Happy Chinese New Year!

犬年 The Year of the Dog started January 29th

新年快乐! 恭喜发财!
Happy New Year! Congratulations and be prosperous!

January 29th was New Year's Day in the Chinese Lunar calendar, celebrated in China, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, and other Asian countries. This is the Year of the Dog in Chinese Zodiac. It is a good year for many reasons. I hope everyone has a great year and is prosperous.

Wickipedia has a tremendous encyclopedia explanation of Chinese New Year at the web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

In mainland China, Chinese New Year marks the start of Spring Festival. Spring Festival is a 1 to 2 week National Holiday where it seems like the complete country gets on trains, planes, buses, automobiles, bicycles, motorcycles, and horses to visit their families and home towns. The usually vibrant and crowded city of Beijing feels like a ghost town during Spring Festival. It's a good time for tourists to find hotel rooms and visit different sites without crowds...so long as the tourists enjoy Beijing's COLD winter weather.

I'm praying this will be a very good year for my brother Alan, the solitary world traveler, and his fiancee ChenJing, who lives in Beijing. Last year, the Chicken year, was not good for marriage according to Chinese beliefs. The Chicken Year is also called the "Widow Year." Therefore they waited for the Dog Year to arrive. I hope this is the year they can finally start to enjoy a lifetime of happiness together. They have been apart far too much through the last 4-1/2 years that must truly seem like an eternity to them. Remaining in love through 4 years of being apart more than together - what a tremendous love story Alan and ChenJing will have to tell their grandchildren.

Wonderful Jane and I enjoyed Chinese New Year in as many countries as possible. New Years Eve, January 28th, was celebrated in Torino Italy - our last night there. We had to leave the hotel at 4:30 AM the next morning, so we went to bed early...cutting our Italian dinner to only 2-1/2 hours long. On Chinese New Year's day, we traveled from Torino Italy to Los Angeles with the following flights: Torino-to-Frankfurt Germany, Frankfurt-to-Amsterdam Netherlands, Amsterdam-to-Washington DC, and Washington-to-Los Angeles. 6 countries across the ocean and 7 major cities in one day of travel. Yes. We had a long New Year's Day.

What a good way to start the new year...Jane and I coming home together, safe and smiling, from a great adventure.