Drinking with both hands: Happy Chinese New Year!

I have never told anyone "Happy American New Year!" and I'm sure I'm not alone. When I am in Hong Kong, people will say "Happy Chinese New Year" all the time. It's as if they don't realize that I can see all the red and the tiger decorations, or the festive kumquat trees displayed all over town. It's as if I have completely forgotten that 6 weeks ago I celebrated New Years in the states and I need to be reminded that this is the Chinese New Year we are celebrating here. In China. In February.

I do try to wish as many people a Happy New Year as I can. It is met with surprise that I would offer such a well wish as well as what looks like genuine appreciation that I am wishing them happiness in the upcoming year. I even got a partial smile out of the surly immigration officer who resented working at 6am on Sunday morning (and all the folks who were coming home to Hong Kong from a night of debauchery in Macau).

In case you've missed it, this weekend marked the start of the year of the Tiger. There are regal images of tigers, cartoon drawings of tigers and large crimson tapestries with gold lame embossed tigers all over town. Today we went out to get Shanghainese dumplings for breakfast and the shop was closed. In a town that never closes! So we went to the #2 dumpling shop in town and it was closed as well. It turns out that 90% of the restaurants were closed today as Hong Kong took a holiday from work to spend time with their families and gamble at home with them (yes really. This is something confirmed during a conversation I had with a Hong Kong local at a party tonight). It also turns out that 100% of the restaurants we wanted to go to were closed today as well. Dumplings would have to wait.

We met up with some friends and all went to a party to watch tonight's fireworks from the balcony of an apartment on the 13th floor of a building perched on the hills overlooking town. This was another mix of ex-pats but tonight I was much more intrigued by the Hong Kong locals at the party. They seemed to want to talk about the US with me and I had plenty of questions for them so we had lots to talk about. To get to the apartment on the hill we had to dart through traffic in our fantastically underpowered and tight taxi. I wanted to capture some of the movement in pictures below.

After a great fireworks display, unparalleled hospitality and skillfully DJ'd dance music the original crew of 4 we arrived with (Paul, Mary, Pat and I) all left together and went to Paul's place to hang out on his roof. His rooftop is a horizontal oasis amidst the tall buildings that surrounded us. We could lay on our backs and look up without having to crane our necks in this vertical city.

Today was full of unexpected surprises: The city I know only as packed and bustling was a virtual ghost town during the one day a year it happens; we got invited to a party to watch the fireworks and met more really cool people, and had a relaxing post party on the best secret rooftop in Hong Kong. I feel like I am getting to see a side of Hong Kong that most tourists who are here for a short spell don't get to see. I can't begin to express how lucky I feel that I am able to do all of this.