HONG KONG – Continuing a long-standing tradition, Hong Kong is holding annual Spring Festival fairs at 15 locations across the city, including Victoria Park, starting Thursday.
The 2025 Lunar New Year Fairs – which will conclude in the early hours of Jan 29, the first day of the Year of the Snake – features around 1,500 stalls offering fresh produce, dry goods, hot foods, flowers, and holiday decorations.
On Wednesday, Macao opened its Chinese New Year Market at the Tap Seac Square.
The market has 14 stalls selling Chinese New Year gifts, six serving flowers, and four offering snacks and hot foods. It features various cultural performances, a large floral exhibition, and festive lighting decorations.
Boost to Spring Festival spending
Hong Kong’s electronic payment service provider Octopus will hand out HK$68.8 million in red packets and perks to stimulate spending during the Chinese New Year, marking its largest promotion campaign for the traditional festival.
Virtual red packets – known as lai see in Cantonese – worth HK$8.88 million will be distributed to local residents between Jan 27 and Feb 28. Throughout the period, 26 major retailers and catering groups will offer special discounts totaling HK$60 million to consumers.
The move aims to convince more locals to stay and spend in the city amid an ongoing wave of people traveling to the Chinese mainland to shop and dine.
Floral festivities
The Chinese New Year flower markets in Guangzhou, which opened on Sunday, will run until 2 am on Wednesday, the first day of the Year of the Snake.
Each district in the city hosts their own flower markets this year, holding a variety of folk activities including folk art performances and intangible cultural heritage exhibitions during the 10-day sale period.
About 45 million pots or plants of flowers will be supplied to the markets this year. Expected popular picks include phalaenopsis, lilies, gladioli, and chrysanthemums.
Pass to Sha Tau Kok Frontier Closed Area
Starting from Jan 26, mainland residents will be able to apply for a one-time pass online to visit the Sha Tau Kok Frontier Closed Area, in a move aimed at facilitating personnel movement in the Shenzhen-Hong Kong border area.
Known as a historical tourist attraction located near the border in Sha Tau Kok, Chung Ying Street is attracting a growing number of visitors.
Mainland residents can enter and exit Chung Ying Street with a valid resident ID card by applying for the pass through a designated WeChat mini-program. Each WeChat user can submit up to 10 applications a day, with a maximum of five people allowed for each application.
In December, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government announced the launch of a pilot program to introduce facial recognition technology at the checkpoint, allowing people living or working in the street to access the area in an easier way.
