Chinese New Year

Hong Kong is preparing itself for the biggest holiday celebration of the year, the Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar (February 3^rd) and ends on the 15^th day with the Lantern Festival. Wherever you look you can see signs of the upcoming festival with buildings brightly decorated in red and gold and shops even more busy than usual as the locals pour out their money to buy presents, decorations and food for the New Year’s festivities. Products in the shape of rabbits can also be seen everywhere as the Chinese New Year welcomes the Year of the Rabbit.

Shops around town are selling red and gold decorations

 

   

New Year's decorations in our mall



The story behind Chinese New Year is that a monster lived near a village and would attack the village on New Year’s Eve to eat the livestock, crops and even villagers. To keep the monster away red paper was pasted on doors, torches were lit and firecrackers set off as it was believed that the monster fears the colour red, the light of fire and loud noises. These three traditions remain key features of the current Chinese New Year.  

The Chinese New Year also witnesses the world’s largest human migration with migrant Chinese travelling home to spend Chinese New Year with their families. In 2010 an estimated 210 million Chinese hit the planes, buses and trains – the equivalent to the whole population of Brazil packing their suitcases. In China, where much of the migration takes place, it’s been claimed that trains are so overcrowded that people wear diapers for their +24hr journeys home. (Source: http://gohongkong.about.com/od/chinesenewyear/a/Chinese-New-Year-Facts.htm)

Some interesting facts about Chinese New Year:

• Almost all of the New Years decorations are red because the colour red ties closely to wealth and good luck in Chinese culture.
• The most important day of Chinese New Year is Chinese New Year’s eve and the first day of Chinese New Year. Shops will close for these two days although some will stay closed for up to 8-10 days. 
• On the days before the New Year celebrations Chinese families give their home a thorough cleaning to sweep away any ill-fortune in hope to make way for good incoming luck. Cleaning products are then put away on New Year’s Eve so that the newly arrived good luck cannot be swept away.
• It's estimated that a sixth of the world celebrate Chinese New Year, including more than 1 billion Chinese citizens.
• Mandarins are considered traditional symbols of abundance and good fortune and are therefore displayed as decorations and presented as gifts to friends and relatives. 
  

I'll be visiting some of the New Year's celebrations so I'll make sure to post some pictures of the festivities later this week.

Sun nien fai lok (Happy New Year)!





Who said men can't multitask?

I'd like to share a short video that I came across the other day. While on his way to work in a mini bus Hong Kong journalist Nuri Vittachi filmed the driver steering through Hong Kong while reading the paper, eating his breakfast and taking regular phone calls. As Nuri comments: who said men can't multi-task? Well, Hong Kong bus drivers certainly can.



For more entertaining stories check out Mr Vittachi's blog.

That's it for today but I'll be back soon with more stories.

Anna

Battling Hong Kong's Big Chill

Hi everyone and welcome back to my first blog article of 2011!

Last week I got back to Hong Kong after spending the Christmas holidays with my family in The Netherlands. As this is my first winter here in Hong Kong I wasn’t too sure what to expect weatherwise. It turns out that it actually gets pretty chilly here with temperatures going down to around 10-15 degrees. This isn’t necessarily that cold but it is when you don’t have any indoor heating, so I’ve now become best friends with my warm slippers and hot water bottle.

Today the temperature was around 15 degrees and while it was a bit chilly I would hardly describe today's weather as extremly cold. The Hong Kong government disagrees. As soon as the temperature drops below 15 degrees the Hong Kong weather authority will issue an extreme cold weather warning (see below).

Bulletin issued at 20:02 HKT 09/Jan/2011

At 8 p.m. at the Hong Kong Observatory the air temperature was 15 degrees Celsius and the relative humidity 53 per cent.

Please be reminded that:
The Cold Weather Warning is now in force. Cold weather might cause adverse health effects. Members of the public should take care to keep warm.

(source: http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/current.htm)

To help local residents deal the cold, the government even provides some guidelines on actions to be taken for cold weather:

1. Members of the public are advised to put on warm clothes and to avoid adverse health effects due to the cold weather. 
2. Make sure there is adequate indoor ventilation.
3. If you must go out, avoid prolonged exposure to wintry winds.
4. If you know of elderly or persons with chronic medical conditions staying alone, call or visit them occasionally to check if they need any assistance.
5. Make sure heaters are safe before use, and place them away from any combustibles. Do not light fires indoors as a means to keep warm.
6. Whatever the temperature, ensure that there is plenty of fresh air in your room when you are using an old-type gas water heater. 

(Source: http://www.hko.gov.hk/wservice/warning/coldhot.htm)

Good thing it doesn't freeze here in Hong Kong...

See you soon!

Annelotte

Hong Kong’s Bright and Sparkling Christmas

For a country that doesn’t really celebrate Christmas, Hong Kong sure likes its Christmas decorations. Despite the fact that it's still around 25 degrees outside, it's not difficult to get into the Christmas spirit with lights strung across every skyscraper and Christmas songs booming from every speaker in Hong Kong since mid November.

Particularly in the many malls around Hong Kong you'll see some of the most amazing Christmas decorations. From amazing trees, to huge wooden puppets and endless lights, preferably multi-coloured and flashing.

As this will be my last post for 2010, I’ll leave you with some pictures of Christmas in Hong Kong. I’ll be back in the new year with more exciting experiences from my life here in Hong Kong.

 Have a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Annelotte

The Merry Maids of Hong Kong

Yesterday morning I went into town to meet a friend for brunch and walking from the station to the restaurant in Soho I almost tripped over some of the thousands of domestic helpers hanging around in town.

This is a regular sight on Sundays (the only days off for the maids) with thousands of maids (also known as domestic helpers) gathering in groups on every available free space around Central. Through heat, sun, wind and cold they sit in small groups on card board boxes sharing food and stories and playing games.

The majority of the approximately 240,000 domestic helpers in Hong Kong are Filipino, leaving behind their lives and families in hope of a better life and income in Hong Kong. Surprisingly, most of the domestic helpers have degrees and speak good English as a higher education degree is required in order to obtain a work visa for Hong Kong.

Most families in Hong Kong have a maid (some even more than one) and the majority of them are live-in maids. Considering that the average house in Hong Kong is the size of a shoebox you can imagine the living conditions of the maid.

I remember being told a story of an expat who was trying to apply for a work visa for his maid but didn’t have room for the maid to live in his home. When applying for the visa the government official refused to give the maid the visa unless she would be provided with living space in the house. When the expat responded that the house was too small, the official suggested that the maid could perhaps sleep in the kitchen!  

It’s quite a sight to see all these women around town and you can’t help but feel a bit sorry for them but when you look at their faces they seem to be enjoying themselves and making the most of the scarce free time they have. Good on them!

See you next time!

A night at the races

To celebrate the end of Simon’s training and my sister’s visit we decided to pay a visit to the famous Happy Valley horse races.

Horse racing is big thing here in Hong Kong with thousands of locals and expats getting together at the Happy Valley racecourse on Wednesday nights to watch the races, gamble and socialize. Set in the middle of Hong Kong with skyscrapers surrounding the brightly lit track, the Happy Valley racecourse must be one of the most impressive racing venues in the world.

I found that racing here is very different from what I was used to in the UK and Sydney, where the atmosphere is sophisticated and the punters dress up, sip on champagne and nibble on canapés. Here, horse racing is very relaxed. You can wear pretty much anything and drinks are served in large plastic cups and jugs. It seems to be more about the beer and gambling than about hats and outfits.





While many of the expats come to the races for a fun and cheap night out, the locals are really into the betting, many of them sitting inside at tables with papers with score results and statistics scattered around them watching the races on tv screens. Betting on horse racing seems to be a national hobby here with the annual betting turnover approximating HK$71billion (7 biljard Euro)

Getting ready for the start

I’ve never been a big gambler but with all the betting going on around me I decided to try my luck and bet on some horses. It all looks very confusing in the beginning with terms like trifecta, quinella and trio on the betting sheets, but with a little help from one of the betting ladies I found out that it’s actually not that complicated. Still, I decided to play it safe and I only bet on single horses to place (in other words, the chosen must end 1^st,2^nd or 3^rd  place) and only betting only small amounts. With little knowledge about any of the horses, I decided to choose the horsed based on their names (how can you not bet on horses called “Dr Win”, “Fun and Fast” and “the Untouchable Lad”?). It probably wasn’t the best betting strategy and I didn’t end up winning any money but I can assure you that the races are much more fun to watch if there’s a bit of money at stake (even if it’s only HK$10) and you join the cheering as the horses near the finish hoping that your horse will magically make its way from last to first in the last 100 meters (not very likely as I found out).

And they're off!

All in all, going to the races is definitely a favourite night time activity and the combination of the al-fresco atmosphere, the exhilaration of betting and jugs of cheap beer makes for a perfect night out. And maybe next time I’ll try a different betting strategy and see if its more successful.

Surviving the Smog

Having lived in Sydney for the past few years, where you will generally find the most beautiful bright blue skies, moving to Hong Kong was a bit of a shock.

The first few weeks I was here I didn’t notice how bad the air situation really was as the weather was pretty decent and the pollution level not too bad. I now know that these clear blue days are a rarity here in Hong Kong and most days the skies are pretty hazy, or should I say smoggy? 

The difference in the view from our apartment on a clear and not so clear day is remarkable.

Clear day



Not so clear day

Air pollution in Hong Kong is has become a serious problem affecting residents health and causing some expats to reconsider a relocation to Hong Kong. While the Government of Hong Kong has introduced new regulations and measures to tackle the issue of pollution the problem is still getting worse. In March 2010, Hong Kong’s smog was the worst on record and a research conducted by the Hong Kong University in 2008 found that the pollutants in the Hong Kong air were three times higher than New York and double that of London! According to a survey conducted in 153 countries, Hong Kong people are the unhappiest in the world with their air quality.

Where does the pollution come from? Well, there are two different opinions on this. According to the Government the pollution comes from the Guangdong factories in the Pearl river Delta. According to other sources, these factories are only part of the story. Hong Kong has the world’s highest traffic density as well as coal burning power plants, contributing to an estimated 50% of the total pollution level (source: http://gohongkong.about.com/od/healthandsaftey/a/ong_Kong_Pollution.htm)

But there is hope, you can now buy bottles of fresh air for HK$2 which, according to the commercial will help you with “exciting new skills, like balloon animals and yodelling” and let you “blow out your birthday candles with confidence”. You can check out the video here. 

So while I’m loving the fact that it’s mid November and it’s still 27 degrees, I’m definitely less enthusiastic about the smog and miss the crisp clear Sydney blue skies….

See you next time!