恭喜发财！ Happy Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year 0f Dragon 2012! This is my another photo report on CNY 2012 celebration and decoration at one of the most popular festive destination in Kuala Lumpur, the Tianhou Temple (天后宫, Tian Hou Gong). Lanterns and lighting features are put up around the temple each year to celebrate the festival. This year was no exception. People flocked into the temple as devotees as well as visitors to get into the festive mood.

In terms of decorations, there were nicely presented this year, as usual, eventhough it lacked of surprises.

The same scene that could be seen everyday: Devotees were filling up their drinking bottles with holy water poured from the Guan Yin Goddess.

Lanterns are hung all over the temple, especially at the courtyard in front of the main prayer hall at 1st floor, which houses the Goddess of The Heavenly Mother (Tian Hou).

Taoism and buddhism devotees are doing their prayer at the main hall, with lots of joss sticks burning around.

Tian Hou Temple is frequented mostly by the local Chinese community.

How to get into the Chinese New Year mood quickly? Watching Dragon dance performance is one of the best. Four “Dragons” were dancing to the beat of associated loud drums and cymbals rhythms.

Those “dragons” were so friendly to mix around and get together with children.

“Can you take a photo for me?”

These are a few of my favourite shots of the day…

Some EXIF info: Photos were taken with my Nikon D7000 and my Nikkor 18-105mm medium zoom lens. Daylight preset White Balance setting. No flash fired with Matrix metering.

Click HERE to view more Chinese Lunar New Year celebration photos in my Flickr album.

Tomorrow I’ll be moving further up to another popular New Year destination of Malaysia, Genting highland Resort World. More photo reports on CNY 2012 will be posted here in Travel Feeder. Until then, Ciao! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide of Festive seasons

HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS LUNAR NEW YEAR OF DRAGON 2012!

Chinese New Year (CNY) or Lunar New Year 2012, Year of Dragon, falls on the 23rd of January this year. I will be taking a week leave to celebrate the festival in Malaysia. Before the festival which is 2 days away, this is another set of Chinese New Year decorations in Mid Valley, one of the largest shopping mega mall in Kuala Lumpur. Decorations in Mid Valley this year are not as good as last year version, and simpler if compared to other shopping malls like Sunway Pyramid, but they still attracted huge crowd flocking in to snap photos while they were shopping for CNY clothing and foods in the mall.

Main stage of decorations was set at the Centre Court of the mall.

Kiosks selling CNY merchandise are set up at the lobby.

Stage is set up for various performance in conjunction with the Chinew New Year of Dragon.

Another set of giant lanterns is hung and displayed at the East Court of the mall.

Nothing to shout about on the deco, but it could at least stimulate our Chinese New Year mood to do some last minute shopping for the new year. Until I come back from my break next week, Travel Feeder would like to wish those who celebrate the festival:

HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS LUNAR NEW YEAR OF DRAGON 2012!

There are certainly more Chinese New Year decorations can be seen elsewhere in Malaysia than those posted here, but Sunway Pyramid in Subang area has the best that I’ve seen so far this year. Sunway Pyramid is an infamous mega shopping mall found in the Klang Valley of Malaysia which is well known for its giant Sphinx statue entrance and Pyramids roofing and architecture resembling those of the Egyptian Pyramids.

Each year during the Chinese New Year festival, they always put together some nice decorations in and around the mall to celebrate the event, and they have done it exceptionally well this year. Here are some of the photos taken with my Nikon D7000 and Nikkor 10-24mm UWA lens.

The overview of the centre court lobby decorated with a mock of the ancient Chinese fairyland.

A giant pendant lighting featuring red lanterns, a symbolic fitting for Chinese New Year.

Artificial Chinese cherry blossom are ‘planted’ around the lobby, as real Cherry Blossom can’t grow in the tropical climate of Malaysia. I love cherry blossoms so I will fly to Japan this Spring to witness its full bloom! If you wish to see a giant cherry blossom tree mock, head over to the Time Square of KL instead.

Stood at the centre stage is a giant Chinese dragon statue rising up high from the water pond (they really put up a temporary but real pond with water!)

If you look up higher, you will notice that the dragon is actually flying up towards to red lantern balls hanging down from the ceiling. Great idea!

A pagoda is even built at the fairyland.

This is one of my favourite shots of the day.

Walking out of the mall, various festive decorations are put up to attract patrons and tourists.

There is a fountain in the compound that served as a roundabout to the incoming traffics and is now decorated for some attractive lighting show at night. I didn’t stay until night so had to take a rain check for that.

That’s it for now for a brief report on Chinese New Year countdown decorations around town in Malaysia. More attractive photos will be posted in upcoming reports here in Travel Feeder. Watch this space and HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Malaysia

The first photo for this year Chinese New Year celebration, this was taken in one of the famous shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, the Time Square KL. If you have been following my blog since day 1, I always love to capture the festival mood through those decoration displayed in various travel destinations, especially the local shopping malls. Last year, I started off with Chinese New Year decoration in Mid Valley and The Gardens in Kuala Lumpur. This year, the giant man-made 2-storey-high Cherry Blossom tree in Time Square caught my attention first. Cherry Blossom or Chinese Blossom in this case represent the arrival of new Spring each year, which has become one of the symbol for Chinese New Year festival, eventhough cherry blossom is more renown as Sakura for Hanami (flower viewing) section in April in Japan (I’m flying off to Japan this April to view its full bloom! )

Some EXIF info: Photo taken with my Nikon D7000 and my new Nikkor 10-24mm Ultra Wide Angle lens. Shutter speed 1/60s and Aperture F3.5. Focus distance was set to the widest 10mm (with both sides being cropped). ISO 640. Auto White Balance. No flash fired and no exposure being compensated with Matrix metering.

I love my new Nikkor 10-24mm Ultra Wide Angle lens since day 1 when I bought it to replace my old Tamron SP10-24mm last October, a month before my immaculate trip to Beijing. I still love the Tamron, which served me well for both of my Europe travel last 2 years, but the Nikkor is sharper, faster and with lesser distortion (I will write a review post on it soon! ).

Since 2012 Chinese New Year of Dragon is less than 2 weeks away, you can expect more celebration photos to be posted up here on my travel blog. Watch this place for more! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Malaysia

Merry Christmas! Travel Feeder and Cecil are wishing all my beloved fans and readers Merry Christmas and Have a great holiday!

What could be better than listening to Christmas carol during this festive season? Here is a short video on a carol performance by carollers at The Gardens shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur. Enjoy! (The Gardens and Mid Valley shopping malls can be reached by using the KL Integrated Railway System)

Happy Holidays! See you! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Malaysia