When in England...There's Always A Chinatown to Be Found!

I've been holding off on talking about Chinatown, until Chinese New Year passed, and I had some substantial things to write. Of course, as you guys well know me, despite being in a completely new continent with tons of exciting new museums and buildings and foods to taste, one of the most exciting things was exploring a new Chinatown. I love comparing different Chinatowns I've been to on their similarities and differences.

Now, London's Chinatown, I quite like. It's a fifteen minute walk from me, which is very exciting, but unfortunately, prices are not as consistently cheaper at these Chinese restaurants like they are in American Chinatowns. Or maybe it's just me griping about the pound. It is a little commercialized, but overall, I still feel very Chinese whenever I go there, so the authenticity still holds. Some people have said it's small, and maybe I've never been to the biggest ones, but I think it's quite large. In terms of official closed-off (no cars) areas, there's only a block and a half, but I find Chinese restaurants and stores (and some Korean and Japanese ones as well!) extending over several streets outside of that main area.

This last Sunday, they had the official Chinese New Year celebration in Chinatown, and a huge area was set aside for the festival--all of Chinatown and its nearby streets and Trafalgar Sq for the main stage event and Leicester Sq. for the fireworks. The hosts of the show said about 20k people were in the area, and I'm not surprised, given how packed the place was.

The event at Trafalgar Sq, and a glimpse of the crowds.

This was the main area of Chinatown, well-decorated for the Year of the Ox!

It was freezing, but I stayed the entire day, froze my joints in place and lost feeling in my toes. In exchange, I got to see an amazing lion dance--it's taped and you can see the link here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8917214490266021952&hl=en Lion Dance pt 1
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8723039517392716780&hl=en Lion Dance pt 2

as well as Qinghai and Yunnan dance troupes perform

the Qinghai dance troupe giving their final bows...

one of the Qinghai singers jumped off stage to sing with the crowd (about half way through, I had managed to edge my way through the crowd to the front row so I had a really good view)
Another Lion Dance occurring on the streets instead on stage--the lion was going door to door, getting fed by the people in the stores.

Fireworks in Leicester Sq. at the end of the festival


One of the many stalls along the street selling random Chinese stuff.

Another glimpse of the massive amount of people there were--these were all waiting for the fireworks.


One of the dances performed by the Yunnan dance troupe.

So, that was my Sunday, and I'm glad I went. The dances were extremely well done, the food was great (esp. the dumplings and steamed pork buns I bought from an outside stall in Chinatown!) and the crowd cheer and atmosphere was everywhere!