Well, Chinese New Year has come to an end, but we had a great time at the Chinese New Year Celebration on Lotus Pond, located in the Zuoying District of Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
For 5 days, starting on Thursday, February 19th, the people of Zuoying celebrated with a carnival like atmosphere of shopping, food, games and play on Liantan Road along the banks of Lotus Pond.
With the exception of the ever persistent occasional scooter (moped or motorcycle), that manage to swarm just about everywhere here with impunity, and delivery vehicles the street was closed to traffic for the duration of the event.
Whole families and friends poured into Lotus Pond to enjoy the event. It was a festive atmosphere of family oriented fun that packed in the crowds for all 5 days of the Chinese New Year.
Even their dogs weren’t left out of this celebration. As I’ve reported before the Taiwanese love their dogs. They take them everywhere they go and the New Year Celebration is definitely no exception. Everywhere we looked we saw dogs celebrating right alongside their human counterparts. In the coming days and weeks I will be posting many more photos of the dogs we saw celebrating the New Year as part of my ongoing series, The Dogs of Taiwan.
Katrina and I visited everyday enjoying more than our fill of Chinese Comfort Food. We ate:
- fried and charcoaled meats
- charcoaled chicken, lamb and other meats on a stick
- beef noodle soup
- scallion pancakes
- charcoaled squid
- crabs
- tea
- fresh coconut water (straight from a freshly cut coconut)
- mango with milk smoothies
- honey glazed popcorn (similar to caramel corn but with honey)
- ice cream cones
- and many more things that we forget
Katrina, who is Chinese, has maintain for years that Chinese celebrate with food and I finally got to see firsthand that she wasn’t kidding. Just look at how much that adorable little girl below is enjoy her corn on the cob.
Luckily we did plenty of walking to help burn off those extra calories. The vendors and stands lined over 1 kilometer of Liantan Road and we walked the full length and back plus another 2 kilometers to from the event every day.
1 kilometer…trust me that’s a lot of vendors and stands, and they were packed from end to end every day. Even with the crowds everybody’s friendly and festive spirit made these 5 fun filled days a wonderful experience. Well from Lotus Pond, Xīn Nián Kuài Lè (Happy New Year) and Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái (May you have a prosperous New Year)!
