Gulf Arab wakes up to Chinese festival of snake

Dubai, the sheikhdom is still an oriental mystery. The same applies to local hospitality groups as offers for celebrating the year of the snake are still rare, despite an ample community of 200 000 Chinese nationals living in Dubai.

Growing global awareness of Chinese habits and culture has also motivated hotels and restaurants in Dubai to lure Chinese nationals and tourists from other parts of the world for dinner treatments or parties for families.

In 2011, 214,000 Chinese tourists travelled to Dubai, nine times more than the figure at the start of the millennium, according to the official Dubai tourism body DTCM.

On the occasion of Chinese New Year, Dubai’s famous seven-star hotel Burj Al-Arab, literally Arabian tower, projected on Sunday evening a gigantic snake on the building’s front. The iconic Burj Al-Arab which is most popular among Chinese tourists has seven days of festivities with menus like Fa Gao (Chinese-style cupcakes) , Nian Gao (New Year cake), and Peking Duck being served at the hotel Far East restaurant Junsui.

“We chose Dubai for the good weather and for shopping,” said Cui who spends a week with his wife in Dubai. Both are in their mid-thirties and have fallen for extensive shopping tours in the Dubai Mall, the world’s biggest shopping center.

On the occasion of Chinese New Year, shoppers who spend more than 300 Dirham (82 U.S. dollars) in the Dubai Mall are eligible to enter a raffle draw with a luxurious holiday trip to Hong Kong being given away.

Jocelyn and Soie from Hong Kong said they chose Dubai because of its vast shopping opportunities, the good weather and its security.

“Prices for luxury goods are much lower than back home,” said Jocelyn, who travelled with her friend in Dubai. Both young girls were excited with a safari trip to Dubai’s desert.

“We enjoyed camel riding, BBQ and belly dancing. Dubai gave us a real oriental touch.”
Nevertheless, Laura, a Chinese sales person working in the boutique of French luxury goods producer Louis Vuitton, said that the number of Chinese tourists decreased compared to last year. — Xinhua.