HONG KONG: CHINESE LUNAR NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS

(4 Feb 2000) Cant/Eng/Nat Hong Kong as been covered by flowers, as millions of Chinese across the world prepare to celebrate the lunar new year. Locals have crowded flower markets to buy blooms before the holiday starts. The peach blossom tree is a traditional favourite. It's cold and grey in Hong Kong as the new lunar year approaches - but traditional flower buying brings colour to the city. In a very modern city where tradition often yields to "progress", people still cling to ancient new year customs - the peach blossom is one of them. There are very few orchards left in Hong Kong - the peach blossom is only grown in the warmer climates of southern China, mostly in Guangdong. Mr Goo has grown peach trees for more than forty years in his New territories orchard. Every year he has about seven hundred ready to sell, but nowadays he says he's lucky to sell half of them. SOUNDBITE: (Cantonese) "Nowadays Hong Kong is different from before. The younger generation wont take up my job. When I retire, my children aren't going to carry on." SUPER CAPTION: Mr Goo, Orchard owner Mr Goo is losing out to cheaper alternatives from across the border and the steady erosion of Hong Kong's rural culture. Almost everyone that buys from his family orchard is a regular customer he sees every year. This year the blossoms are more beautiful he says, because the cold snap before new year helped the flowers to grow stronger before they opened. Traditional beliefs surrounding peach trees and their blossoms go back centuries in China. It is said that young men who buy one can increase their chances of finding love in the new year. SOUNDBITE: (English) "At the new year people want to ensure that the next year is safe and prosperous for their family, so what they wish to do is to either cut branches of the peach tree which originally they could put in their doorways or at the gates to their compounds, to prevent evil from entering and harming their family. Now in Hong Kong what more people do is to buy small or large peach trees, for much the same reason, for protection, but also to ensure general good fortune in the new year." SUPER CAPTION: Janet Lee Scott, Dept of Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University The flower markets reveal a last minute frenzy before Hong Kong shuts down for the new year holiday. But many of the peach trees bought for new year will end up thrown out soon afterwards like once-loved Christmas trees in the west. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...