CHINESE New Year celebrations have been held at Huddersfield Chinese Community Centre.

The centre, on Claremont Street, hosted a party yesterday to mark the dawn of the Year of the Rooster.

Chinese people gathered to play cards, mah-jong and enjoy traditional food.

In the evening, they travelled to Middleton, near Manchester, to banquet at the Ocean Treasure Chinese restaurant.

Huddersfield Chinese Community Centre was set up in December 2003, using cash from Huddersfield Pride.

It has just received three years of lottery funding to pay for community activities - these include English language classes, women's groups and advice sessions.

There are also Mandarin and Cantonese language classes.

The centre is open every day except Friday, from 10am to 4pm.

Dr Sui Cheung, centre manager, said: "There are around 500 Chinese families in Huddersfield and students coming to the university.

"The Chinese are a quiet community anyway, but a lot of them have English language problems as well so we are trying to integrate them in society.

"We give them help with things like reading bills.

"But it is not just for Chinese people - if anyone shows an interest in the activities they can come and see us."

* Youngsters at Crosland Moor Junior School celebrated Chinese New Year by practising ancient crafts.

More than 50 parents joined the children at the school, in Dryclough Road, to make dragon puppets, lanterns and even try meditation.

It was just one of the events the school has put on to teach children about China and the Chinese New Year.

The school's community development worker, Karen Bullock, said the day had been a huge success and the children had really enjoyed learning about Chinese crafts.

"Everyone had a lot of fun both parents and children," she said.

* Pupils also marked Chinese New Year at Outlane Junior School and enjoyed making and displaying a colourful Chinese dragon during a special Activity Day.