Revellers packed into prized vantage points across major Chinese cities today to bag the best location to welcome in 2015.

Beijing's Olympic Park hosted a special New Year event, with celebrations centered on the Bird Cage stadium and Aquatic centre that were used in the 2008 Games.

The Chinese capital is in the running to host the 2022 Winter Games.

If Beijing succeeds it will become the first city to host the Summer and Winter Olympics within 14 years.

In Hong Kong, an eight-minute fireworks display lit up the city's iconic Victoria Harbour.

Hong Kong returned to Chinese Communist Party rule in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula that gives it some autonomy from the mainland and a promise of eventual universal suffrage.

And residents in Shanghai were treated to a 3D laser light show and fireworks display at the Bund Original district to usher in 2015.

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