ChinGay 2014 (Colours of Fabric, One People)

On the 7th February 2014, which is the 8th day of Chinese New Year, I am extremely fortunate to attend ChinGay 2014 Street Parade which is organised by The People's Association.

Many people from all walks of life are happily attend this yearly National event which held at F1 Pit. ChinGay is also the largest street performance and float parade in Asia.

Do you know that ChinGay parade have been in Singapore more than 40 years? ChinGay was founded by the Then Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew in the 70's.

ChinGay was introduced in Singapore during the 70's due to the ban on firecrackers. To the Chinese, firecrackers are very important during the Chinese New Year. As it is a customary practice to drive away the evil spirits.

To compensate for the ban on firecrackers, The People's Association will held a street parade during the Chinese New Year.

In the 1976, it also included other races to performance in ChinGay parade to celebrate this event together.

In 1987, ChinGay included international flavour to perform. Since then, many international artistes and troupes visit Singapore to perform and also celebrating the Chinese New Year with us.

This year the theme for ChinGay 2014 will be known as Colours of Fabric, One People. Do you know that this year ChinGay are very unique and special? As there are many organisers will be joining in this street Parade for the first time! Those are, The Ballet, Singapore Getai and many more.

For the first day of ChinGay 2014, the guest of honour who will be gracing for this street parade event are The Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Lee Hsien Loong.

It was a great and wonderful night to enjoy ChinGay 2014. You should not miss it! Visit to my Facebook Page here to view more photos.

Singapore River Hongbao 2014

Every year, Singapore River Hongbao carnival will held at the Floating Platform, Marina Bay. This year will be the 28th years that the organiser had organised.

At the Singapore River Hongbao 2014 Carnival, you will be expected Chinese handcrafted lantern displays, LIVE performance on Chinese culture. If that not enough for you, you can visited to the Food Street, where you can try Yunan and other cultural food.

You also can visited to the Cultural street to get the ethnic costumes, cultural products, handcrafted jewellery and many more. You can also can get Calligraphy for free! If you are stamp or first cover collector, you may wish to visit to Singapore Post Office Booth to buy Limited Edition Gallop Year stamps and First Cover!

The carnival also have wishing well where the public can toss and throw their coins to wish for wealth, health, career and marriage.

Member of the public can visit to Singapore River Hongbao 2014 from 29 January to 8 February 2014. Admission is Free. 

Member of the public are advised to take public transport as the road will be quite congested. You can alighted at any of the nearby MRT stations:  CC4/DT15 Promenade Station, CC3 Esplanade Station, NS25/EW13 City Hall Station and/or NS26/EW14 Raffles Place Station.

You may want to read last year, Singapore River Hongbao (The Year of the Snake) 2013 here.

Pre-Chinese New Year

Today is the eve of Chinese new year. The Chinese from around the world are looking forward and ushering the year of the Gallop.

Do you know that many Chinese will takes as early as 2 weeks to prepare for Chinese New Year. They will do spring cleaning in their house, decorate the house and prepare for the Chinese new year snacks to usher the new year.

In Singapore, Chinese communities flocked over to Chinatown to have the new year atmosphere and buy the new year stuffstuff. It like a yearly affairs for us to visit to the Chinatown where you can visit to the street bazaar or photo taking of the new year decoration.

When you visit to Chinatown, you should not miss the street bazaar! As you can get many interesting stuff from the bazaar! You can get fried food, snacks, new year decoration and even fashion stuff.

During the night time, you can visit to the centre stage and watch LIVE performance that the organiser had organised. If this not enough for you, you can see the new year street lighting.

You can click the link here to view more of the photos.

Today is the eve of Chinese New Year, you can catch the LIVE telecast of Chinese New Year from Mediacorp.

I hereby to wish everyone Happy Chinese New Year!! Gong Xi Fat Chai! Huat ah!

Memories of Singapore River Hong Bao

Every Lunar New Year, The organiser will organise the Singapore River Hong Bao carnival at the Marina Bay riverside. River Hong Bao have been organised for 27 years and the admission is free.

The member of the public can expected Live performance from the Local and China performers, World food street, Chinese showcase, The Chinese Zodiac display and Uncle Ringo amusement carnival.

During the hare days, it was like a family affairs outing to visit to Singapore River Hong Bao. As during the times, there was not much attractions e.g, Singapore Flyer, Marina Bay Sands etc to visit.

I could remembered when I was a kid, My parents and my younger brother, we would travel to Marina Bay River (Along the stretch of Marina Bus terminus) and visit to Singapore River Hong Bao. (At that time, we took a bus to City Hall and walk towards to Marina Square as Circle Line was not built yet.)

The carnival was very grand and very huge at that time, They even setup First Aid counter, Lost and Found Counter and Temporary Police Centre. Do you know that, at that time you could able to play Roller Coaster, Pirate Ship and Ghost Train ride?

The Carnival had many Chinese Myth showcase displays which was sponsored by individual company. They also displayed in the sea as well! Do you know that TCS (MediaCorp) also held it Chinese New Year countdown together with ChinaTown and TV studio before?

I could remembered that I pulled my dad hands and take photos together as my dad do not like to take photo. Till now my dad still the same habit! Ha Ha.. Soon after, Marina area was being re-delvoped and to build more attractions (eg, Esplanade theatre, Marina Bay Stadium, Singapore Flyer etc) as the nation progress. The Singapore River Bao Carnival became smaller due to the area re-delvoped.

When the Esplanade theatre was completed, Singapore River Hong Bao was shifted beside the empty space and when the Marina Bay Floating Platform (Marina Stadium) was completed the construction, the carnival was shifted over here.

Time passed and the Singapore River Bao also transformed over the year. With the beauty of Marina Bay skyline, it also attracted not only the local but to the tourists as well.

It's been awhile where we can see this outdoor amusement park. The new generation of kids would not able to experience the real fun that we had during the time we do not have a lot of IT gadgets. But most important, our Tradition will never change and it will pass down to the next generation.

Happy Lunar New Year to everyone!

Celebrate Lunar New Year with Gardens by the Bay

As we usher the year of the Snake, from now till 28th February 2013, Gardens By the Bay line up exciting Spring Celebrations 2013 inside their Flower Dome just for you!

You can expected to see the themed 'Spring Celebrations' with over 8,000 colourful blooms in the Flower Dome Cooled Conservatory. You will be able to see 8 featured flowers which are:  Penjing, Torch Bromeliad, Cherry Blossom, Chrysanthemums, Coralberry, Camellia, Peonies and Cymbidium Orchids.

When you are inside the Flower Dome, do head down to the spectacular blooms of Penjing which is up to 200 years old! This is one the featured flowers which you must not be missed!

Since this year will be the year of the snake in Chinese zodiac. Gardens By the Bay will displayed snake decorate inside their Flower Dome. You can able to find Chinese Lantern, Chinese Hut and different varieties of Kumquat (Citrus) plants. You also can smell the flowers too!

We should not forgetting the Lion Dance during the Chinese New Year. You can able to see the Lion head display.

I am quite disappointed that I saw Foreigners plucking the flowers and also plucking the Kumquat to eat inside the Flower Dome. Please refrain from plucking the flowers and Kumquat as the plants have life too. Due to our selfish act, we are actually destroy our environment.

After visited to the Flower Dome, you can visit to the Cloud Forest where you can walk through the World's Tallest indoor waterfall to see the plant life from tropical highland to 2000 metres above sea level. If you look up, you can see the bridge that look like M sharp or heart sharp.

You can experience yourself how the life of the plant in the highland and if you visit the Cloud Forest during the night time, you can see the beautiful landscape of Singapore inside the cooled conservatory.

Next, you can visit to the OCBC Skyway (Supertree Grove), If you are not afraid of height, you can go up and see the beautiful landscape of Marina Bay district and the surrounding view of Gardens by the Bay.

If you want something special, you can dine in or chill at IndoChine where you can experience spectacular scenery view in the 50- metre tall on top of the super tree!

You also can visit to Supertree Dining where you can taste from the mixture of Eastern and Western Food. Or if you would prefer, you can eat at the TEXAS Chicken as this is the only fast food chain in Marina Bay area.

If you want to taste the local cuisine, you can visit to the Satay by the Bay. You can able to try the local food like Satay (Malay food: Chicken in the stick which they use charcoal to BBQ it), Chicken Rice, BBQ Seafood and many more. There are selection of Halal- Certified food stalls around, so do not worry about the food choices.

There are many varieties of food chains around the Gardens By the Bay for you to choose. If you could not find any food which suite you.

I recommend you to sign up for their annual membership card at SGD$68 where you can visit the two cooled conservatories and OCBC Skyway unlimited time.

When you apply the annual membership, you can use this membership to get a discount or promotion rate at selected food chain in Gardens by the Bay.

You can visit to http://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg/en/home.html for more updates, promotions and event.