14 Aug, 2010 in East coast by Fili An
Fulong Beach - Sand Festival - Taiwan-44.JPG

Fulong, aside from having a wonderful beach, also hosts an annual Fulong Sand Sculpture Festival (福隆沙雕藝術季). Artists come from all over Taiwan to carve their art into the sand, spending hours in the sun to get things right to their smallest details. The result, as you can see below, is spectacular. I don’t think I’ve [...]

23 Mar, 2010 in HK Events by Fili An
Tai Kok Tsui Temple Fair 2010 
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Ever wondered what a 500 feet dragon would look like?  Tai Kok Tsui Temple Fair is an annual Hong Kong event at the local Hung Shing temple in Kowloon running various Chinese cultural performances for a whole day. The highlight of the day, in the evening, is the 500 feet dragon dance. Here’s the description [...]

19 Mar, 2010 in HK Events by Fili An
Hong Kong Chinese New Year 
Fair 2010 046.JPG

There were various festivals and fairs in Hong Kong during Chinese New Year. One of the annual fairs is the open market  taking place in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. Nothing I’ve seen in Hong Kong so far came that close to a Taiwan/China style night-market in the liveliness and energy. High-school kids were selling [...]

8 Oct, 2009 in Hong Kong by Fili An
Mid Autumn Festival - Lanterns - Victoria Park-19.JPG

The main official Hong Kong festivities were held at Victoria Park between Causeway Bay and Tin Hau MTR stations. The event ran for a few days, including large lanterns and a few local Chinese culture stages with Cantonese opera, Chinese puppet shows, acrobatics etc. I went down there with a few exchange students from HKUST, [...]

5 Oct, 2009 in Hong Kong by Fili An
130 Tai Hang Fire Dragon Mid Autumn Festival-72.JPG

The Chinese sure know how to through a good party for their Gods and the 130th Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance Parade as part of the HK celebrations of mid-autumn festival is a great opportunity to see that. Gives something for all those monotheistic religions to think about. On HK Island, not too far from [...]

26 Jul, 2009 in Hong Kong by Fili An
Kung Fu Carnival 2009 Avenue of Stars-29.JPG

As part of the "Hong Kong International Kung Fu Festival 2009" Avenue of Stars hosted a Kung Fu Carnival.  Was suppose to be "international", but sometimes the HK tourism bureau likes to overuse that word a bit. Still, we could feel the spirit of Bruce Lee looking down at us… and that of a few [...]

4 May, 2009 in Chinese culture, Hong Kong by Fili An
Tin Hao Festival Joss House Bay-38.JPG

Tin Hau – Goddess of the sea, better know in Taiwan as Matzu (媽祖 Māzǔ), is one of the most popular Gods in the Taiwan, southern China and Hong Kong area. Discover Hong Kong alerted me to the celebrations of Tin Hau festival taking place not too far away from the campus in Sai Kung’s [...]

8 Apr, 2009 in Kaohsiung by Fili An
Kuan Yin Ritual at Neimen-16.JPG

Taiwan has really amazing events going on. This month Taiwan had Spring Scream 2009, Taiwan’s biggest music festival held in southern Kending, but another interesting festival that didn’t get as much attention, atleast from the expat community, is the 2009 Kaohsiung Song-Jiang Jhen Battle Array in Neimen. Held at Kaohsiung County’s Neimen township were two [...]