Chinese new year 2013 in Mexico city

The new Chinese years  goes by the lunar calendar and its celebrated around the world wherever there are chinese communities. In the case of Mexico city, the 2013 celebrations were mainly held in 2 places, the 1º one was obviously the China town (the expensiest (I know its wrong spelled) China town I know in all the cities and countries I´ve visited) and nearby 2 or 3 streets and was held by the chinese community and merchants. The other place was held by the Mexico´s city government, the Confucius´s foundation, the chinese industry chamber in Mexico city and nearby restaurants in a location 10-15 minutes away walking from the China town as part of the program to rescue public spaces (as a side note it was a few blocks away from the place where one of the main anime conventions in México city is held a few times a year).

Fort he one organized by the city was early and provided  multiple activities, one could learn to write their name in mandarin chinese, to cut out lucky papers, see a fashion parade of the different ethnic attires of China, traditional dances, learn a bit of history and general info about China, the Pekin opera, chinese music from folk to pop and martial arts exhibitions like Tai-chi and Kung-fu.

The Kung-fu exhibition was very special because an old man (he was at least 50 or 60 years old) that had been practicing Kung fu was the one on stage, a Young guy of about 20 years went against the senior and the old man took out a blindfold (a travel one)!  And completely blindfolded took out the Young lad that ended up in the floor a lot of times, one could attest the mastery of the sir by the amazing control he had to always stop his moves mere centimeters from his opponent (I was really closet o the stage).

Unfortunately there were a lot of confused fellas that didn´t know there were 2 places and went to china town looking for the activities at the other site and missed them.

After all that I simply walked to China town, there were even more martial arts and dances exhibitions, and one could smell fortune cookies and other dishes from all the chinese restaurants around, however many restaurants were reserved with anticipation and others were full (but one can always count on the Street vendors), however not as full as the Street. It was packed! The street vendor took the middle and sides of the Street leaving only 2 narrow corridors to pass by, and where the chinese vendors ended other merchants continued, not only mexicans but I also vendors from other latinamerican countries -_-0  thats why It took me quite a while to cross blocks. In the night there was music, parades, dragon dances and Fireworks.  :fireworks: