Lady’s Guide to the Chinese New Year Festival in London

Today I want to share my guide to the Chinese New Year festival in London with you. From dragon dances in Trafalgar Square to dim sum in Chinatown, there’s a lot going on for Lunar New Year in the UK capital.

Chinese New Year Festival in London

One of the things I love about London is that it’s one of the most diverse cities in the world. Walk down the street in Soho and every person you pass will be speaking a different language.

Try to decide on a restaurant, and you’ll have options for cuisine from all over the globe. Choose a festival or holiday from another country, and you can easily celebrate it without leaving Westminster.

A good example of this phenomenon is the annual Chinese New Year festival in London.

The UK capital has some of the largest Chinese New Year celebrations outside China. Parades, performances, and speeches take place every year in Chinatown and Soho. This year I went and watched some of the live entertainment.

Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown

My day at the Chinese New Year festival in London started with a parade in Chinatown. The streets were full of people, dragons, and money gods on stilts.

Everywhere there were colorful paper lanterns hanging from buildings and vendors selling egg custard tarts and sweet buns.

Chinese New Year Festival in London’s Trafalgar Square

From Chinatown, the center of activity of the Chinese New Year events in London moved to Trafalgar Square. There were welcome speeches by everyone from the Chinese ambassador to Britain to the Mayor of London.

Many of them also took part in the Eye Dotting ceremony, a symbolic act to bring the dragons on stage to life.

The ceremony was followed by a lion dance done by two men in a bright yellow-and-green costume. They jumped up onto small raised platforms and performed impressive acrobatics to the beat of live drums.

After the lion dance at the Chinese New Year festival in London came a group of people dancing with a dragon. They swirled through Trafalgar Square, bringing the mythical beast to life for thousands of people in the audience.

The dragon was followed by dances by children, performances by opera singers, and everything in between. The entertainment lasted all throughout the afternoon and culminated in a fireworks show in the evening.

Chinese New Year Dim Sum in London

After watching the performances for several hours, I continued my Chinese New Year festival celebrations with a complimentary group dim sum feast at Imperial China.

The restaurant, which is on Lisle Street in the heart of Chinatown, was packed with people celebrating the Lunar New Year.

My group was seated on the top floor in a private dining room. We spent two hours feasting on everything from xiaolongbao dumplings to spring rolls.

Chinese New Year Festival in London

The food was great, and we left the restaurant and the Chinese New Year festival in London having started the year full, happy, and prosperous.

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