CNY Fireworks

The highlight of the 2nd day of Chinese New Year celebrations is the fireworks display.   We booked a harbour dinner-cruise which is by-far the best way to enjoy the fireworks.  (cruise link)

As well as the fireworks, and the terrific views of Hong Kong skyline, we could enjoy a nice buffet dinner.   The food is really quite good.  And the dishes are replenished steadily throughout the cruise.

However many of the guests from across the border don't know this.  So at the start of the cruise there is invariably a massive stampede to the buffet to avoid missing out.   This affords a superb opportunity to observe Chinese buffet skills, which have been honed to a fine-art over 5,000 years of continuous civilization and many famines.

I am just in awe of the techniques.  The key skill is a firm jostling to the front - not aggressively pushy but persistently exploiting any little opening.   I just can't do this myself - unless I push so much that I feel rude, I somehow create too much space around me.  So invariably, I soon find myself at the rear of the crowd, helplessly looking at the backs of people who were previously well behind me.

Another key tactic is to zoom in on the delicacies and load-up plates and plates to take back to your table.  Often the younger men will sally-forth to being back plates of food for the grandparents.    There was one family nearby with six members who soon had about a dozen plates heaped with food in the middle of their table.  Unfortunately I wasn't bold enough to take a photo of them.

This all fits with the common impression that mainland tourists are pushy and rude.  Pushy yes, but I perhaps not 'rude' so much as 'differently mannered'.   They seem to be playing to a different set of rules and assumptions,  from a much more competitive and less-trusting society.   

As far as I can make there are 2 key principles:
1.  Look out for #1.  You must push firmly or you will be left-out.
2.  Non-confrontation.   Be calm and patient.  Push firmly up to some invisible line, but don't cross it and actually be aggressive.

So Chinese crowds are actually quite calm and patient.  You don't see the physical and verbal violence that you sometimes get with Brits or Aussies.

On the other-hand,  systems that rely on everyone cooperating for the common good, like queues, or standing back to let people off-the-train first, tend to break-down when there are a lot of mainland visitors.   Which of course can leave everyone worse-off.  And especially those who stand back and 'play-by-the-rules' (classic 'prisoners dilemma', link).

Back on 'Pearl of the Orient', once the initial rush subsided, we were able to get to the buffet as it was being replenished, and we each had a nice dinner.  Actually several nice dinners.  And desert.   

Then we followed behind the stampede up to the top-deck to get the best spots to watch the firework display.

Naturally we were at the back and so Rika was a bit upset when the families in front of her put their children on their shoulders, and a lady stood-up  on a bench in-front of her,  blocking her view.  She actually complained and was firmly told  'I paid for my ticket'.   Fortunately I'm pretty tall, so I took my usual spot at the back of the scum with Hannah on my shoulders.   It was another nice display.

Video:  CNY fireworks (mainly recorded by Hannah)

After the fireworks there was another stampede to the door to get back downstairs.  And then the disco started.    Because of the tragedy in 2012 (link), all children were required to wear life-jackets through-out the cruise.  Hannah protested because she got too hot.  But we made her follow the rules, even after she pointed-out that most of the other kids had taken-off their jackets.  Luckily there were a couple of other sweaty Japanese children diligently obeying instructions.  And Hannah ended playing happily with them.

We docked back at Hung Hom pier and had a nice long walk around the waterfront with lovely views of Hong Kong as I tried to find the path to Hung Hom MTR.