While many western traditions revolve around festivities on New Year’s Eve, a long standing tradition I am familiar with in East Asia is watching the sunrise on New Year’s Day.
How about going for a pre-dawn hike on the Great Wall? In the 1990s a college buddy who was an exchange student in China, did just that. This is still a very popular way to spend January 1st, New Year’s Day.
There are several places for watching the sun peek over a peak on the Great Wall: Jinshanling, Jinakou, and Simatai.
See more locations here.
Although guides will offer sunset tours, don’t think for a twilight moment that seeing the sunset at the Great Wall is equally popular for locals as seeing the sunrise.
The several sightseeing entrances to the Great Wall of China offer restaurants and mini malls, but night time activities are far more limited. Unique landmarks located in peaks and tall architectural monuments in the West are places where nightlife would flourish, eg. The Eiffel Tower in Paris or Market Street in San Francisco.