Cybersurfers found a whole new way to celebrate the traditional Chinese Lunar New Year.

Lu Ding, a college student at Beijing Medical University was among them. At 12:01 am on Saturday, he sent his carefully crafted Spring Festival electronic greeting cards to his classmates outside of Beijing.

His cards featured moving pictures and music, although he admits they were fairly simple because he has limited experience with the Internet.

Wang Hao, a computer-savvy 17-year-old in Beijing, broke with the ancient Chinese custom of making dumplings on New Year's Eve and bought his family a spicy Spring Festival meal over the Internet.

For the modest sum of 155 yuan (US$19), he hired one of the city's most famous Sichuan-style chefs to cook and serve a meal directly from the Wang's kitchen.

Internet fans were hooked on sending e-greeting cards from www.Sina.com or ordering flowers at http://www.flower city.com.cn in Shanghai for their special friends and family members.

Chinese citizens in other parts of the world also got into the Internet action.

One woman, spent the Spring Festival in the United States for the first time. But with hot e-mail connections, her loneliness for her friends almost disappeared.

She told an online chat room that her friends' warm greetings and encouragement made her cry with happiness.

"I have spent 40 consecutive hours surfing the Internet since the Lunar New Year's eve," a Beijing resident told a Xinhua reporter. "It's great fun!"

As if to prove the point, the web site www.leyou.com offered sounds and video tracks of firecrackers that were banned in China's major cities.

Beijing-based website http://www.8848.com was advertising on-line discount sales of goods ranging from televisions to cellular phones.

Tourism website http:// www.ctn.com.cn publicized prices and tourist routes of all major travel agents in the country, while http://www.shanglu.com booked ten travellers for a "snow trek" in Beijing.

The website of China Central Television broadcast their National Spring Festival Evening, which was expected to claim an audience of tens of millions nationwide on New Year's Eve.