Chinese New Year Parade

This was the first time I attended the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. I don’t remember why but I missed it last year. So this year I didn’t forget to take my camera and made my best to find a good spot. I loved it so much that I created a blog post to share the beautiful pictures that I took:
.

I have watched this parade for two years and I was 100% satisfied with how it is organized. Usually when I go to parades I look, out for famous people. This parade almost has no end because the route of the parade is really long. Normally when people see this parade they go to the Powell Street area by the BART station. For the first two times I wanted to see the parade I followed how the tourists did. Well it turns out I chickened out. Anyways, the parade itself is really interesting because many city organizations, politicians and news reporters pitch in to make the parade fun. My workplace has a mobile that is in the parade every year. Last year I decorated it and it was a huge hit. This parade has a good history of floats
Drawbacks: I chickened out because when people arrive at the parade it is usually early. That gave me a tendency to get hungry so watch out. If you want to see the parade at the Powell area it can get noisy. Don’t forget to bring your own dinner or eat lunch late. It always helps. The best idea is to be where the parade ends but you won’t get to see the firecrackers and reporting booth.

The Chinese New Year’s Parade. It brings me many memories because I used to march in this parade with the UC Davis Cal Aggie Marching Band-​uh! It often rained though so the wool uniforms, heat, and the long march was killer. Despite all that, it was a good experience and something that I could say I did.
Prior the parade, the streets of Chinatown are closed off with the typical vendors you see during all the Chinese festivals. Going here is also an excuse for me to go to all my favorite shops in Chinatown. The parade brings more people, however, so of all the festivals held in Chinatown, this is the most packed. I often stand towards the end of the parade line because it’s less crowded, though by then a lot of the people in the parade is super tired and give up at that point. I stood by the bleachers once but it was so crowded, I could’ve lifted my feet off the floor and I would’ve still been standing! =/​Parking is also EXTREMELY difficult to find and traffic is pretty bad, so be sure to have patience. Still, love all the color and the energy from everyone’s excitement. Definitely something to go to at least once.
Note: Be weary of your purses or pockets though. Since it’s so crowded you can get pick-​pocketed easily. I’ve had a few friends have money stolen from them that way.

Luckily no rain this year! The dragon’s were out in force.

Time: 5:37pm/56°F cloudy
Purpose: I wanted to see it in person then on TV since living in SF why not? Last time here was back when a friend of mines was a participant.
Venue: CNY parade year of the horse 2014.
Set-​up: Street closure from neginning 2^nd/​market to kearney/​Columbus ending. You can find a spot anywhere along the route but the bleachers, those are paid seatings.
Participants: Judging from everyone that night I saw everyone enjoying themselves not one frumpy/​grumpy face at all. Everyone from kids old enough to walk to 100+ yr olds in wheelchairs were out in force. The floats have plenty of participants to sing out pearl bead necklaces to candies. The SF representatives were first to open the beginning of parade city hall staffs, police, fire, sheriifs, marshalls, first response medics, CHP’s, OFD with mayor ED Lee to light the first set of many firecrackers for that night. Boy did he made his notice known with a big bang coming from the octagon shape near the end of firecrackers this will send Sheldon of big bang theory into another warp.
Punch Lines: Get there at least 2hrs, bring own food/​drinks, earplugs, cameras, bundle up the kids, eat early at local restaurants, take public transportation, forget about buying fireworks (its illegal and not allow), use restroom before hand, take turns going in nearby stores, bring umbrella in case. Workout your trapezius muscle group so you can carry your little one on shoulders.
Final Thoughts: The CNY parade is one of the oldest and most sponsor event in SF. No other city has match that of SF and if it even trys to you just don’t get that nostalgia of SF. There’s something about SF chinatown that draws tourists from all over the world. Sure there are other parades in SF during the year or cultural events but nothing comes close to this. I’ve seen most parades of Irish, Italians, Filipinos, Greek, German, African American, Jewish just can’t compare it though. Most of them are during day time the CNY is always been at night fall mainly due to the lighting effects and firework explosions. Terrific night and people that may have not make it this year you didn’t miss anything, it’s an annual thing.

It typically rains around this event, so be prepared. The parade starts in the financial district, goes through Union Square and ends just after Chinatown. You can pay for bleacher seats but there are plenty of places along the route where you can catch a spot. The parade starts around 5:30 and goes until about 9:30 but it just depends on where you are on the parade route. I personally like walking around before in the financial district to see all the floats setting up, the schools in costume waiting and dragon heads on the ground. I then like to go over towards the end of the parade route. It’s less crowded so it’s a great spot if you’re late. It’s typically a fun event and worth coming out to watch and take pictures. Note that the parade doesn’t actually occur on the Lunar New Year, but a few weeks later.

Hi everyone before we begin Gung Hay Fat Choy & Sun Ni Fai Lok!
So we begin this is the year of the horse 2014 in lunar calendar years (wooden horse). Now don’t be marking your calendar for next year just yet. The lunar NY can land on any given months from January to March. Take note that no CNY has ever landed on the month of April it’s translate to (4) a number many asian cultures don’t like to hear, death. Most sought after numbers are 2,6,8, and sometime 1. CNY is the most important event during this time as it’s consider thanksgiving, christmas, and new years’s rolls into this 15 days of festive celebration.
As for ages and years this parade is one of the largest west of the mississippi river and outside of asia. The parade starts at the foot of market/​2^nd st and ends on columbus/​kearney. Every year the time starts around 5:30pm and it’s coordinated with local TV program channels KTVU channel 2 is the english version and KTSF is the cantonese and mandarin channel. Those 5 minutes pulses is not consider mishaps it’s just means for the parade marshalls to know where participants locations. What’s that I hear you miss it on TV last night? No problem they usually have reruns spread through the following day, check your local listing.
Parade has always been a tradition to start with SF and neighboring city officials first. They’re your SFPD, SFFD, Sheriffs, Paramedics, Cityhall, District Reps, Grand Marshall, and the Mayor Ed Lee. Most notably was that it was the first time an OFD truck was in parade something that was never seen hopefully as a city like SF with it’s multicultural roots we can get other cities to represent and let the world know what CNY is all about. For me it’s pretty much the same as every year just different/​same themes and participants. You will always see the color red/​gold throughout parade I guess that’s why the 49er’s has a rich history in SF also. Endless firecrackers, floats, martial artist, school bands, lion dancing, confettis, local/​regional sponsors, local/​out of town schools, kung fu academies, LGBT, Irish bands etc. I’m looking around seeing these little kids with their parents watching parade so happy and free spirited. They’re not scare as couple of them brush the surface of the lion heads, eyes, ears, mouths. Parade is really for the kids to let them explore the rich chinese culture that one might never got that opportunity growing up. Kids from as young as 3 yrs old with their NY clothing outfitted with double happiness symbols. I can’t describe every details here or participants in general that will take days and pages. My favorite part of the parade are as follow Miss Chinatown and her court, city officials, bank, elementary school kids chinese yo-​yo acrobats, marching bands, 100,000 firecrackers, 300 ft dragon a few more but couldn’t think of it.
So folks there you have it a quick rundown of what’s it’s about and some. I won’t spoil the fun for the little ones as they made be pulling on your jackets now asking you to bring them next year. As for some of my friends who are ABC’s (hoo gee doi) like myself had no idea what their culture was about because they’re the valley ABC’s meaning they don’t stay in chinatown areas so not too exposed to the culture as a whole. What ever their parents buys for them to eat is what they’ll eat, no choice. After tonight they were suprise that I knew so much more than them. After tonight they’re asking me about helping them with fresh dim-​sum and restaurant hook-up’s. Hey Derrick, Gary, Angie, Jennifer, Wayman, Cindy I’m only a phone call away. This get together dinner and parade made me even more aware of my culture and can teach some that don’t even come closed to what I’ve grew up on. This is how I roll proud of my culture and traditions representing the yay area and surrounding cities!

The 2014 Chinese New Year Parade is my first time seeing this event.
It was very cool. San Francisco really does do the best parades.

Enter dragons on the streets of San Francisco to cleanse away the evil spirits for another triumphant year. For a third year in a row my wife, son and I are in Union Square to participate in the celebration of dancing dragons, epic equine floats, loud marching bands, costume children on long wooden stilts, happy parents and so much more. The parade commences at 5.30 pm and continues for approximately 4 hours from 2^nd and Market into Chinatown. There’s plenty to see and do in this festival of song, dance and joy. No matter which cultural tradition you subscribe to-​you are going to love participating in this unique San Francisco tradition that is consistently fun. There are many places to view the parade. I prefer walking about with my son on my shoulders to experience the scene. The many upscale stores and restaurants remain open and you can find many interesting gifts or try something new while embracing the multicultural diversity in the city of creativity that is San Francisco. Impossibly light + Incredibly strong = Year of the Horse. Gun hay fat choy!

The last time I went to a CNY Parade was probably in 2004 or 2005. Crowds aren’t my thing and three hours of drums/​fireworks are just too much for me. This year, I came to support my sister who was on her high school’s dragon team. Overall, it was crowded and loud, just as anticipated. Came too late to grab a seat on the sidewalk, but I knew coming in late. If she’s on the dragon team next year, I’ll be back.

(See pic) Review #1355. I have been to the parade a few times, and am glad that it was not rainy like some past years even it’s a bit chilly.
I totally disliked how all the traffic was rerouted and how people were so frustrated when they cannot get to their destination. Fortunately MUNI had sent their staff standing at the bus stop to adviser people to walk up to Broadway Street if they needed to catch the bus. And that the staff spoke Chinese.
Chinese New Year Parade inconvenienced Chinese because it caters mostly to non-​Chinese, so go figure.
The parade itself was nice if you had not been to one. It’s more about being with lots of people around rather than the parade itself.
I was on Waverly Street when I saw the kids with the bright yellow Kung Fu outfits holding the dragon dance and lion dance costumes and were getting ready. That’s what I considered as real Chinese fun, to see before it began. This was also right after the Chinese new year street festival that ended right before the parade started.
A glimpse of McDonald on stage and when does American pop music have anything to do with Chinese New Year?! Fortunately there were finally some ancient Chinese style parade cars and the Miss Chinatown!
This is the year of snake and someone was funny and smart enough to utilize an exhaust pipe as the snake body at the parade.

I loved this parade. It made me feel like a kid again. Lots of snakes, dragons, drums, performers, fire crackers, many groups represented. The big dragon at the end of the parade was worth the wait. He was lit up, huge, decorated, lively and very spirited. They really put on a great show. We cheered for St. Mary’s Girl and Drum Corps. My favorite were the little five year olds in scaled down dragon outfits. Gotta start them young!

«Bung bung chang… bung bung chang… bung bung chang…»
That’s the sound you hear through-​out the parade, it signifies that the dragons are out. These colorfully decorated dragons are supposed to scare away evil spirits and cleanse away all things evil, bad and unlucky to make room for a healthy, prosperous and lucky new year.
When I was an itty bitty kiddo, my dad use to drag the entire family out to San Francisco to watch the parade. I guess because we grew up in a Chinese community, everything my dad forced onto us was considered cheesy when it pertained to our culture. And the more my dad tried to get us involved, the more I thought it was cheesy. But now that I’m older, I now grasp onto my roots, embrace my culture and appreciate that my parents smacked the culture into me, smacked it real good.
And so, coming back to the CNY parade brings back memories of my dad, the dragons, the drum, the beat, and our big orange Chevy truck that was borrowed out by one of the Kung Fu studios that performed the dragon dance at this parade…
The year of the Snake, is by far, the best weather I’ve ever experienced for a CNY parade. The night was clear, the chill factor was low and the audience, as always in SF, is vivacious. The best spot to view the parade is in front of Tiffany’s located on Post Street. What I noticed is that there were far more beautiful floats and big name sponsors such as Oracle, Visa, Harrah’s Casino, etc. than what I remember when I was a kiddo. Float after float was more colorful and extravagant, if not the same, than the next float. Which made it more pleasing for the eye. And every other float was either a marching band from a local school or smaller dragons fiercely charging through the streets to cleanse out the bad luck. A couple of dragons came close enough to chomp off little kids heads but instead of chomping, they end up batting their fluffy white eyelashes with admiration.
The grand finale ends with a 10 feet row of bright red firecrackers, it is tightly controlled by a chicken wire fencing. The bang bang bang fills the air with gun powder smoke as the longest dragon in the world dance madly and wildly around it. It was nostalgic to me, it brought me back to family… it brought me back to my dad (peace)…
Gung Hay Fat Choy!

This was a fun parade! My favorite part was the kids in it. They were absolutely adorable and funny. It started about 5:45 P.M. (we were in front of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel) and lasted for about two hours. I got tired of standing on my feet and didn’t want to lose my place so I endured for a while longer and then went inside the hotel for a glass of wine. The crowd thinned out after a while so when I went back outside it was easier to see. If only people would be more considerate and let the short people in front but that’s never how it is.

decades have passed since i seen it live.
probably brought my kids here when they were five
’twas before parade was commericialized
before politicols, tv people trivialized.
now unexpected groups emerge:
sanitation workers doing a can can
gays, bisexuals, transexuals flipping fans
reno, vegas floats urging celebrates to splurge
watching parade for favs on the tv stand:
cultural floats, dragons, immortals, me a fan
st. mary’s girl’s drum and bell corps
monkey king, beauty queens and more.

Best parade ever! Did you know that can buy tickets to sit in the stands and not get squished? No pushing, no random people slopping around on you, and definitely no tall person in front of you blocking your view.
I found a Groupon Special for two tickets for 40 bucks with commemorative t-​shirts. So in the grandstands I sat with my bestie sipping of Thai tea while munching on Vietnamese sandwiches. All the while brightly colored dragons darted and beautiful floated in front of me to the background music of Louie Louie.
Grandma said that watching a parade on TV is just like being there but I don’t think gram knew about the Groupon special. This was truly one of the best events ever.

The annual Chinese New Year Parade is one of two San Francisco parades that I rarely miss each year (the other one being Carnaval). Part of it is the celebration of my culture, another part is my fascination with Chinese lions and dragons both of which I have enjoyed throughout my lifetime dating way back to my youth growing up in Chinatown. This is also the only parade I’ve ever participated in, twice in fact while working for a local politician in my early years of adulthood. That’s a cool side note, but experience has shown it’s much more fun to watch than it is to ride and wave.
Friends and acquaintances often ask me why not just sit at home and watch it on TV, but to me it’s like attending a live sporting event. To thoroughly soak in the atmosphere, to feel that excitement in the air, to smell the wonderful waft of gunpowder scent and to see thousands of firecrackers literally crackling at my feet nothing compares to seeing this event live and in person.
Some argue that it often rains on the night of this parade, but older generations have told me the belief is that when it rains on the night of the parade an extra dose of good luck is brought about. The fact that it didn’t rain on this year’s parade proves to be of little concern to me seeing as it is the Year of the Dragon and anyone who follows Chinese folklore knows that the Chinese dragon besides being a guardian to the good also controls both the wind and the rain and sea levels throughout the earth. Whether you believe any of this though is entirely up to you.
I can go on and on about Chinese dragons and the folklore behind it, but I’ll spare you because the main reason I love this parade so much is the color:
Colorful dragons (
)
And more colorful dragons (
)
Majestic lions (
)
Kung-​fu fighting youth (
)
Talented performing youth (
)
Lions and dragons together forever (
)
The biggest lion’s head I’ve ever seen (
)
And pretty ladies of course, a big Congratulations to Steffi Hu of Sugar Land, Texas for winning the title of:
Miss Chinatown USA 2012 (
)
Gung Hei Fat Choy everybody!

The 2011 parade was great — there’s fireworks, beautiful gold floats, Miss Chinatown contestants, martial arts demonstrations by adults & adorable little kids from SF’s best martial arts schools, and of course a dragon! I actually was briefly inside the dragon when it came by and it was filled with white hipsters, which I thought was amusing but what do you really expect — it’s SF! The most impressive physical feat (and there were a lot of impressive physical feats considering the martial arts demonstrations!) were the guys who climbed up on stilts dressed in stylized rabbit costumes and danced on top of the stilts. Holding onto those stilts for that long must take an insane amount of body strength.
I watched the 2011 Chinese New Year Parade from Chinatown. The parade goes through the entire city and ends up in Chinatown. It’s a relatively small parade — don’t get me wrong, it’s really fun to watch but it’s in no way comparable to Macy’s Thanksgiving parade in NYC.
The parade timings are posted beforehand; you should check them before attending so you don’t have to spend too much time waiting. Despite getting there right before the parade (many people had been waiting hours in the bleacher stands that were set up), I was able to stand in the front row to the sides of the bleachers. I was able to see most of the parade, although I couldn’t see the martial arts demonstrations.
I HIGHLY recommend taking public transportation; I made the mistake of driving my car and found many roads blocked off for the parade and parking hiked up to insane rates ($ 25 to 30 in lots that are normally only $ 10).

Still fun after all these years. I enjoy an evening parade and so do a million other people. It’s always fun to see the silk dragons and the many bands playing, this year, «the eye of the tiger» for the year of the tiger. I must have heard that song 8-​times. The floats are terrific. I especially like the giant pot of gold featuring Buddha or the moving toy boxes with people representing tigers inside. The float with Miss China Town is also cool.
Before the parade you can stroll down Grant street and look at the many booths. This year, I was surprised to see a booth from Walmart featuring lifestyle furnishings displayed with giant price tags.
After the parade, don’t forget to have dinner at one of the many Chinese restaurants. Buy some poppers with the rest of the folks. Throw them on to the ground and scare away evil spirits.
You have to go see the parade if you’ve never experienced the pageantry. It’s a festive time and not the same as watching it on TV

First time to see the Chinese NY Parade live. We were really lucky because there was No Rain this year.
The parade route is Market & 2^nd to Geary down Powell down Post & end at Kearny @ Washington.
We were standing at Kearny @ Commercial across from R&G Lounge by the Bleachers. It’s best before the bleachers because after passing the judges nobody wants to perform anymore.
Pics for me were hard to take — security is all in front blocking the views & night pics are harder.
Saw:
(Former) Mayor Willie Brown
Mayor Gavin Newsom — black shirt, jeans & non-​slick hair — very casual, walked the parade, then stayed a bit on the Judges stand
Senator Leland Yee — in a car
Senator Mark Leno — in a car
George Shultz
Charlotte Mailliard Schutz — Grand Marshal
Fiona Ma — State assemblywoman
Miss Chinatown 2010 & her court — separate floats
Condoleezza Rice — cool, stayed a bit on the Judges stand
Tons of lion dancers, dragons
Finale was the Giant Lion head & very long dragon w/​tons of very loud firecrackers — Bring Earplugs!
Hope to go next yr!