Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2012 - (Page 32)

Fa l l i n g i n l o v e w i t h . . . cash will help it multiply, they say. And to wring the most luck out of one’s money, it must be given or received in even numbers only, except in fours, as the word for four sounds like “death.” Those same red envelopes festoon a massive peach blossom tree in the lobby of the Bank of Asia — though with the Hong Kong dollar pegged to the American one, they may need a bit more than superstition to get through the new year. Sun filters through awnings under the pink and peri winkle tiled buildings, dappling the crowded promenades where not a soul dares walk emptyhanded. “Can you imagine 7 million haircuts in just a couple of days?” a local man comments when I murmur at the beauty salons that will stay open all night, as it’s a tradition to begin the new year with a fresh coif and a new wardrobe. Tonight, the stores stay open all night, too, with prices falling by the hour until dawn. Restaurants have been booked for weeks, sometimes months, for the banquets Cantonese families ostentatiously host as symbols of their prosperity, hoping their good fortune will continue. But it’s not time for supper yet. Instead, I make my way by rattling doubledecker tram to Victoria Park, where a bronze likeness of her royal namesake presides under a massive, pulsing Flower Market that will be peddling blossoms to Cantonese revelers until 2 a.m. (It’s not just the sales and frantic preparations that keep people up late tonight; the “longevity vigil” is a tradition that insists the later families can stay up, the longer their elders’ life spans will be.) The New Year’s Flower Market is a giddy sea of people, frothing with chrysanthemum blossoms (to ensure hardiness) and scented with peonies (to ensure wealth). Bamboo scaffolding has been erected under towering apartment buildings and palm trees to warehouse pots of budding peach blossom trees (for long life) and delicately blooming orchids (for love and fertility). I’m swept along with the crowd, past stalls blanketed with red and yellow gladioli and bright orange nipple fruit (yes, it looks just like its name), until I halt before the star lilies, stopped in my tracks by their rich, sweet fragrance. I close my eyes and breathe deep their mystical perfume. Then suddenly I am jarred to attention by a procession of cherry blos soms making its way through the crowd — a mere act of commerce, that here, takes on the cast of a gorgeous ancient ritual. As night falls across the harbor in Kowloon, Hong Kong wears more modern colors at its ballyhooed annual New Year’s parade. Marching bands in blinding hues try to outdo each other’s Lady Gaga covers, in between floats built to represent the city’s everclimbing skyline. Night creeps on, but you hardly know it. The Louis Vuitton and THe New YeAR’S FLoweR MARKeT IS A GIddY SeA oF PeoPLe, FRoTHING wITH CHRYSANTHeMuM BLoSSoMS (To eNSuRe HARdINeSS) ANd SCeNTed wITH PeoNIeS (To eNSuRe weALTH). Lucky charms From top: Shopping for decorations; mandarin oranges symbolize abundance and good fortune; the giant Flower Market in Victoria Park. 32 w w w. r i t z c a r lt o n . c o m http://WWW.RITZCARLTON.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2012

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2012
Contents
Contributors
Editor’s Letter
President’s Letter
Falling in Love With ... Hong Kong
Design
Auto
Technology
On the Boulevards
Shopping
Jewelry
Watches
Palm Beach
Wellness
Santiago

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2012