SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- An orchestral concert celebrating the 2018 Chinese New Year opened here on Saturday with a bizarre start, when a glistening golden dragon "flew" into the concert hall adding a strong touch of traditional Chinese culture to the musical event.

The special concert, given by the San Francisco Symphony to mark the Chinese Lunar New Year that began on Feb. 16, warmed up the merry atmosphere among a nearly 2,800-strong audience as the dragon, performed by a local dragon dance club, "hovered" along the aisles of the San Francisco Davies Symphony Hall in downtown, an episode rarely seen at a normally "serious" art music concert.

The dragon dancers mimicked the movements of the dragon to demonstrate the power and dignity of this supernatural, mighty spirit.

In traditional Chinese culture, the dragon is believed to bring good luck to people and symbolize wisdom and auspiciousness.

The two-hour concert, conducted by Chinese American female conductor Xian Zhang, was fully enriched with a profuse Chinese flavor, which, besides a Western music masterpiece, presented a famous Chinese Spring Festival Overture, the Triple Resurrection composed by Tan Dun, a well-known Chinese contemporary classical composer, and an orchestral piece adapted from three popular Chinese folk songs -- Flower Drum Song from Feng Yang of east China's Anhui province, Love Song from Kang Ding of southwest China's Sichuan province, and Girl from the Daban City of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The concluding part was an audience sing-along piece adapted from the song, Gong Xi Gong Xi (Best Wishes, Best Wishes!), which pushed the whole concert to a climax that the high-spirited audience gave a five-minute rousing ovation to the artists.

An IT engineer who once worked in a big data company in China's Hong Kong and named himself only as Richard, told Xinhua that he and dozens of his friends came to this concert with all of them either wearing traditional bright red Chinese costumes or red scarves that symbolizes happiness and good luck.

"All of us love Chinese culture, that's why we here," he said of his friends, who are mostly in their sixties or seventies.

"He's from Switzerland, and he is from Holland," he said, pointing to his friends sitting in their seats.

He said he had worked for two years in both Shanghai and Beijing. "China is a great country and it has become even better than before."

Laurence Wong, who brought his little daughter to the concert, said she was born in the United States but he wanted her to know a country where his father came from.

"The ABCs (American-born Chinese) should not loose their roots (in culture and tradition)," Wong said.