#ChineseNewYear in #Sydney

On our stroll around Sydney we were impressed with the number of shops supporting the Chinese New Year celebrations. Everywhere there were dog statues or decorations.

​In Manchester, England the celebrations seem more linked to the Chinatown area whereas here everywhere was celebrating the event. 

Around Circular Quay there were excellent large sculptures and inflatable animals for all the symbols of the different years.

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These were impressive in the day and really livened up the scenery.

In the hotel was an excellent leaflet explaining where celebrations were taking place so we picked a couple for the evening and eagerly set off in anticipation.

The first event we went for was a traditional Dragon dance in Chinatown. After wandering the area for a while we found the police security officers and they pointed us in the right direction. After a nice meal in the food court, we went to a crossroads to wait for the procession; children sat patiently on the kerbside.

After about fifteen minutes with nothing happening the policeman wandered down and informed us that we were in the wrong place. The crowd then proceeded down the road to the correct place but by then we were all at the back and anyone under six foot only managed to capture a glimpse of the event. I had to hold my camera high and watch it afterwards.

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After the disappointment of this we were looking forward to the fireworks over Sydney Harbour, especially after seeing the January 1st fireworks on television.
On the way down to the Quay the inflatable animals were lit up and were even more spectacular.

By now the crowds were gathering and there must have been several thousand anticipating the show. We fought our way to a decent position and waited, and waited, and waited. Eight pm the allotted time came and went, People checked their brochures and phones; maybe it wasn't dark enough. This went on for over an hour and the children were getting restless. 

There were no officials around so we decided to give it a little longer, rumours stared to spread, but there was no real information anywhere about what had happened, and eventually the crowd started to disperse. We gave it a little longer but eventually gave up ourselves and went for a drink!

It seemed such a shame that something so well advertised did not take place and there was no one to explain why. 

​Never mind we had an exciting event planned for the next day!