Year of Dog sees Chinese baby boomlet

SHENZHEN, China, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- About 1,500 babies were born in the Chinese city of Shenzhen during the first seven days of the lunar Year of the Dog, officials said.

A nurse from the Shenzhen health center for women and children said they had underestimated the baby boom during the Spring Festival, the holiday period immediately following the Chinese New Year. Some hospitals in the city witnessed a 30 percent increase in births compared with the same period last year, the official news agency Xinhua reported Tuesday.

In past years the Spring Festival holiday period has had a comparatively low birthrate. An average of 20 newborns per day was recorded during past Spring Festivals. However, this year the birthrate has been 30 percent higher than normal, local newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

A maternity hospital in the city's Futian district recorded the most births since the Chinese New Year, with a total of 178 by Sunday, while Bao'an district topped other city districts with 610 births.

The lunar Year of the Dog, which started Jan. 29, is a year generally regarded as bringing good luck to babies born in that year as well as to their families.