For Westerners it's 2016, but in Chinese it's the Year of the Monkey, and San Franciscans marked the occasion with a colorful parade last weekend.
On February 20, hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets to watch fabric dragons, costumed performers, musicians, floats, and marchers dance down the city's streets. The festivities lasted all day and were capped off by fireworks in the evening.
The Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco, which has one of the oldest and largest Chinese community outside Asia, has been a tradition here since the 1860s. The parade has been called one of the top 10 such events in the world, and draws huge crowds each year. The crowd was estimated at 750,000, and people began arriving hours ahead of time.
The parade stepped off at 5:15 pm, starting from Second and Market streets and winding around Union Square before ending in Chinatown, at Jackson and Kearny streets. Among the participants were Miss Chinatown USA 2016 Stephanie Wong, and Mayor Ed Lee. The highlight of the event, as always, was a golden dragon measuring 270 feet in length, carried by close to 100 martial artists.
The event is such a longstanding tradition that organizers could capitalize on its reputation by creating Brochures for visitors, illustrated with photos, that remind them to put the parade on their calendar for next year.Get a Free Quote for Brochures
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