Chinese New Year in Hong Kong

You haven't really tasted the pleasures of Hong Kong until you've been there for Lunar New Year, when, for 15 days straight—starting with the year's first new moon, usually in late January or early February—the city's markets, restaurants, and home kitchens kick into high gear. —Kit Yau

Minced pork and shrimp dumplings topped with abalone--a new year's specialty at the Grand Stage Restaurant in Hong Kong.

A chile-laced dish of braised crab at He Jiang, a restaurant at Hong Kong¿s Cosmopolitan Hotel.

Visitors to Wong Tai Sin temple offer incense sticks to ensure good luck in the new year.

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Taoists priests gather before performing ritual midnight worship at Wong Tai Sin Temple, Kowloon, Hong Kong on the eve of Chinese New Year.

Performers and lion dancers at the start of the Cathay Pacific International Chinese New Year Night Parade in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.

Rock Tsui, a dining room captain at Grand Stage restaurant with a plate of braised, dried oysters.

A Lunar New Year family reunion dinner of (clockwise from left) sweet and sour pork; sauteed oysters, fish balls, and vegetables; shredded steamed chicken; roasted pork; sauteed chicken kidneys; minced fish, water chestnuts, and mushrooms wrapped in bean curd; roasted pork; and, at center, sauteed choy sum.

Visitors at Wong Tai Sin Temple shopping for luck-giving charms.

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Lion dancers slip through a narrow door at the Tin Hau Temple in Fong Ma Po village, the New Territories, Hong Kong, during the Chinese New Year celebrations.