Sunday, February 01, 2009

River HongBao Closing cum Grand Lo Hei Dinner - WS

The 9-day festivities of River Hongbao 2009 ended tonight. I met several visitors and spoke to them briefly.

Mr Wilson and family

Mr Wilson, a chef working in well-known Mustaffa Centre, was at River HongBao with his wife and daughter Pritha. They were visiting him from India. It was their 4th day in Singapore and they are already loving it. Awed by the beautiful lanterns and night scenery, they took more than 200 photos at River Hongbao.

Wilson, a permanent resident, has been working in Singapore for 10 years. His wife and daughter are getting their PR too. Pritha (age 20) is studying Electrical Engineering at PSG College of Technology in India. She will be joining her parents after completing her studies in 2 years' time.

from left : Alex, Sophia and Janas

3 friends from UK were taking in the sights of River Hongbao. Janas, who has just returned from a 3-day holiday in Hong Kong remarked that Chinese New Year in Singapore is a grand affair and is celebrated much longer compared to Hong Kong. The 3 friends are working in Singapore.

preparing the hundreds of plates of yu sheng

The highlight tonight is the Grand Lo Hei Dinner where over two thousand people led by the Guest-of-Honour Mr Lim Swee Say, Minister for Prime Minister’s Office to lo hei (toss) together and celebrate Human Day.

This is only half of the participants.


from left : MP Baey Yam Keng, Acting Minister Gan Kim Yong, Guest-of-Honour Minister Lim Swee Say, MP Sam Tan tossing yu sheng







52 comments:

  1. Wow! That is a lot of yee sang prepared. Such a big turnout.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Singapore such looks like a lively place to be. yu sheng sure looks interseting.
    Coffee is on.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Human Day? Is this only celebrated in Singapore? A public holiday too? Looks big to me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hoped you lo very highly!! :)

    So, did Chris and you head for the party after the Chingay parade?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for your posts. It makes up in some ways for people like myself who dislike being in the crowd, but yet want to know about what's happening out there in the world. Talk about arm-chair participation. :P

    ReplyDelete
  6. that's what feast means! i dont know how it feels to be with some of the most influential person.

    ReplyDelete
  7. lina,
    more than 200 plates of yee sang!
    It's a record.

    ReplyDelete
  8. peppylady,
    Singapore may be small, but it has lots of fun stuff if we look around.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Doreen,
    Human Day is celebrated by Chinese on the 7th day of our Lunar New Year.

    There's no public holiday. :(

    ReplyDelete
  10. yenjai,
    Trying to cut down, too busy nowadays. :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. napaboaniya,
    We went to another function after taking photos. But my son made yu sheng for me to lo. :D

    We didn't go to City Alive Party because we were tired. We woke up early at 5am that morning to welcome Ultramarathon man Mr Lim Nghee Huat back. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. oceanskies,
    For those who dislike crowds, they will give River Hongbao a miss.

    There were lots of visitors, besides the foreigners, locals came with their families, even the young adults came too.

    I enjoyed the performances.

    ReplyDelete
  13. the donG,
    I like the open-air dining with lots of people. It is more fun.

    Those influential people are also humans, you get used to them. Some of them are humble and friendly.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love the way you step behind the scenes to show the whole project. These are wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  15. So many plates of Yusheng! Strange thing is that they use rectangular plates? Thought it is easier to toss with round plates, like the one which the MPs are using?

    Happy Ren Ri. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thank you Sandy.
    I want readers to see the different visitors to River Hongbao. :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. oh boy....i wish i could go to singapore someday :D

    ReplyDelete
  18. Dora,
    I find the use of rectangular plates weird too. It's supposed to be round.

    Happy ren ri!! :D

    ReplyDelete
  19. Juliana,
    I will welcome you. :)
    Hope to meet you in Singapore.

    ReplyDelete
  20. those rectangular plates are beautiful! i bet the food on it is as tasty hehe. come visit my WS too

    ReplyDelete
  21. Kero,
    The salad is unique to Singapore. I like it very much.

    ReplyDelete
  22. rectangular plates so that it's easier to line them up & save a bit more space?
    200 plates! That means there are 200 tables at the dinner. Wow again.

    ReplyDelete
  23. That looks like a wonderful dinner. You got some great shots.

    ReplyDelete
  24. lina,
    Oh yah hor. Rectangular plates save space.

    There are approximately 215 tables!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Heart of rachel,
    Yes, they are. I was fascinated and watched them arrange the ingredients. :)

    ReplyDelete
  26. Carver,
    It was a grand dinner with more than 2000 guests at the river side.

    There were local and international performers presenting their items too.

    ReplyDelete
  27. So nice to spend the weekend speaking to people of different countries.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Wow .. I also want yu sheng ... lol.

    Cynthia has been bugging me for ages. Do you know if there are places that serve yu sheng for 2?!

    ReplyDelete
  29. sounds like you're having so much fun and it must b great to see people from all walks of life gathered at this event.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Indrani,
    There were many tourists from all over the world. Some were too shy to be photographed. And I can only picked two pictures for this post. :)

    ReplyDelete
  31. Wilfrid,
    You want me to make you some?

    You can buy a convenient pack yu sheng at any supermarket. Buy some fresh salmon or any sashimi to add.

    Go for the Kwong Chong Tai 广祥泰 brand. It's tastier.

    You can buy a small packet (小包) at some zi char stall.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Life ramblings,
    It was a totally different Chinese New Year for me this year.

    I met so many people and made many friends. This is the intangible reward of blogging. :)

    ReplyDelete
  33. A really big turn out for the Loh Hei. Nice making new friends.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Oh, what a big gathering! And the food! Yum!

    ReplyDelete
  35. The food looks good. Chinese New Year is also celebrated here but yours looks so grand :)

    Happy WS.

    ReplyDelete
  36. sweet jasmine,
    A couple of thousand guests!
    Lots of contacts within these few days. :)

    ReplyDelete
  37. liza,
    My Filipino friends showed me their Chinese New Year celebration on webcam. It was great to see that we share the same tradition. :)

    ReplyDelete
  38. Never witnessed a true blue Yee Shang tossing, thanks for sharing! When we were doing it, we were careful not to mess up and then a Malaysian friend said that the higher the toss, the better. :-) And indeed, you photos showed the mess. haha!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Jenn,
    I was careful when I tossed yee sang until I saw people around me tossing theirs very high!

    It's inevitable to have a mess after that. :)

    ReplyDelete
  40. I was at the River ang Bao on the last day...so you're one of those diners in the huge tent?

    ReplyDelete
  41. Leonard,
    No, I didn't eat at this dinner. I didn't buy the dinner ticket because I was invited to another event at my constituency.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Wow! Hundreds of plates of yu sheng! That's amazing! I must try to make it to this River Hongbao for next year's CNY!

    ReplyDelete
  43. foongpc,
    Welcome! Call me ah!
    There will probably be a different theme next year but it will still be as interesting.

    ReplyDelete