20 Stunning Photos: Chinese New Year UNESCO's Georgetown, Penang (檳城街頭文化廟會)

 

 
You don't want to miss Chinese New Year in Asia! We have had a spectacular time enjoying our first Chinese New Year in Asia as a multi generational family vacation and spent most of it in Georgetown Penang, but also visited Thailand.

Chinese New Year seems to be the very best time to visit the UNESCO World Heritage and iconic sites of Georgetown as they are all decorated, people are enjoying themselves and the tropical winter weather is perfect.The whole country takes over a week off from school and work and all three major cultures participate some here which gives it a special flavor, although it is is primarily the ethnic Chinese.

   

 

Most of these photos were taken at the Chinese New Year Cultural and Heritage Celebration at the UNESCO Heritage Sites in Georgetown, Little Penang Market  and we visited the largest Buddhist temple in SouthEast Asia, the stunning Kek Lok Si Temple on Chinese New Year's Eve...probably the ideal time to visit it and it's 10, 000 lanterns. Have you seen our Soultravelers3 Youtube video Channel where we showcased this temple? Please join us on Youtube if you haven't already as we have lots more videos coming soon.

We will be writing more details posts with photos and more about these venues, but here are some photos to enjoy now. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

 
    

Have you ever been to Asia for Chinese New Year? What was your favorite part?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deliciousbaby photo Friday

Comments

[Migrationology]

I was also in Thailand this Chinese New Years and spent the time with my girlfriend (who is Thai). I was surprised at how much for many Thai people (and Chinese as well) that it really has to do with ancestors and offering things to the family members that are deceased. I learned quite a few cultural lessons spending Chinese New Years in Thailand this year.

Thanks for sharing these colorful pictures!

[Margaret Sch.]

You were definitely "where the action is" for this year's Chinese New Year celebration. Thanks for posting! These are great!

[soultravelers3]

Thanks Mark! We're in a primarily Chinese area and kidlet goes to a Chinese school so we are grateful to learn more about this holiday here. Some of the kids that go to kidlet's school are from Thailand, so she is learning that perspective too. Has been a lot fun running into her friends from school as we celebrate...like the drummers were all kids from her school that she knows. Makes it more personal and very enriching having my mom here to enjoy it all with us. Funnily she was born in the rabbit!

[soultravelers3]

Thanks so much Margaret! Yes, we worked hard to make the most of this time period as a bit of a unit study on the culture for kidlet. LOL. A colorful and exciting way to learn and share joy together as a family, including my mom. Who knew that them wearing traditional Chinese dresses would land them on TV, newspapers, magazines and meeting tons of new people who wanted to take pictures together!

[Mikayla B]

Hi Jeanne,

Just curious how enrolling kidlet in the schools there work and how much does it cost?

Thanks,

MIkayla

[soultravelers3]

Mikayla- That is not a simple question to answer because it depends on a LOT of things. I wrote some of our experience with schools here:

http://www.soultravelers3.com/2011/01/only-american-girl-in-an-all-mandarin-school-chinese-immersion-in-language-culture-through-school.html

I will write more as we are still learning as we go. It was not an easy process here but then we wanted an all Mandarin school which complicated things. There are also UK and US private international schools ( much cheaper than at home or in Europe but more expensive than the Mandarin school or free public schools).

The free public schools do not seem to be open to foreigners unless they are 2nd home buyers or work here or have a residency etc. They probably have too many neighboring poor countries that would want to enroll for free if they did not guard them is my guess.

ALL schools here are more strict and they do "cane" here which is basically a slap on the hand for punishment as it is part of the culture. So far kidlet has not gotten it, but has seen it done, no kids have cried about it, but we hope she doesn't get it and you have to be aware that the culture here is different. Asia is not the USA and there will be cultural shock to some extent.That said it is not really that much different than any school and less strict than when hubs & I went to school when paddling was also common in hte USA.

There are many preschool and after school and homeschool options. ...all at MUCH cheaper prices than home.

Hubs takes care of the tuition fees so I am not sure off hand,but it is cheap. We gave up her piano classes over the web to substitute price and are looking for a local piano teacher to make up for the cost. We take buses instead of rent a car also to add money for the school, but basically it and the bus van that picks her up and takes her is cheap.

There are MANY solutions ( our expat and local neighbors do many things) so some must just be learned on the ground but much is available for kids as learning and excelling at learning is very much part of the culture.

We HAD to go with a secondary school because we could not find a primary Chinese school that was a private school. This has worked out very well, but our child is 10 and the youngest in the school so a bit daring to say the least. We are still learning by doing, but so far so good.

We hope it can keep working for the next several years, but we still don't know how the school will handle our odd way of doing things. So far they have been wonderful and I think her being there benefits the school as well as her. They are well set up for foreign students which helps too.

There may very well be a Chinese school for primary, we just did not find one that we could go to without changing our tourist status. This school has a boarding section for foreign students, so that has been especially helpful as they have a foundation class that helps them catch up to the locals in their Mandarin. They handled things like getting her student visa.

Hope that helps some.

[Wanderluster]

Wow - the colors in those photos really pop!

[Wanderluster]

Wow - the colors in those photos really pop!

[Sonja]

Wow! So much color! I'd probably take 1000's of pictures! Thanks for sharing!

[Dominique]

Wow, as everyone else said, the colors really do pop! I love the reds and yellows-they give the still photos a real sense of movement.

[soultravelers3]

Thanks Wanderluster! I love how much red and gold they use!

[soultravelers3]

Sonia - Ha! I hear ya, we DID take thousands of pictures! So many great ones that I will be doing many posts on this topic. lol!

[soultravelers3]

Dominique - Thanks! I love that these colors are so vibrant in the Chinese culture!

[ChinaMatt]

That looks like a fun time. I loved staying in Penang (though I was there in the summer). CNY in mainland China is much more of a crazy holiday with fireworks being set off for two solid weeks in all corners of the cities.

[soultravelers3]

Thanks Matt! TONS of fireworks here also every day for two weeks....and I thought the Spaniards loved their fireworks! LOL Chinese New Year in Asia is certainly much different than in the USA. ;)

[Mark]

I have a question. Do you think links to other sites work in increasing pagerank? And should links to other sites appear in a blogroll ( and thus on every page of a site) or on a separate links page? I’ve been told a blogroll is not given as high ranking by google as a separate links page?

[Meredith]

Hi Jeanne!
I just love reading your blog, I some how stumbled upon it recently and fell in love with your family and your adventures.
I'm fascinated by diffrent cultures, religions, languages, etc.
I'm a senior in high school and my graduation present is a trip to Europe. I want to make it an amazing one, my mom and I are also bringing my grandma who recently was diagnosed with cancer. She's very healthy and is always on the go although the cancer is terminal. She's always wanted to go to Europe so I was to a great trip for her aswell.
As usual the planning is completly up to me, so I thought I'd turn to an expert for advice!
I've never been to Europe and we were thinking southern Europe such as Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. But I'm up for any other suggestions. I just want it to be special for my grandma.
We'll be there for three weeks and I need ideas mainly for places to visit. What were your favorite places of all of southern Europe?
Were also going on another trip to Southern California to visit my family, but we'd also love to explore the Los Angeles and Northern California for a bit. Since your from there, is there any suggestions for special places to visit there?
Any suggestions and advice would be greatly appreciated! I'm really have NO idea where I even want to go, I just want to make the perfect decisions so it's special for my grandma.

[soultravelers3]

Mark- I really do not know as I am very much an ungeek & know nothing about SEO. We try to stay up with a list but there are sooo many travel blogs that it's hard too keep up with them as more start every day. We've been doing non-stop travel as a family for the last 5 years, internet is often a challenge, have had 2 fathers die in the last 6 months, my 83 year old Mom is visiting us for 6 weeks, I just had a severe knee dislocation, so I have my hands full just trying to keep up with the blog and email.

[soultravelers3]

Hi Meredith! Thanks so much for your kind words & I'm so happy that you found us! It's really hard to advise you in this short space & time ( and I am sorry to hear about your Grandma) but I am sure you will all have a wonderful time.

My best advise is to plan well and go slowly to enjoy the time together..less is often more. Look to our blog for tips for the various countries that you are interested in. You might like our 3 generations travel that we did in Spain but do take weather into consideration and crowds where ever you go. Perhaps talk to a travel agent or travel forums like Fodors to help gather ideas and go to the library and pour over good books. Planning is half the fun. If you click on those countries here on our blog you will find LOTS of specific information about places that we enjoyed.

Big Sur is my fave place in California and you will love San Francisco.For a special treat maybe take your Grandma to dinner at Post Ranch Inn!

A good idea for Europe is start getting to know the mass transit and train options before you go. You might also look into a rental home or two via homeaway or do as we did as an extended family and do a free timeshare if you have one available:

http://www.soultravelers3.com/2007/02/family-arrives.html

These planning tips might help you:

http://www.slowtrav.com/europe/first_trip.htm

http://goeurope.about.com/od/europeantripplanning/bb/six_months.htm

Good luck and enjoy!