50,000 expected at Chinese New Year Parade

(caption: The annual Chinatown Parade will start at noon at the Millennium Gate. CIV photo.)

CIV - Over 2000 people will be parading the streets of Vancouver Chinatown this Sunday for the annual Chinese New Year festival while tens of thousands spectators are expected to rally for the arrival the Year of the Rat.

The annual "Chinatown New Year Parade" will start at 12 noon on Feb 10 at the Millennium Gate on Pender Street. The colourful stream of parade teams will march through Pender, Main Street, Keefer and will finish at Carrall Street. The parade will need 90 minutes to finish the 1.2 km route.

Those in the parade will include politicians and reps from various benevolent associations, the "God of Fortune", veterans, firefighters, cops, Chinese dancers, lion dancers, kung fu performers etc etc. The participants will definitely be multi-ethnic, including aboriginals and Brazilian dancers.

Liberal leader Stephane Dion has agreed to be in the parade crowd. The Tories have not decided who will be participating. On the other hand, the entire Vancouver city council is believed to be there together with the premier and other provincial politicians.

Over 50,000 spectators are expected.

On Saturday and Sunday, various programs are also planned in Chinatown, including classical Chinese music ensemble performance in the Sun Yatsen Garden, Cantonese opera at the Chinatown Plaza etc.