Chinese New Year Celebrations!

Earlier this month Hong Kong celebrated the Chinese New Year! Lingnan students had a week off of school, and as Hong Kong is one of the most popular destinations for celebrating the Chinese New Year, I decided to stay and experience all the festivities of the city. I learned a lot from my local friends about the many symbols and traditions of this important holiday season, including miniature orange trees placed at the door as a symbol of good luck, red envelopes full of money given by parents to children and grandchildren, and most importantly, time spent sharing meals with family and friends. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the week! :)

 

Most of the local students go home during this time, but one of my buddies took the time to go with me to a traditional new years flower market near Lingnan!

Miniature trees like this are an important new years symbol. The words 'tangerine' and 'orange' sound like the words for 'luck' and 'wealth'.

One of the things that make Hong Kong such a popular holiday destination is the annual new years parade. Around 150,000 people came out to celebrate! The crowds were definitely worth it though, it was a really impressive event!

Do you see the person hanging upside down??

All in all it was a fantastic night, and the rest of the week was wonderful too! I was able to do some traveling (as you can see in my last post!) and ended it all with Lingnan's Lantern Legend Festival. Local students and exchange students cooked and shared some of their favorite foods from home, and also put on some awesome performances to finish welcoming in the new year!

Island Excursions!

During the last few weeks I have been able to venture out and visit a couple of the many outlying islands of Hong Kong! I went to Cheung Chau Island on a trip organized by Lingnan's study abroad office, and a few friends and I planned our own trip to Lantau Island.

At Cheung Chau we went hiking and explored the incredible sights of the island. It was great to experience a quieter side of Hong Kong while taking in some of its most beautiful views.

At Lantau island we climbed up to see the famous Big Buddha statue at the Po Lin Monastery, and then visited the traditional fishing village, Tai O.

  

Tai O is said to be a good glimpse of the "old Hong Kong" that existed before all the rapid development of the last few decades. While we were there we were able to try some seafood from the outdoor market, visit one of the village temples, and catch a beautiful sunset before heading home.