新年快乐!

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè! Happy New Year!

We went in town with a friend on New Years Eve, but the lanterns at Yuyuan Gardens were closed. We did see some of the decorations around Yu Bazaar, and had some delicious beef noodles and lamb skewers.

We didn't do much on New Years Day. Just did a long walk in our neighborhood and lunch at Family Mart. This morning we had a special New Year's breakfast at home, and took down the Christmas Tree (which was half Chinese New Year decorations).

Wishing everyone a happy Year of the Pig!

CNY

It has begun.

I had planned to take the Kiddo out to our local pedestrian food street for dinner only to find almost all the restaurants closed for New Year. The actual date of Lunar New Years Day is next Tuesday, February 5, but a lot of businesses, especially small businesses will be closed for up to two weeks around that date.

Chinese schools are mostly on break right now. My school has a week and a half off starting after this Friday. Like most international schools, we do a shorter New Years break because we also do a break around Christmas.

New Year decorations are up all over town. Here are some I photographed at Laowaijie (literally "Foreigner Street"; a pedestrian street of mostly Western restaurants).





















We have no travel plans for the break. I'm hoping we get to do some more sightseeing in Shanghai including this year's lanterns at Yuyuan Gardens, and maybe some new parts of the city we haven't had the chance to explore yet.