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Nick Gentle

Just walking around at the Lunar New Year fair  in Victoria Park will apparently bring you good luck.
And you'll need it if you ever want to get out again.
So crowded is the annual year-end flower and novelty product extravaganza that without judicious use of the elbows and careful footwork a person could easily find themselves trapped among the hordes of Hongkongers who have descended on the park.
Not that that would be a particularly terrible fate.
There's plenty to eat and drink, and the crush of bodies affords a modicum of protection against the chill northerly wind blowing in off the harbour. And even if you do get cold, there are plenty of Year of the Ox novelty beanies to be had.
Candy Ng Tsz-ki, a Chinese University  student, had  managed to resist buying the bovine headgear, but was instead eyeing up  a giant, inflatable sweet coconut waffle.
'I love all the different products here,' said Ms Ng, who was huddling against the cold with several of her university friends.
If it is plastic, colourful, slightly fun and pretty much useless, you can find it at the fair, but the traditional side is not completely overlooked.
'We've been coming here every year since we were little. The products change every year, but the style is the same with a mix of new and fun and traditional Chinese products,' Ms Ng said.
Touts stand on milk crates in front of their stalls vying for the attention of the slowly moving crowd.
'Seriously, take one for free, try it out. If you like it, then write about how good it is on the internet,' says one young fellow working a throng five-deep around his boxes of wonder cloths and miracle pens.
'Can you do that for me? Well, can you?'
'We can,' reply his audience and he begins handing out samples.
Nearby, long-term Hong Kong residents Annette and Chris Chapman are taking their annual stroll around the market.
'It's lovely,' said Annette, agreeing that the hordes of shoppers and the colourful products make it a  stimulating experience even if it is crowded. 'It's wonderful walking around where they are all demonstrating their products.
'It's also nice to see all these flower shops again. That section had been getting smaller and smaller every year, but it's good to see they've kept two whole aisles of them for this year.'
The flower stalls were doing a brisk trade yesterday as people flocked to decorate their homes with auspicious specimens in preparation for the new year.
'It's been very busy,' said Tremy Cheng Ying-ha, who studies statistics at  Baptist University.
'My friend asked if I could help and these lilies are very popular,' she said, thrusting a bunch of them into the path of passing shoppers.
'This is a new breed from Poland. It is much longer, so much bigger when it opens, and Chinese people like the red colour as well.'
Australian couple Drew and Kirsten McGregor were also impressed.
'We've been right around and these are by far the biggest and best looking,' they said. 'We're going to take a bunch to our friend's for dinner.'
Nearby, Mark Gorman was preparing to take his two sons John, 5, and Peter, 6, home. 'I think an hour or so is about all I can handle of this,' he said. 'The boys are enjoying it, but it's so crowded.
'I've never seen so many people in the one place.'
But the climax of the fair will only come on new year's eve tonight, as more people are expected to jam the park and scramble for flowers and goods at cut-throat prices before it closes early tomorrow morning.
The Hong Kong Observatory reminded people to keep warm in  the outdoors, as the temperature would plunge to 9 degrees Celsius today.
The cold spell will  last until at least mid-week, with some light rain patches on Monday and Tuesday. But the fireworks on Tuesday night will go on as scheduled.
At the airport, hundreds of travellers queued at airline counters yesterday for overseas holidays.   By  5pm yesterday, about 50,000 people had left the city by air.
Flocking to the fair
The number of people expected to visit this year's Victoria Park fair: 350,000



In the mood for some bovine fun?  Victoria Park fair bedlam has begun