China Town for Chinese New Year approx 1999 and other London, United Kingdom General Tips

Favorite Thing: Chinese New Year occurs in late January/early February, and the Chinese in China Town really know how to throw a party. China Town becomes a seething mass of people, and there are dragons roaming around and music playing and everyone having a great time. If you are in londo at this time, it is well worth finding out what is on and where and going to watch for a bit.

Of course with so many people from many different places all squashed together, make sure you take good care of your possessions. This is comment is not aimed at China Town, just a sensible piece of advice in any big city where there are lots of people squashed tightly together.

Fondest Memory: The Dragons, which are several people dressed up in a costume moving very slickly throughy China Town.

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Favorite Thing: This was a very tough tip to categorise. I don't expect it will be happening again in a hurry, and it appearedto be done to help promote London's Olypic bid for the 2012 games.

As I walked in to Trafalgar Square I was gobsmacked to see an old World War II Spitfire sitting in the middle of the Square [and I didn't think there was enough space to land one ;-) ]. It appeared you could queue up and pay money to sit in the cockpit and do things like waggle the tail. Suffice to say, I satisfied myself with just taking some pictures. Here you can see the Spitfire, the base of Nelsons Column and then Whitehall and Big Ben far in the background.


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Favorite Thing: Every now and then, the flags are put up in the Mall. The Mall is the road that leads from Trafalgar Square all the way up to Buckingham Palace.

This time the flags were flying to help promote London's Olypic Bid for 2012. The Mall had been closed off to traffic and was full of pedestrians.

The Mall looks so much better when the flags are up, and closing the road to cars also helps (this is NOT typical).

The flags you can see here alternate between the Union Jack (the red, white and blue flag that symbolises Great Britain and Northern Ireland) and London Olympic Games 2012 Support the Bid flags. As part of the bidding process, it is important to show how committed the local city is to hosting the games, and London seems to be going out of her way to look interested!


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Favorite Thing: Chinese New Year 2005 was early February. This time it was the turn of the Rooster (there are 12 animals that the years get named after, and these cycle round, so the next year of the Rooster will be 2017).

This year, the celebrations were held in Trafalgar Square as well as in Leicester Square and China Town. A big procession came down Charing Cross Road, down the side of Trafalgar Square and then turned a sharp right into the square. The streets were full of onlookers, so you needed to get there reasonably early to get a good vantage point.

This picture shows a dancing dragon that always seem to be used in Chinese New Year celebrations. The picture was taken just before the dragon turned into Trafalgar Square.

Fondest Memory: Check out my London travelogue if you want more photos of this event...

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Favorite Thing: This isn't the average thing you might expect to do in London! However there are numerous parks and Hyde Park in particular has a huge lake (the Serpentine) on which you can boat and which also has numerous boats on.

The ducks are extremely tame and are used to being fed, so they don't take much persuading if they see somebody standing at the waters edge with some bread!

This picture was taken on the Serpentine in Hyde Park, just on the border with Kensington Gardens.


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Favorite Thing: I had never really appreciated this view, despite crossing over the road bridge that separates Hyde Park from Kensington Gardens (and going over the Serpentine) on numerous occasions in the past.

I don't know whether it was because it was sunset and it illuminated everything so beautifuly ot whether it was because I had a telephoto lens on my camera so I could zoom in well, but it makes a nice shot of London. You can see the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the Wellington Arch and boats on the Serpentine.

Fondest Memory: Sunset overlooking the Serpentine.

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Favorite Thing: One of the things I like about London is the unexpected! You can turn a corner and see something you had no idea was going to be there. In this instance, I was walking past Cleopatra's Needle and saw a Bollywood Film being shot. One Indian Guy who I am still trying to definitely id (any ideas, please let me know) and several European ladies (no doubt swooning at his Indian charm...)

It's worth taking a look at one of my subsequent shots here, they are looking at me like I am dirt, no, I wasn't obstructing filming, I was only taking pictures before and after filming, they just seemed to object to my presence!

Fondest Memory: The less than adoring looks I got from the girls!

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Favorite Thing: London is the capital of England, and one of the nicest bits about wandering around is you are never quite sure what you will find around the next corner. London being London, it's the place where people go to show off and market things in a big way. Yesterday (Sun 28th May 2006) I was taking a short cut through Leicester Square when I noticed some huge screens erected in front of the Empire Cinema. They were showing huge waves, and I wasn't too sure what it was all about until I got nearer and realised that it was the Premiere of Poseidon starring Kurt Russell.

I didn't have too much time to hang around, but when I heard a big roar, I put my camera up over my head and took a few pictures. Here you can see Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn (his long-term wife) in the process of working the crowd a bit. The next picture, if anyone knows please let me know who she is!

Fondest Memory: Ready to be surprised at any moment in London

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