Book your flights and hotels and dinners early for Chinese New Year when everybody is out celebrating.
Chinese New Year is celebrated in:
China
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Singapore, major shopping malls, hotels, supermarkets and streets especially Chinatown
Chinatown, London, England
Chinatown, Manchester, England
Chinatown, New York, NY USA
Chinatown, Vancouver, Canada
Many Chinese restaurants on high streets throughout the UK
Singapore's Traditional Dinner
Wikipedia explains it like this:
At a family or meal or a table at a Toastmasters' Club dinner, at a round or square or oblong table, everybody stands around the dish holding their chopsticks in it and on the agreed shout you all pick up food and toss it in the air above the plate.
In advance practise using chopsticks and tossing noodles. On the night of any club visit or dinner, wear washable clothes or a scarf.
Expect Chinese banquets, Chinese wines, lion dances, flower displays.
In Singapore stock up with oranges for family, friends, colleagues, customers to shops.
Stock up with red packets for presenting gifts of clean banknotes to the young and unmarried. Some banks and restaurants will give you free red packets containing a discount voucher and/or goodwill message from that organisation.
Stock up with Chinese new year cards and postage stamps. Find Chinese New Year borders, signatures to add to your emails.
Chinese Toastmasters International Speakers' Club Dinners
Chinese Toastmasters International Speakers clubs will often have a Chinese New Year dinner. Prepare for a change of venue for club meetings. The meeting might be cancelled because the usual venue such as a hotel is booked for events, or because club members are away on holiday. But often a club dinner is arranged on a meeting night, or at a different venue on another occasion. Prepare your Chinese New Year stories for table topics (impromptu speeches). The lucky colour is red.
Stock up on small gifts so that you can reciprocate.
Flights
Some airports will have long queues because of large numbers of travellers.
Photos
When travelling take your camera or videocamera or smart phone to photograph New Year events.
New Year Greeting
Finally, learn to say Happy New Year in Mandarin, or Cantonese or another language according to your destination.
Useful websites
http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat4/sub17/item120.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wishing_You_Happiness_and_Prosperity
Chinese New Year is celebrated in:
China
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Singapore, major shopping malls, hotels, supermarkets and streets especially Chinatown
Picture from Wikipedia. See picture credit and more pictures in Wikipedia under Chinese New Year.
Chinatown, London, England
Chinatown, Manchester, England
Chinatown, New York, NY USA
Chinatown, Vancouver, Canada
Many Chinese restaurants on high streets throughout the UK
Singapore's Traditional Dinner
Wikipedia explains it like this:
Yusheng, yee sang or yuu sahng (Chinese: 鱼生; pinyin: yúshēng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: hî-seⁿ or hû-siⁿ), or Prosperity Toss, also known as lo hei(Cantonese for 撈起 or 捞起) is a Teochew-style raw fish salad. It usually consists of strips of raw fish (most commonly salmon), mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments, among other ingredients. Yusheng literally means "raw fish" but since "fish (鱼)" is commonly conflated with its homophone "abundance (余)", Yúshēng (鱼生) is interpreted as a homophone for Yúshēng (余升) meaning an increase in abundance. Therefore, yusheng is considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor.
While versions of it are thought to have existed in China, the contemporary version is created and popularised[citation needed] in the 1960s amongst the ethnic Chinese community and its consumption has been associated with Chinese New Year festivities in Malaysia, Indonesiaand Singapore.
At a family or meal or a table at a Toastmasters' Club dinner, at a round or square or oblong table, everybody stands around the dish holding their chopsticks in it and on the agreed shout you all pick up food and toss it in the air above the plate.
In advance practise using chopsticks and tossing noodles. On the night of any club visit or dinner, wear washable clothes or a scarf.
Expect Chinese banquets, Chinese wines, lion dances, flower displays.
In Singapore stock up with oranges for family, friends, colleagues, customers to shops.
Stock up with red packets for presenting gifts of clean banknotes to the young and unmarried. Some banks and restaurants will give you free red packets containing a discount voucher and/or goodwill message from that organisation.
Stock up with Chinese new year cards and postage stamps. Find Chinese New Year borders, signatures to add to your emails.
Chinese Toastmasters International Speakers' Club Dinners
Chinese Toastmasters International Speakers clubs will often have a Chinese New Year dinner. Prepare for a change of venue for club meetings. The meeting might be cancelled because the usual venue such as a hotel is booked for events, or because club members are away on holiday. But often a club dinner is arranged on a meeting night, or at a different venue on another occasion. Prepare your Chinese New Year stories for table topics (impromptu speeches). The lucky colour is red.
Stock up on small gifts so that you can reciprocate.
Flights
Some airports will have long queues because of large numbers of travellers.
Photos
When travelling take your camera or videocamera or smart phone to photograph New Year events.
New Year Greeting
Finally, learn to say Happy New Year in Mandarin, or Cantonese or another language according to your destination.
Useful websites
http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat4/sub17/item120.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wishing_You_Happiness_and_Prosperity
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