Chinese New Years Parade

Hi All,

My excuse this time is that Drew and I were having a wonderful time showing Grandma Pat and cousin Kelli around Hong Kong for 3 weeks during March. More to come on that later, but more recently, we got to celebrate Chinese New Years, the beginning of the Lunar Calendar. This year is the Year of the Horse, so horse decor is rampant throughout the city. Much better than last year's snake, I think. Traditionally, CNY is a time for families to reconnect, eat lots of food, and give the red packets and small toys to the younger generations. Sounds like a mix between Thanksgiving and Christmas doesn't it? Therefore CNY is the biggest travel time in Asia. There is a saying, "Rich or poor; get home for the holiday." For the poor migrant workers who came to larger cities like Hong Kong, Beijing, or Shanghai, this is the only time they will get to see their families. There is an estimated 3.6 billion journeys taking place this year by China's 1.35 billion people in what is often called the human race's largest migration. I'm not really sure what constitutes a "journey," but I'm guessing 1 journey is taking 1 leg of public transportation. Most of the long distance journeys are taken by train, with an estimated 258 million train trips being taken this year. In comparison, the entire population of the United States is 314 million. So, imagine if every single person in the US got on a train and traveled home around the same span of time. That's how crowded and crazy these train trips are. And we complain about traffic jams during our holidays! Some of these train trips are 15-20 hours long and most of the passengers have to stand because there isn't enough seats. Sounds horrendous, but they do it without complaining to see their families for about 2 weeks.

So, because so many people go home to see family during CNY, Hong Kong was actually very quiet. There were noticeably less people, about 75% of restaurants were closed about about 90% of shops. So, it was actually a very quiet, restful weekend for us. On Friday Jan. 31st, which was the first official day of CNY, we went to the parade in TST (right nearby the Avenue of Stars). We only got there 45 min early and had second row standing spots. Drew and I had a clear advantage with our height, so we saw everything well. I've seen more people out for the Parade of Lights in Denver.

But, the parade was fun. All sorts of interesting floats for the major Hong Kong businesses, and lots of lions. Cathay Pacific Airlines was the major sponsor, so their float went first.

This was a float for Hong Kong's Chamber of Commerce, so the float has logos from lots of local stores. 

This float is for the Jockey Club, hence the racehorse!

Disneyland!

Ocean Park. This is another famous amusement park in Hong Kong that is a bit more original than Disneyland. 

This was a little girl's dance club. The theme was Under the Sea by the Little Mermaid, and all of the girl's dresses were made from balloons. It was really really cute. They should win best dressed for sure!