Chinese disabled artists perform during an event to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year, in Panama City, capital of Panama, on Feb. 8, 2016. [Xinhua/Mauricio Valenzuela]

The Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations got underway at the Chinatown of Panama's capital city on Monday, bringing festivity to the local Chinese community in anticipation of greater business development in the year of Monkey.

Lion dancing amid a flourish of gongs and drums, members from Panama's Chinese Fayen Society made their way through crowds, stopping and dancing at the entrance of each shop to wish them fortune and prosperity in 2016.

A parade with lion dancing was accompanied by natives and Panamanians with Chinese ancestry both dressed in red shirts, and was greeted with deafening firecrackers lighted by shopowners.

Tourists and passers-by were easily attracted by the jubilation and stopped to watch, film and take photos.

David Yao, the director of the lion dance, told Xinhua that since 1960, the lion dance parade has been held in Panama City annually on a Monday during the Chinese Lunar New Year.