Chinatown: Lunar New Year Festivities Begin

It’s always good to come here early.  A week before Chinese New Year the crowds will literally crush you.  Years ago I was with my dear friend on the eve of lunar new year in Chinatown.  It felt like we were in a jam packed concert with waves of people, but the festive atmosphere was exciting. We had to hold on to each other otherwise we would have drifted away in the ‘currents’.

The person who’s behind this sign has a great sense of wit.

photo by bookjunkie

There’s a temple right in the middle of Chinatown and next to the festive stalls.

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

What a name!

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Finally a tent to protect us from the scorching heat.

photo by bookjunkie

Love how the red of the traditional lantern contrasts against the freshly painted blue shophouse.

photo by bookjunkie

The Cognac XO is used in quite a bit of Chinese cuisine.

photo by bookjunkie

The Yum Char, Dim Sum restaurant. The quality is not as great as Crystal Jade, but the external facade is lovely.

photo by bookjunkie

I wonder if there is really a book out there like that – it would be great if there was.

photo by bookjunkie

I don’t think any Singaporean would be caught dead wearing a T shirt like this. Just too touristy.

photo by bookjunkie

Don’t you just love all that colour.

photo by bookjunkie


photo by bookjunkie


photo by bookjunkie

A real sexist T shirt that husbands will have a laugh over. They will then get promptly smacked by their wives.

photo by bookjunkie


photo by bookjunkie

A typical traditional store with Chinese New Year decorations all in auspicious fire cracker red and characters in gold.

photo by bookjunkie

You could take the MRT here. This is the Chinatown stop on the purple line.

photo by bookjunkie

More of the pretty shophouses. I couldn’t resist taking tons of photos.

photo by bookjunkie

Magnets of miniature versions of local desserts like green bean soup.

photo by bookjunkie


photo by bookjunkie

Queues here have not formed yet. But in a few weeks time it will be a mile long. Lim Chee Guan’s bacon version of the Ba Kuah (BBQ pork) is my absolute fave. No other brand can compare. But it’s super expensive and you can only a small portion for S$15.

photo by bookjunkie

Walking back towards temple street. Today we really exercised loads with all that walking.

photo by bookjunkie

King’s bread and wafer ice cream seller.

photo by bookjunkie

Preserved meat used for the Lunar New Year feasts.

photo by bookjunkie

About bookjunkie

Blogging about life in Singapore & recently cancer too.
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4 Responses to Chinatown: Lunar New Year Festivities Begin

  1. 365days2play says:

    Damn cool!! You make me wanna visit Chinatown tomorrow, even though I already made plans to go elsewhere.

  2. This has to be the cleanest Chinatown i have ever seen I have been to New York’s, Chicago’s, and Victoria, British Columbia’s. Very nice pictures–nice color!
    Happy Year of the Rabbit! (it is rabbit, right?)

    • bookjunkie says:

      Yeah it’s the year of the Rabbit. It doesn’t quite follow the Jan to Dec calendar but the lunar calendar which starts around end Jan/Feb each year. This year it’s 3rd Feb.

      I guess I take the cleanliness totally for granted…thanks for reminding me 🙂

  3. Pingback: Blogging About Chinese New Year 2011 | Tiny Island

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