited oil workers as China ushered in the Lunar New Year.
Buffett and Wang's acts were part of China Central Television's annual New Year's gala, one of the world's most- watched programs, that aired Sunday evening. Buffett sang "I've Been Working on the Railroad" in a video clip shown on CCTV's website.
American-born Wang's guitar paid tribute to the Year of the Dragon, which began at midnight to thunderous ad hoc firework displays in Beijing that echoed off the high-rise buildings.
"I've been working on the railroad, all the livelong day," Buffett, 81, sang. "I've been working on the railroad, just to pass the time away."
Chinese New Year is the most important holiday in China, with tens of millions of people crisscrossing the country in the world's biggest annual human migration. The nation's leaders by tradition visit workers and farmers during the holiday to share in the celebration. This year Wen visited oil workers in northwestern China's Gansu Province. President Hu Jintao set off fireworks with farmers near the Great Wall of China and visited a shopping street just south of Tiananmen Square.
People in China will make a total of 3.16 billion passenger trips during the Lunar New Year holiday rush period, which began Jan. 8 and will end in the middle of February, a 9.1 percent increase from 2011, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. This year's travel has been stymied by snow and freezing rain stretching across the country.
Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and an investor in Chinese companies including carmaker BYD Co., was seen playing the American folk song in front of a room-sized model railroad. Berkshire acquired Burlington Northern Santa Fe in 2010.
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