Its Chinese New Year here in Hong Kong.

It's easy to tell that it's Chinese New Year because one of the customs is for people to buy new shoes and to start wearing them at the start of Chinese New Year.

It's really amusing to sit on the MTR train network and look up and down the carriage at all the nice, clean and colourful new shoes. Even more amusing is to look on the underside of the sole and see the price sticker still stuck on the bottom of the shoes.

Although I am a "Gweilo" (Westerner) here in Hong Kong, I also like to observe the Chinese customs so I bought some new shoes to wear for Chinese New Year. It's also being nice to give out red pocket (red envelopes with some money in them) to friends, the guards at the apartment where I live as well as to the concierge staff downstairs.

Until next time, this is Tales of Asia saying " don't forget to wipe".