Chinese New Year and Human Traffic.

One week from today on Feb 18, all Chinese across the world will celebrate the lunar Chinese New Year, one of the most important day in the Chinese calendar.

There will be a lot of travelling involved. Chinese people of ages will be rushing back to their hometown for the reunion dinner with their family.

In Malaysia, the first 2 days of the celebration are declared as public holidays. And that means people of other races will also take the opportunity to travel - visiting local popular destinations, or visit their family members.

KL, the capital city, being the economic center of Malaysia, has the most number of "local immigrants" - Malaysians young and old, married and single, who have moved from their original birthplace to KL city, and made KL their permanent residence for all intents and purposes. But come major ethnic festivals like Chinese New Year (and Hari Raya Puasa), the local immigrants will be making an exodus back to their hometown.

So, it is times like this that those truly born and bred in KL can finally re-claim Kl as their birthplace. There will be no traffic jams on the streets of KL, because the traffic jam will have been moved to the hometowns.

My home state of Melaka is built for a daily population of 700,000. But come this Chinese New Year, the state will welcome back some xxx (unknown large number) of its son and daugthers who have immigrated to Kl- and then the local Melaka permanent residents will get a taste of what KL-ites feel when their town in invaded with 1 million of local immigrants and another 1 million of foreign immigrants (Indonesian, Indian, Filipinos, and Bangladeshis, to name a few)

So its your choice during this Chinese New Year - to be in KL where there's less activity for 2 days, or to be at the center of activity - back in the hometowns- where the family tradition beckons.


You see a lot of lion dances and the colour red.