When I stepped into London's 10 Downing Street on Monday evening, I found Lunar New Year in full swing.

As British Prime Minister David Cameron held a reception at his official residence, dozens of Chinese-style red lanterns, big and small, dangled around the winding stairs from the ground floor to the upper stories.

From the entrance hall to individual rooms, there were lots of traditional Chinese red envelopes decorated with gold characters proclaiming happiness and wealth. Many red envelopes also included cartoon characters of sheep, since 2015 is the Year of the Sheep or goat, according to Chinese zodiac. Red envelopes contain gifts of money, an old Chinese tradition.