Chinese New Year

While I will not actually be spending Chinese New Year in Hong Kong (I'm off to Seoul tomorrow, but more on that later!), I did get a chance to participate in one New Year's ritual--walking the flower market. Many districts have their own flower market, which sell beautiful orchids, bulbs, mandarin orange trees, lilies, cherry blossoms and other festive items, but Una and I wanted the real deal. So we went to Victoria Park in Causeway Bay because it's the biggest and most crowded. Crowded it was, but it was an incredible atmosphere--children wearing dog hats (it's going to be the year of the dog), couples walking together, everyone packed together, barely moving but loving it. The hawkers were super friendly and excited (they looooooved that the white girl wished them happy new year in canto). Many of the stalls are fundraisers for different groups; we knew there was a CUHK group, but we weren't sure how to find it. But it's a lucky time of year--they spotted us and of course we had to buy one of their goodies.
So technically, yes, it's a flower market. But half or more of it is full of stalls selling stuffed animals, toys, etc. So I, of course, had to bring home some new friends.
My dragon/dog puppet (he's a new friend for the mid-autumn festival fish from a previous post):
And since Hong Kong is nothing if not cute, the puppy to celebrate the year of the dog: