2012: The Year in China (74 images)

A lion snarls at tourists at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, the capital of the China's northern Heilongjiang Province near Russia, February 27, 2012. The park is the largest natural park (355.8 acres) for wild Siberian tigers in the world at present. There are over 500 purebred Siberian tigers, along with white tigers, lions, leopards, black pumas and Bengali tigers. UPI/Stephen Shaver

Tibetan monks carry a giant Thangka of Buddha, or tapestry, up a mountain near the Labrang Monastery, the largest Tibetan monastery outside of Lhasa, during the Tibetan Monlam Festival in Xiahe, a small town in Gansu Province on the Tibetan plateau, February 4, 2012. Thousand of Tibetan monks, pilgrims and nomads have converged on the monastery for the annual "Sunning of the Buddha" ritual, in which the world's largest Thangka of Buddha (90ft in length, 40ft in width) is unveiled at first light on the side of a mountain. The Monlam festival, or Great Prayer Festival, is the grandest religious festival in Tibet. UPI/Stephen Shaver

Chinese Buddhists pray at a temple fair during China's New Year and Spring Festival celebrations in Beijing January 27, 2012. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said last week that U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke was wrong in saying that China's human rights situation has deteriorated. Locke said that there was a significant crackdown on dissent underway in China and that things had worsened since 2008, when controls were eased slightly ahead of the Beijing Summer Olympics. UPI/Stephen Shaver

Chinese parents allow their kids (some very reluctant) be lowered down a rope, while attached to a harness, with the help of military firemen at a Spring Festival temple fair in Beijing January 25, 2012. This year's Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, is China's most important holiday and began on January 23, marking the start of the Year of the Dragon. Dragon years typically generate more births than other years in the Zodiac cycle, with China predicting a 5 percent rise in the number of babies born in 2012. UPI/Stephen Shaver