The Year of the Rooster

Last weekend were the Chinese New Year celebrations in London and, for once, we decided to go, damn the tourists.

It was a miserable day in general with rain forecast all afternoon, but I didn't let it dampen my spirits.

The parade kicked off just after ten and there were thousands and thousands of people filling Trafalgar Square (and probably all the way to Chinatown).

It was kind of slow because they kept stopping for ages at certain points and there wasn't really any music or anything. So a silent parade, with spits of rain and a million peoples phones in the air (mine and Adeel's included).

We then sidled off for a quick bite to eat and taking shelter from the rain before wandering around Trafalgar Square. There were a handful of stalls selling all sorts of Chinese charms and trinkets for the year ahead.

Deciding to come back later when we thought all the real festivities would kick off, we wandered over to Chinatown (turns out it's really not that far and I have been taking the long route for many years).

I don't envy the people working in Chinese restaurants on Chinese New Year. The queues leading out of every restaurant was phenomenal. But the whole area looked very pretty with hundreds of red lanterns hanging above us.

We then found ourselves in Leicester Square as there really isn't much to do in Chinatown except eat and we weren't joining any of those enormous queues!

We found a timetable of events and so went back to Trafalgar Square as Sadiq Kahn was going to be one among a handful of official representatives giving speeches.

There was a Lion dance and then a Dragon dance afterwards, but all in all I'm a little disappointed. I thought it would be more of a festival-y atmosphere, loud and joyous, yanno? But I found myself feeling frequently bored.

At least the decorations were pretty though.

Not one to repeat I think given the amount of tourists and waiting around in odd silence. Maybe it's better in actual China...

Anyway, below are some of the photos I took. It was difficult to get a clear picture over the many heads of tourists, but I selected the best handful I think.

🐓