Chinese New Year Special at Metro Hotel Sydney Central

Celebrate Chinese New Year at Metro Hotel Sydney Central with this special at $215.00 (maximum 2 people per package) per night

• One nights accommodation in a Deluxe Room
• Lucky Red Bag Kit on arrival ( 1 kit per room)
• Daily Hot Buffet Breakfast for 1 or 2 adults
• Daily Free Wi Fi 

Book this Chinese New Year Special at Metro Hotel Sydney Central

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 Terms and Conditions:

• Offer is subject to availability.
• Cancellations or changes to bookings for this room will not be permitted for any reason.
• Once confirmed a booking cannot be refunded or altered in any way.
• Valid between 01st – 28th February 2013.
• Rates are not valid with any other offer.
• All other terms & conditions will be provided when making your booking

Chinese New Year 2012: Final Countdown to Year of the Dragon

Chinese New Year 2012 will be celebrated on Monday, Jan. 23, marking the beginning of the year of the water dragon and the 4709th year of the Chinese calendar. The holiday is the most important in China and will be met with scores of fireworks and festivities in China, Taiwan and across the globe.

Preparations have begun for the Chinese New Year festivities across the globe. In China, families clean their home, hang red banners with messages of good luck, pay respects to ancestors and begin to plan and prepare meals for Jan. 23. Many families will cover their homes with red paper lanterns and decorations signifying "good fortune," "wealth," "longevity" and "happiness."

Moreover, China will celebrate the national holiday for the week of Jan. 23 to Jan. 27. Equity markets in Hong Kong and China will be closed as the country rings in the Lunar New Year.

Event Guide to a Sydney Summer of Chinese Art

Kick off 2012 with an exciting Sydney Chinese New Year Festival visual arts line-up that features free exhibitions, exclusive viewings, hand-picked previews, priceless collections and young artists’ Australian debuts.

From the Aussie premiere of Beijing’s Red Gate Gallery exhibition Two Generations: 20 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, to free events at the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW) and highlights from the Ray Hughes collection, this Sydney Chinese New Year Festival is far and away the City’s biggest and best.

“As we ring in the Year of the Dragon this January, Sydneysiders will be captivated with the largest visual arts program ever featured in the City’s Chinese New Year Festival,” Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.

Highlights include:

Two Generations: 20 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art 17 – 28 January at Centennial Hall, Sydney Town Hall – free

Beijing’s Red Gate Gallery and the 2012 Sydney Chinese New Year Festival proudly present Two Generations, featuring artworks from 10 renowned Red Gate artists who have each nominated a young artist to exhibit alongside them.

Contact: sydneychinesenewyear.com

Dragon to Dragon: A Photographic Retrospective of the Chinese New Year Parade

23 January – 1 March at Customs House, Circular Quay – free

Relive your favourite Chinese New Year Parade memories with Sydney photographer Sharon Hickey, who has captured the colour and excitement of Sydney’s favourite cultural event since 2005. Here, she presents a selection of images that revisit Sydney Chinese New Year over a decade.

Contact: sydneychinesenewyear.com Dragon

19 January – 4 March at Art Gallery of NSW, The Domain – free

To celebrate the Year of the Dragon – traditionally meaning wealth and good fortune – the AGNSW is dedicating this year’s exhibition to the dragon, a favourite symbol in the art of China for centuries. See dragons depicted in ceramics, textiles, jade, metalwork, calligraphy and paintings from the gallery’s collection.

Contact: artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Museum of Sydney: Special items from the Simpson Lee & Co. Collection

21/22 January at Museum of Sydney, cnr Bridge and Philip streets

Simpson Lee & Co. was a successful Sydney shop that sold Eastern-style homewares on lower Pitt Street between 1910 and 1954. See hand-coloured carpets, catalogues of camphorwood chests, and books of Chinese artistic wares.

Contact: hht.net.au

The Chinese Decade: Ten Years of Chinese Contemporary Exhibitions and Fish and other New Work by Li Jun 21 January – 15 February at Ray Hughes Gallery, Surry Hills – free

Featuring over 100 works by more than 20 artists from the collections of Ray Hughes and patrons of modern Chinese arts, this contemporary show also features young painter Li Jun, exhibiting for the first time outside China with the show Fish.

Contact rayhughesgallery.com

Facing East 4 February – 10 March at Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Waterloo – free

This exhibition features the work of contemporary Chinese and Taiwanese artists, representing a region where contrasting elements co-exist, creating a world where fantasy meets reality. Presented by Gallery Barry Keldoulis and Ausin Tung Gallery.

Contact: ausintunggallery.com or gbk.com.au Make Yourself At Home

2 – 23 February at ChinaLink Gallery, Redfern – free In this exhibition, artists explore the common experience of Chinese Australians born in the ’70s and ’80s: adjusting to life Down Under. Make Yourself At Home explores local artists’ different perspectives through installation, photography, video art and painting.

Contact: chinalinkgallery.com

Breathing Fire

19 January – 5 February at Inner City Clayworkers Gallery, Glebe – free

This exhibition features new ceramic works from Australian-Chinese artists and gallery co-op members, who using porcelain, stoneware and earthenware, will explore the Year of the Dragon theme. Contact: clayworkers.com.au

For the full program, visit sydneychinesenewyear.com

2012 Chinese New Year a Festival of Giants

This year's Sydney Chinese New Year Festival is a festival of giants.

Not only is the 17-day festival the biggest celebration of the Chinese lunar new year outside of Asia, but to mark the Year of the Dragon, parades will feature Komodo Dragons as well as giant pandas.

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore launched the 2012 festival with charity partner Taronga Zoo on Tuesday morning, with the zoo's resident giant Komodo Dragon, Tuka, in attendance.

Ms Moore said this year's festival partner city was Chengdu in Sichuan Province, an area in southwest China famous for its delicious spicy food and home to the giant black and white bears.

"So you can expect a celebration of the panda also in this year's Chinese New Year," she told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.

Ms Moore said the event demonstrated Sydney's multiculturalism.

"It celebrates our Asian community, our Chinese community, our Vietnamese and our Korean communities," she told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.

"What our Chinese New Year does, it celebrates traditional Chinese culture plus cutting-edge arts and business events."

Three weeks of eye-catching and tantalising events featuring food, music, cinema and sports kicks off on January 20.

The highlight of the festival is the famous Twilight Parade on January 29, a dazzling parade of colour and light featuring almost 3000 performers.

Ms Moore said the Year of the Dragon was also a great opportunity to raise awareness for the plight of the endangered Komodo Dragon.

"The Year of the Dragon is the perfect opportunity to get to know Taronga's dragons, from the giant Komodo named Tuka, to the small eastern water dragons that roam wild in the Zoo grounds - all of which are under pressure in the wild," she said.

Ms Moore said a delegation of 160 performers, chefs and business leaders from Chengdu would make this year's Chinese New Year Festival Sydney's biggest, brightest and best yet.

The official festival launch celebration will be marked by a free event at Belmore Park on January 20.

The Chinese Gardens will be a focal point for the 2011 Chinese New Year celebrations in Sydney

The Chinese Gardens at Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour with Sydney CBD in the background. The Chinese Gardens will be a focal point for the 2011 Chinese New Year celebrations in Sydney.

Sydney prepares to welcome the Year of the Rabbit

Sydney is getting ready to launch the biggest celebration of the Lunar New Year outside Asia later this month with the 2011 Sydney Chinese New Year Festival. Sydney will hop into the Year of the Rabbit from 28 January – 13 February with the spectacular Twilight Parade on 6 February. This year’s Festival also features more than 50 events including markets, film screenings, live performances, art exhibitions, food tours, dragon boat races, kids’ activities, a sustainable Live Green House and more.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP said: “The City’s 2011 Chinese New Year Festival is certain to be our biggest and best yet, drawing together the best of traditional and contemporary Asia with the cultural diversity of our wonderful City in an extensive 17 day program.”

2011 Festival Highlights

Festival Launch Celebration

6:00pm on Friday, 28th January at Belmore Park (near Central Station) – FREE

Celebrate the launch of this year’s Chinese New Year Festival and the first night of the Festival Markets with exclusive performances, roving entertainers, fireworks and gastronomic delights from China and beyond. Start the night with a spectacular Wudang martial arts performance live on stage by visiting artists from Hubei province in China. This form of martial arts was made famous in the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Harmony singers from Hubei will also ring in the new year of the Chinese zodiac, along with amazing free runners and magic rabbit dancers.

Before the official celebration, you can enjoy the contemporary beats of one of Asia’s hottest DJs, Garry T. The SBS PopAsia radio crew will also take to the stage with competitions, giveaways and non-stop Asian pop until late.

Chinese New Year Markets

Friday 28th – Sunday 30th January at Belmore Park – FREE

Experience an authentic Asian market in Chinatown’s Belmore Park, featuring more than 50 stalls offering food, gifts, traditional produce, crafts, non-stop entertainment and activities for the whole family. Visitors from the City’s partner province, Hubei, are bringing traditional embroidery and

painting to this year’s market, as well as exclusive live martial arts demonstrations and unique harmony singing performances throughout the weekend.

The Belmore Big Screen

The Belmore Big Screen will once again entertain crowds each night, with SBS PopAsia and DJs on Friday night, a live Karaoke competition on Saturday and a film screening of kung fu thriller 14 Blades on Sunday. There will also be live cooking demonstrations for those who can’t resist the gastronomic delights of regional China, and the return of the Live Green House, an interactive urban home decked out with Chinese lanterns, demonstrating sustainable lifestyle solutions for both house and apartment dwellers.

Chinese New Year Twilight Parade

7:45pm – 9:45pm on Sunday, 6th February from Town Hall to Darling Harbour – FREE

The highlight of this year’s Chinese New Year celebration, Sydney’s annual Twilight Parade will be a feast for the senses with fabulous live music, amazing floats, flamboyant dragons, dazzling costumes, beautiful illuminated zodiac lanterns and much more. The Twilight Parade is a great night out for young and old, with a unique mix of traditional and contemporary performances. More than 2500 local and international performers will feature in this street spectacular, including 250 artists from Hubei showing off their world renowned Wudang martial arts, Tujia Waving Hand Dance and three giant floats. You will also see Mad Hoppers on sprung stilts, thrilling human springboards, marching bands, floats from local community and school groups, colourful images of the rabbit in popular culture and rabbit magicians producing surprises from their hats.

The Twilight Parade will conclude with a bang in Darling Harbour with a fireworks show.

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Dragon Boat Races

Saturday 12th – Sunday 13th February at Cockle Bay, Darling Harbour – FREE

This traditional Chinese sport has become a Chinese New Year Festival favourite. Thousands of people are expected to line the shores at Cockle Bay for the largest Dragon Boat racing spectacular in the Southern Hemisphere. The Chinese New Year Dragon Boat Races see more than 3000 paddlers take to the water. Up to 22 people in each boat paddle to the beat of the drum in a hard fought competition to reach the finish line.

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