YWCA Singapore bids good luck with Lunar yusheng treats

Fancy eating a salad of raw fish? You might get lucky doing so according to Chinese legends. But, with a sumptuous mélange of spices and plum sauce, luck or no luck this Chinese New Year treat is a must-have for even the most philistine and discriminating of delicacy buffs.

Called yusheng in local parlance, the raw fish salad treat is introduced in Singapore by 19^th century Chinese settlers from the coastal towns of South China. These seafaring men and women depended on the sea for their fortunes, and gave thanks to the sea by offering the most elaborate seafood treat they had to a Chinese female deity known as Nuwo.

The Chinese dish consist of fish strips, most commonly salmon or ikan parang, and mixed with shredded vegetables and fermented sauce mixes to enchanting effect. Due to the labor-intensive requisite of preparing a Singapore yusheng, the dish has traditionally been served in Chinese-majority countries like Singapore only on special occasions and dates like the Chinese New Year.

Yusheng is a popular dish in Singapore hotels and restaurants. By tradition at the YWCA Fort Canning Lodge in Singapore, families would gather around the table of yusheng and on cue, would toss the shredded bits of the dish into the air while exclaiming auspicious wishes. This practice has given the name “Traditional Toss” to a dish of yusheng.

From January 28 to February 8, the hotel in Singapore of YWCA Fort Canning Lodge offers Chinese New Year yusheng packages at the hotel’s Coffee House restaurant. The traditional yusheng toss comes with salmon and ikan parang varieties. Each set is available for up to 10 persons and can be availed at the Singapore hotel from 12 pm to 8:30 pm.

In addition to the traditional yusheng toss, the Singapore YWCA Fort Canning Lodge likewise offers reunion and celebration packages during the Chinese New Year season. For details on the Chinese New Year Specials at YWCA Fort Canning Lodge, you can visit their Singapore hotel website. Located at Fort Canning Park, the YWCA Hotel in Singapore can get you tossed to prosperity this Chinese New Year.

Singapore welcomes spring with bang of Chinese New Year

Singapore in spring, a time of year when it warms significantly throughout the island, when Singaporeans live through longer days and shorter nights, and when even the flowers can’t help but bloom in anticipation of the forthcoming summer.

Spring, it’s no surprise that they write songs about it, and why the whole of Singapore is upbeat in welcoming the arrival of spring through the monthlong celebrations of the “Singapore Spring Festival,” or Chun Jie in Mandarin, the Chinese New Year.

Of course, it is a New Year’s celebration that is not without a touch of the local colors of Singapore. The 2008 Singapore Spring Festival is set to bring to Singapore streets the traditional Chinese New Year festivities of lion dances, gigantic floats of Chinese mythology characters, and daily lineups of cultural presentations.

Easiest way for Singapore visitors to follow the track of the Chinese New Year festivities is through the island-nation’s MRT system, where cultural centers like The Esplanade and Marina Bay are accessible, and where Singapore hotels and room providers sit most conveniently near.

The Bugis district in Singapore is one of the major tourist hubs in the island that is oft-visited due to its accessibility and convenience. The district has its own MRT station in Bugis, a string of cheap and chic hotels in Singapore, and a wide variety of island attractions.

For a Singapore hotel in Bugis, there is the Singapore Tourism Board-decorated hotel of the Singapore Beach Road at the junction of Liang Seah St. and Beach Road. Designed to give Singapore visitors a modern, cosy hotel room accommodation right in the heart of the Singapore CBD, the Beach Road hotel in Singapore provides a warm safe haven and at the same time hooks up hotel guests with the Chinese New Year celebrations.

Center of the celebrations is at the Singapore Chinatown, turned festive and elaborate this spring with colorful lanterns and fireworks displays. Here, the usual Chinese goodies and more are in stock to give Singapore visitors a New Year splurge for some retail therapy.

Simultaneous Spring Festival events are likewise scheduled from Feb. 5 to 16 at the “River Hongbao” float in The Esplanade Park in Singapore, where the highly wrought Chinese myths and legends are set to come alive through the arts.

Highlight of the Chinese New Year exposition will be the Performing Arts Group of Tibet, which have been invited to Singapore in an attempt to make the 2008 Singapore Spring Festival truly unique.

Capping off the celebrations is the Chingay Parade of DreamS on Feb. 16, expected to flood the Marina Bay area in Singapore with a sea of vibrant floats, sequined customes, and psychedelic sights and sounds to put Singapore in a party mode.

For inquiries and hotel reservation requests, Singapore visitors can go to the following websites:

http://www.beachhotel.com.sg/
Singapore Beach Hotel
Beach Road cor. Liang Seah St.,
Bugis, Singapore

http://www.visitsingapore.com/cny/index.html
Chinese New Year 2008
Tourist line: 1-800-736-2000

Switchfoot dares you to move, Singapore!

For one night only US alt-rock band Switchfoot performs in Singapore as part of their Oh Gravity world tour. The concert, scheduled on Jan. 31 at the Max Pavilion of the Singapore Expo, marks the first time Switchfoot brings its Gospel music and highly energetic performances to Singapore.

“Given the band’s immense popularity and diverse range of fans, Switchfoot fans here [in Singapore] have waited far too long for the band to come perform [live],” said Wake Me Up Music productions manager Jon Hemsley.

The Switchfoot concert will likewise mark the first performance of an international act at the Singapore Expo. Equipped with top-end audio-video systems and state-of-the-art lighting, the Max Pavilion of the Singapore Expo is considered the future of concert halls.

Located at corner Changi Road and Xilin Avenue, the Singapore Expo is a landmark in Singapore for its impressive structural design and modern architecture. The site, however, proved inaccessible to most Singaporeans and only with the opening of the Expo MRT Station did the Singapore Expo gained prominence as the premier events destination in Singapore.

The Expo MRT Station connects the Singapore Expo to key commercial districts in Singapore where visitors can find a hotel room. One such district is the Bugis locale in central Singapore, which features a budget boutique hotel called the Singapore Beach Hotel.

The Singapore Beach Hotel is blocks away from the Bugis MRT, which links its part of Singapore to the Max Pavilion in Changi Road. As an alternative to the MRT, buses likewise ply the route of the Bugis district, with bus numbers 12, 24, 38, 35, and NR7 to take every Singapore visitor to the expansive complex of the Singapore Expo. The Singapore concert of Switchfoot is priced from S$70, S$80, to S$90, and features front acts that include the Fire Fight and West Grand Boulevard. For tickets and reservation inquiries contact:

Beach Hotel Singapore
http://www.beachhotel.com.sg/

Singapore SISTIC
www.sistic.com.sg

Wake Me Up Music Singapore
http://www.wakemeupmusic.com/switchfoot/