Yesterday I went to Chinatown with my friend to see the marching...
We arrived quite early, and I was puzzled by the large number of policemen/women. But soon I understood why....
There were just PEOPLE and PEOPLE behind the barriers on Charing Cross Lane (forgot the road's name, but it's the link between Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square). Free gifts were given to them, such as a little flag for 2008 Beijing, a rainbow-coloured Chinese knot and a jade Chinese knot.
I felt disappointed when I found that the distributors only gave these gifts to foreigners (I mean, non-Chinese), sort of ignored us >_< (but finally I got that beautiful rainbow-coloured Chinese knot!)
And it went actually crazy when the marching ended in a stage set up in Trafalgar Square. I was quite near the stage, along with many reporters and cameras = = when I turned back, WOOO, I saw MILLIONS of people in the square!!! (Then I began to worry how I could get out and have my lunch)
Me and that girl got sort of bored by the endless speeches on the stage by various officers = = so we found out way out and marched towards Chinatown....... Ah, there were even more people there! People were crazy gathering before a desk to get a free gift bag (gifts from Metropolitan Police, a hong2 bao1 containing a chocolate, a book mark and a card). Children tried to get red balloons and red stamps on hand.
When people heard that the Dragon Dance (excuse my naive translation of this) was coming, it got into a state of chaos. We were basically closely surrounded with people, breathing in their breath.... Luckily me and that girl were thin enough to squeeze against the people and got out of the crowd = =
Every Cafe / Restaurant around that area was filled with people = =
Well, loads of canned salmon in Central London yesterday then!
