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Tony Cheung

Traditional festivities were in full swing on Tuesday – and officials out in force – for the first day of the new lunar year in Hong Kong.
Some city residents took their hopes for the 12 months ahead to the Wishing Tree in the New Territories, while others prepared to watch the historic Lunar New Year Cup soccer tournament on Hong Kong Island.
City leaders – including Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and the chiefs of finance, health and security – visited different communities to meet residents and show support for public servants working during the holiday.
Lam started her Year of the Pig by visiting the city’s biggest urban park, and the airport.
During a 30-minute visit to Victoria Park, Lam and Secretary for Food and Health Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee extended new year greetings to cleaners who had spent the night cleaning up the park and dismantling the stalls after the seven-day Lunar New Year market ended on Tuesday.

“Thank you everyone for working so hard on New Year’s Day!” Lam said to the group, before giving them mandarins as gifts.
But not everyone was feeling festive. Lam was greeted by a group of conservation activists led by pro-democracy lawmaker Eddie Chu Hoi-dick, who, bemoaning the amount of waste generated at the event, called on the government to step up recycling.
Family reunions, festivities and shopping as city ushers in Year of the Pig
Chu told Lam it could be done by merging the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department with the Environmental Protection Department.
“We think the problem is that both departments are in charge of different parts of waste management, and resources are not well used,” Chu said.

In response, Lam said: “It’s not that simple, councillor Chu. Government restructuring is very complicated.”
Lam then visited Hong Kong International Airport with Airport Authority chairman Jack So Chak-kwong and chief executive Fred Lam Tin-fuk, as well as the government’s undersecretary for transport and housing, Raymond So Wai-man.
Carrie Lam took pictures with people heading for their flights and attended a ceremony to celebrate the new year.


She told reporters: “I hope residents can remember that our city has been highly efficient because our 180,000 civil servants have been working hard. Tens of thousands working at public bodies, such as the airport and hospital authorities, have also been providing continuous and high-quality service.”
Bombers, fighters star in Beijing’s ‘Happy New Year’ video to Taiwan
In Tai Po, local residents and visitors headed to the famed Wishing Tree. Following tradition, they wrote down their new year wishes on a piece of paper, tied it to a tangerine – or a tangerine-shaped plastic ball – and threw it onto the tree.
Elsewhere, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung visited the Lok Ma Chau Boundary Control Point and an old people’s home on Fu Shin Estate, Tai Po.

Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu inspected the West Kowloon terminal of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, while Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po visited Hong Kong Disneyland, doing paper handicrafts with children.
Meanwhile, the Lunar New Year Cup returned to the Hong Kong Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, and was expected to attract thousands of soccer fans.
Spanish striker Fernando Torres and Belgian midfielder Marouane Fellaini came to Hong Kong with their teams, Japanese side Sagan Tosu and mainland Chinese club Shandong Luneng, respectively. Fellaini had since left the city, before the tournament – which continues on Thursday – began.




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Lunar New Year

Pig day out: festive fun as Hong Kong celebrates Lunar New Year

Children out and about for the Lunar New Year festivities. Photo: AFP

The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, viewed the clean-up work at the site of the Victoria Park Lunar New Year Fair this morning (February 5). Photo shows Mrs Lam (second right); and the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan (first right), chatting with a stall owner.

The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, viewed the clean-up work at the site of the Victoria Park Lunar New Year Fair this morning (February 5). Photo shows Mrs Lam (first right) distributing mandarin oranges to staff members of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department on duty.

The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, delivers a Lunar New Year message at the Hong Kong Well-wishing Festival 2019 at Lam Tsuen, Tai Po, today (February 5).

News

Hong Kong

Society

Top city officials make the rounds thanking public servants working the holiday
City residents take in traditional festivities, heading to the soccer and making offerings to the Wishing Tree


City residents take in traditional festivities, heading to the soccer and making offerings to the Wishing Tree.


Carrie Lam

Lunar New Year Cup

Pig day out: festive fun as Hong Kong celebrates Lunar New Year

Top city officials make the rounds thanking public servants working the holiday City residents take in traditional festivities, heading to the soccer and making offerings to the Wishing Tree

Top city officials make the rounds thanking public servants working the holiday

City residents take in traditional festivities, heading to the soccer and making offerings to the Wishing Tree