worldwidedreamer

I would like to visit Asia for New Years. My only requirement is that I prefer a destination served by NWA. I have lived in Hong Kong and already visited China, Thailand, India, Singapore, Japan and Korea. I live in San Francisco. Any suggestions?

christep

Which new year? Greater China, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines all celebrate them at different times...

MegatopLover

Places in Asia celebrate the year-end holidays in a wide variety of ways.

In Japan, Christmas is decked out as in the West but celebrated quite a lot like Valentine's Day, an occasion for couples to share romance, whereas New Year's is the big gift-giving holiday and heralds major cultural-religious ceremonies at temples throughout the country.

In China, according to a WSJ article last year, Christmas Eve has emerged as a major party night for young professionals. I'll verify that personally this year. I'm not sure whether Western New Year's is observed at all. Chinese New Year, of course, is a major event, arguably the biggest all year (though national day in October is up there too).

In Hong Kong, a down-sized Christmas is observed in a manner somewhat like the West (though this may be mostly for expats and visitors), while Western New Year's is barely noticed. Chinese New Year, however, brings massive fireworks displays in the harbour and lots of other events.

In Singapore, Western New Year's has emerged as an occasion on which the tirelessly self-promoting city state goes about some more self-promotion with a fireworks display and so on. Christmas on Orchard Road is also well-observed, as it's a way to generate sales in what considers itself SE Asia's shopping mecca.

The celebrations observed in Bangkok are being discussed in another thread in this forum right now. On the whole, among the places I've experienced, I'd venture that Bangkok has the most to offer--and is the most similar to the West in terms of the celebrations put on.

That said, Japan was absolutely beautiful in December, and I'm eager to go back. Alas, that will have to wait for next year.

Oh, and depending on your taste in festivities, you may be interested to know that Snowball--a series of dance parties that attract a certain crowd of buffed shirtless boys but oddly precious few women--was turfed out of Singapore a few years back when the authorities realized that men seemed to be dancing with other men, and has since taken up residence in Taipei. It's celebrated around Christmas this year.

jpatokal

A rather mean but not unaccurate summary. Do not, under any circumstances, go to Mediacorp's New Year's Party, even if you get free tickets. (I don't think anybody ever pays, and they still can't get more than a few hundred people in there.) Sentosa's foam parties on the beach can be more interesting, although (hence?) they're banned on a regular basis by the authorities.

MegatopLover

Wasn't trying to be mean (as I think you knew), just being honest. I love Singapore and visit regularly. That's not to say that I don't have any bones to pick about how the place is run, but I do love it and didn't mean to come off as critical.

They've certainly got a lot to be proud of. As LKY (I think) said: "From third-world poverty to first-world prosperity in a single generation." That's worth a bit of self-promotion, even if you are running a nanny state.

Solblanc

Hahaha! The mediacorp party can't be that bad, can it? Do the anchors attend?

For me, christmas and new year's are best spent in Manila. Mid-november until mid-january has a festive air about it. Every house, building, and street is decked out in Christmas lights. Households constantly try to outdo each other in design, and so do the large buildings. There's food everywhere you go, especially if you subject yourself to the midnight and dawn masses (I have never stayed away through one of those, but there's just so many different things to eat once you step out of the church)

As for New Year's, its a riot. Fireworks are everywhere (like any other Asian city, I suppose).

The downside to Christmas in Manila is that every mall gets even more packed than usual, and the dollar exchange rate is lower during this season.

Damn, I miss Christmas in Manila. Its been a couple of years. Maybe I'll get to stay this year.

fiatlux

I tend to think this is inaccurate too... Just take a look around at the massive christmas decorations on the buildings in Victoria Harbour - the whole of Tsim Sha Tsui is closed off to cars on Christmas Eve for revellers.

MegatopLover

My post was innaccurate how? I wrote that Christmas is observed in Hong Kong, but it is down-sized compared to the celebrations elsewhere, such as New York and London.

jpatokal

Go find out if you don't believe me, but don't say I didn't warn you. The stars of last year's show included the Minister for Trade and Industry (whoo!) and the local bosses of some Japanese companies (whee!). The MCs' increasingly desperate attempts to get any reaction out of the crowd fell entirely flat and the most interesting thing was seeing how carefully it was all filmed, so you could never see that 9/10's of the area was empty.