BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao  warned his people to keep a “sober mind” about the challenges  ahead in the new year as the country welcomed the arrival of the  Year of the Tiger with noisy celebrations yesterday.

“In 2010, China will face a more complicated situation, both  at home and abroad,” the state news agency Xinhua paraphrased  Wen as saying, in remarks carried in major newspapers.

People must “keep a sober mind and an enhanced sense of  anxiety about lagging behind”, the premier added.

Priority should be given to “persistence in taking economic  development as the central task, forcefully promoting reform and  opening up … and doing a better job responding to the global  financial crisis, in order to keep steady and relatively fast  economic development”.

The year of the tiger is believed to bring with it mythical  heroic powers, even if soothsayers say it is an inauspicious one  for marriage. Still, the year is seen as being good for the  economy.

Beijing and the commercial capital Shanghai reverberated  with huge, ad hoc firework displays and the sound of  firecrackers, whose smoke filled the streets.

Firecrackers are believed to scare off evil spirits and  entice the god of wealth to people’s doorsteps once New Year’s  Day arrives. Celebrations were to carry on into the early hours today,  officially the first day of the Lunar New Year.