COLOURS OF LIFE: HaPPy 'NIU' Nian 2009 in CHINA

HaPPy MOO-MOO year to you all! May all have a prosperous year and be blessed with good health, great wealth and lots of happiness... Time really flies... 2 more days to go and it will be 'Chap Goh Mei' and there goes the CNY for this year...

This 'MOO-MOO' year, I spent my CNY in CHINA with my whole family except for my 2nd bro and wife as the wife is delivering a li'l moo-moo bb soon. Everyone in the family is so looking forward to welcome this moo-moo princess.

Well, I missed celebrating CNY the old traditional ways back in hometown, where everyone goes visiting each other, relatives and friends. Then, everyone will have get together makan-makan, gambling, chit-chatting, play firecrackers/fireworks, etc. For the past few years, we had been having family outing during CNY. Anyway, it's great as long as you celebrate with your family, no matter where you are.

It was pretty FUN celebrating CNY in China. We went for a package tour for about a week there, covering Nanning and Guilin. 1st few days was pretty bad for me as I was sick but luckily got better on the 3rd day onwards. The weather change was pretty drastic, lowest was about 3 degree celcius and highest about 20 degree celcius. The weather was freezing cold... only towards the last 2 days it was warmer.

Below are some of the snapshots on the CNY atmosphere in Guilin...

It's a tradition to put up the 'Chun Lien' (New Year's couplets) every Chinese New Year at the front door. Not many people practise this tradition back in Malaysia nowadays. The picture below is taken at one of the village we visited in Yang Shuo.

It's legal to play firecrackers and fireworks there and it's so damn cheap. My bro and dad bought some to light up there. One big roll of firecrackers only cost about RM10-20. On CNY eve, the hotel next door to the one we stayed at... played firecrackers and fireworks non stop for almost 2 hours.... it's like burning lots of $$$.... hahaha...