Taiwanese (Chinese) New Year and Lantern Festival

This last week in Taiwan has been a week long holiday to celebrate Chinese New Year. There are two things that people generally say to each other and they are (i) Xin Nian Kuai Le (Happy New Year), and (ii) Gong Xi Fa Tai (May lots of money come to you this year). So...

Xin Nian Kuai Le

and

Gong Xi Fa Tai

One of the festivals that the Taiwan engage in is the Lantern Festival. The first Lantern Festival I saw was in Taipei (Taipei Lantern Festival Photos) many years ago at CKS Memorial Hall. The surrounding streets were dedicated to showcasing the lanterns made by the school children. Then after moving to Christchurch (Christchurch Lantern Festival Photos), they also had Lantern Festivals too (I believe that their inaugural Lantern Festival was the first year that the Doctor and I moved there).

Anyway, I expected great things from the Kaohsiung Lantern Festival and I was not disappointed. The Doctor and I spent more than a few hours there and still didn't see everything. I am hoping to go back again tonight and see the rest.

After catching the bus (that happened to be free this week) we were confronted with so many people. The streets were so crowded that you could barely lift your arms without knocking someone. We made our way over Love River and headed towards the harbour. Once there we found that they had a huge stage with a Jazz band playing. The acts changed each ten or so minutes. Also at the time when we were on the harbourside a water show started around the floating tiger. I have a few photos of this and I'll put the link at the end of this posting because there are too many photos to show.

Also along the harbour side were many food stalls. These ranged from Stinky Tofu (which is a Taiwanese delicacy), deep fried mushrooms, barbecued glassed fruit and lots of other things you would normally find in a night market.

After walking around the food stalls and the harbour side, the Doctor and I headed back to Love River. Along the riverside, there were even more people (I think most of Kaohsiung City 1.5 million residents had gone to see the Lanterns). On this night, the Doctor and I only walked one side of the river but even on this side along there were many lanterns and side events going on. Again it is probably best to let the pictures do the talking.

The last thing that is probably interesting to mention was on the way home, the bus that the Doctor and I caught has a bunch of children who had also been to see the Lantern Festival and as a result were quite hyperactive. When they saw me and recognised me as a WaiGuoRen (Foreigner) they started to practice their English. One of the young boys was telling me he was a monkey and started to scratch and make Monkey sounds. One of the other young boys must of had a parent who kept saying "Oh my God" because this was all he was saying. The other kids were not quite so noisy but it was interesting to see how quickly they pick up other languages; I only wish I could pick up the Chinese Language as quick as they picked up English.

Anyway, time for the photos (Kaohsiung Lantern Festival):


Till next time, haveagoodone...

A one liner that I found funny...

This post is going to be small and quick about a one liner that I read in the New Zealand Property Talk forum.

The topic was anticipated changes to the tax system with particular reference to Property Investors. The discussion was a mixture of emotional opinions along with factual; separating them was a challenge.

But there was a one liner that I found funny that I hadn't heard before:

Turkeys never vote for Christmas

Now to put it into a bit on context, the turkeys were referring to the voting public of New Zealand and Christmas was the current Prime Minister elected; and the sentiment was about increasing the tax and removing the allowable deductions.

Chinese New Year is approaching and will have some more stories then. Till next time, haveagoodone...

Not much to report...

Since arriving back from Kenting, unfortunately there is not much to report from Kaohsiung.

The Chinese Language school has decided that it wants to close two days early, so the last two weekend I have had additional classes on each Saturday. And if that wasn't enough Chinese, I have had language exchange with two of the locals on each weekday. I almost feel as if I am turning Taiwanese. Maybe it is about time I did start to think like a Taiwanese and then I can start to speed up my learning???

On the weather front, I think the weather has started to heat again. I noticed that our apartment in the afternoon was up to almost 30 degrees and we had all the windows open to air it out. I think the cold weather season here in Kaohsiung is shorter than the warm weather season in Christchurch.

More interesting posts should be forthcoming over the next month. February will have Chinese New Year, a trip to Kaohsiung country and two weeks holiday at the end of the month.

Till then, haveagoodone...