Friday, February 4, 2011

Chinese New Year February 2011

Xin nian kuai le! If you're a Cantonese speaker or watch those commercials for Mandarin Restaurant, gung hai fat choi! Either way, Happy Chinese New Year, aka Spring Festival (Really? It's still cold here!)

Here are some of the sights that indicate the approach of Chinese New Year (CNY). This is by no means an exhaustive pictorial. Shanghai is a massive city and I only travel through so much of it. There are many small displays for CNY, but who wants to see those? These ones are outstanding due to their size and/or strangeness.


The rabbit that ate Green Court.


Could you guess that 2011 is Year of the Rabbit?
More decorations were added later to make this a visually more interesting display. 
There's only so much you can do with a gargantuan rabbit though.

Speaking of gargantuan, here we have several ginormous items, starting with the "money clock", if indeed that's what it was.  To the right, we have a huge Christmas tree in gold and on the left, in the background, is a monumental Louis Vuitton suitcase. That's a permanent feature on Nanjing Road, near the Canadian Consulate.


There were two men clearing snow the day I walked by. This was one of the two snowfalls we've experienced in Shanghai. This "storm" made the news.
Sounds like wimpy Toronto.


I love the safety precautions taken in Shanghai.
There are "gold boats" inside this clock. 
Actually, they are old school Chinese "gold" ingots. 

I cannot seem to cut and past a photo of Chinese gold ingots, so you'll have to do your own fingerwork and just Google them yourselves. Trust me, they look like little boats. 

Another angle


It just wouldn't CNY, or any holiday for that matter, without the ubiquitous Pleasant Goat, here trapped in a golden crown with his nemesis, Big Big Wolf.


In case of another flood, I'm heading across the street to our "mall"
where they have built a gigantic Ark. 
You can see a woman posing in front to give you an idea of scale. 


Happy New Year, everyone!
Wishing you, once again, health, wealth and happiness. 

1 comment:

Sandy said...

Happy Chinese New Year!