Kung Hei Fat Choi!

( Filipino - Chinese Friendship Arch. )

Hello guys, Happy Chinese New Year to you all!

Raymund Bumagat here and today, I am going to share you a photo series that I took when I got lost in Binondo, Manila.

Chinese New Year and Culture

Today marked the New Year for the Chinese Calendar and this year, is the year of the Dog.

We Filipinos or some, likes to join in the Celebration of Chinese New Year.

There are so many ways on how we celebrate Chinese New Year:

-Some of us go to Binondo, Manila to join the Parade, Dragon Dance and watch the fireworks Display.

-Some Chinoys (Chinese - Pinoy) put Chinese lantern outside their stores or even houses.

-And most commonly, we are eating tikoy every time of the year. We cannot deny it, tikoy is being sold in many places like malls, streets and other stores. It is already like a tradition to us especially in our family since my mother lives near Binondo when she was young ( it is best served when you fried it with beaten salty egg in the morning! ).

Filipinos and Chinese are very close to each other, they even do share business just like what they are doing in Divisoria wherein you can find the cheapest products that you can buy and still negotiable.

We do even adopt some of their tradition like myths, fireworks every new year, beliefs, and even their food.

No wonder why we are very close with them!

To be honest, some of their beliefs is somehow I believe, like "you are going to be lucky if it is your year". I can still remember way back 2006( year of the DOG, I am a year of the dog, I was born on Sept. 1994), I am currently in Grade 5, my mother and I will go to our relatives, we are going to share the new year with them.

The part where I am very excited for is when you will be given a pamasko ( money/gift that your aunts and uncles will give you since it is new year and post Christmas celebration) and for my surprise, I earned 2, 220 php for that single day. What? me? a grade 5 student, 11 years old has that amount of money? Hell yes I am lucky!

So that's the reason why I somehow believe on that belief.

This year is my year again, I already knew that I am lucky since I am already in SteemIt, thanks to @deveerie for introducing this to me and supporting me in my journey.

I am about to share you this photo series that I took last year ( I was supposed to join a photowalk this morning to capture the parade but I am not feeling very well today ), I believe this is the right time to post this one and I hope you will enjoy it.

Binondo, Manila

The following are the 1st set of photos that I took when we arrived.

( A man together with his horse waiting for a passenger, woohooo! so old school, uber no more! )

( I was trying to find a leading lines using the cable wires to give emphasis to this old building full of stores at the bottom. )

I bet that CCTV camera in the middle also took a photo of me ha ha ha!

( Ongpin North Bridge, I was so brave to take a photo of that arch before the bridge knowing that there are cars behind me lol!. )

After passing the bridge, we were able to drop by at Eng Bee Tin, they are selling Hopia and other Chinese delicacies inside. I swear, the ube, tart and monggo flavored hopia are the best.

Lucky China Mall

Since we are walking endlessly, we drop by at the Lucky China Mall to eat, I can still remember the legit Chinese noodles that I ate for just 150 php only, it is sooo good!.

( This is the best part of the mall, where there are many lanterns and right below that are people taking non - stop pictures. )

( Yep, just a different tone. )

( My girlfriend doing it for the gram! )

( While inside the mall, we were able to cross a bridge and then we saw this )

The Jones Bridge

After eating, we came at our last destination, the most captured place here in Binondo for Photographers and Bloggers.

( Filipino - Chinese Friendship Arch on a different tone. )

( The Jones Bridge. )

( The Jones Bridge, back view )

( Self portrait, candid kuno with the Jones )

Thank you!

So that's it for me today guys! I hope that you liked it, hope that you somehow feel the experience in Philippines' China Town and thank you for your time reading this.

So! Hit that up-vote button, follow me if you haven't yet, and see you guys in the next posts!