Rabbiting Round the City.

Chinese New Year decorations for the Year of the Rabbit.

20.01.2023 - 20.01.2023

Happy Year of the Rabbit.

Saturday 21st of January, is the Eve of Chinese New Year and on Sunday we will have left behind The Year of the Tiger and entered into The Year of the Rabbit, more specifically The Year of the Water Rabbit, as each year has an element as well as an animal.

In Chinese Mythology the white rabbit was the pet of the moon goddess, Chang'e, and embodies noble beauty. Those born in The Year of the Rabbit are quiet, gentle, polite and patient. Famous Rabbits include: physicist Albert Einstein, footballer David Beckham, actress Angelina Jolie, basketball player Michael Jordan and tennis star Novak Djokovic.

Although I don't celebrate Chinese New Year personally, it is the most important celebration of the year in Hong Kong. I have been wandering around looking at displays for the Year of the Rabbit and today I went along the waterfront from Central to Wan Chai, then back again. After that, I took the star ferry across Victoria Harbour to Tsim Sha Tsui and looked at the displays there.

The reason I wanted to look along the Central harbour front was that I had seen a photo of a huge rabbit sitting on the Central Star Ferry Pier and I wanted to see it for myself. It's not that easy to view it from the shore in Central, though I got some reasonable shots of it. Later I viewed it from the star ferry.

The huge rabbit on Central Pier.

And viewed closer up.

I noticed an aeroplane flying over the Hong Kong Observation Wheel and stopped to take a photo of that.

Hong Kong Observation Wheel with a passing aeroplane.

Hong Kong Observation Wheel.

I had also read that there were beautiful Year of the Rabbit displays outside Government Headquarters in Tamar Park, so I wanded along there. I thought these displays were very pretty. They were made up of rabbits, flowers and butterflies. If you placed your hand above a petal, all the nearby flowers would start sparkling. Of course, in daylight that wasn't particularly wonderful, but I am sure it would look beautiful at night. I was a bit surprised at how many security guards there were around the display. They really don't want you climbing on it, or breaking it!!

Year of the Rabbit displays in front of the harbour.

Year of the Rabbit displays in Tamar Park.

Government Headquarters, Tamar in the background.

Flowers, rabbits and butterflies.

I continued along the waterfront as far as the exhibition centre in Wan Chai. On the way I saw two beautiful junks. I keep seeing these when I am in Tsim Sha Tsui, so it was interesting to see them from the other side. I couldn't resist taking a few photographs of them.

The Aqua Luna passing the Cultural Centre, Tsim Sha Tsui.

Close up of the Aqua Luna.

A different smaller junk passing the Cultural Centre.

Close up of the smaller junk.

There are always displays along this waterfront. I feel sure I already saw some of the Din Dong ones, or certainly something very like them, on the waterfront at Tsuen Wan. Some of the Din Dong ones were outside stalls where you can hire bikes and cycle along the waterfront.

Din Dong bike stall.

Din Dong cycling model.

Din Dong sunbathing.

Din Dong Lilo.

However, there were also some musical and ballet dancing ones I had not seen before.

Flower filled piano.

Flowery violin.

Ballet Display.

I turned round at the golden bauhinia, stopping briefly to photograph a rather cute cat, and headed back to the star ferry. I took the ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui. I could have got there from Wan Chai without the walk back, but I wanted a good view of the white rabbit on Central Pier roof.

Flags outside exhibition centre.

Cat outside the exhibition centre.

Star ferry.

When I arrived in Tsim Sha Tsui, I had a look at the rabbits outside Harbour City and Ocean Terminal. Just like with the Christmas decorations here, this was the busiest of all the displays.

Rabbits outside Harbour City.

Then I headed over to the old Kowloon Canton Station clock and had a look at the decorations lining the ponds in front of it. The displays here had lots of rabbits and lots of dragons.

Rabbits on the approach to the clock tower.

Rabbits in the display.

Dragons in the display.

I decided to go up to the viewing platform to view the clock and displays from there. To my surprise there were even more rabbit displays up there, again there were lots of security guards making sure no-one damaged them.

Displays on the walkway.

There were also good views over the ground level display and towards the clock tower.

Overlooking the clock tower from the walkway.

Clock tower and cultural centre.

At this point I was ready to head home, but I noted that one of the two gummy bear displays I had seen previously was still going strong and that the Chinese dragon horses had been moved closer to the harbour. This is the third time I have encountered these dragon horses, each time in a different location.

Gummy Bear.

Dragon horses.

Just before heading to the MTR, I noticed that the exterior of the Peninsula Hotel was covered with lots of beautiful bright red lanterns. I'm not sure if there were good decorations inside, as I did not cross over to see.

Lanterns adorn the exterior of the Peninsula Hotel.