Celebrating Chinese New Year in South America
2 min readCelebrating Chinese New Year in South America
Chinese New Year stories. Fourteen years ago, I visited South America namely Argentina and briefly Chile for four weeks. During that time, I was celebrating Chinese New Year at Ushuaia, Argentina in South America.
It is a dream to travel to South America. The landscape and scenery of Patagonia region of Argentina is spectacular. My friends were driving from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia through Patagonia. The drive took us two weeks and I spent one week in Ushuaia.
Ushuaia is the southernmost city in South America and the world. It is the closest city and port to Antarctica. Yes, I missed the opportunity to visit Antarctica but I believe there could be a second chance (or not).
Celebrating Chinese New Year in South America is rather different. It was summer at that time but it was still cold in Ushuaia. I spent my Chinese New Year visiting a Chinese restaurant in Ushuaia.
There is a Chinese saying, when there is water, there is Chinese. Traveling from Buenos Aires down to Ushuaia, we visited more than a dozen towns and to our surprise there is at least one Chinese restaurant in major towns here in Argentina. In fact, there were many Chinese running ‘mercado’ (supermarkets) in Buenos Aires.
In Ushuaia, I spent the Chinese New Year dinner with my friends at a Chinese restaurant called Arco Iris Cerrado. It is a Chinese buffet style restaurant but most of their dishes are Patagonian dishes. They have renamed themselves as Parrilla Libre, Restaurante Bamboo. 中国餐厅 and they have many good reviews from their customers on Google.
Argentines like other South Americans are very friendly people. However, it is not that case in Buenos Aires as there are cases of robberies or thefts. During my trip, I met many friendly Argentines around the country. There are strangers who informed to take care of my bag when I was traveling alone in Buenos Aires.
On my recent trip to Peru, I met many amazing Peruvians. South Americans in general are very friendly and heart warming people. They are very similar to Asians in a way.
Be blessed to have your family together for reunion dinner for Chinese New Year. I didn’t realise how important Chinese New Year until I celebrated it in South America. Cherish the moments in this festive season with your family and friends. Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! Thank you for reading this again and thank you for the support all these years.
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