I've been in Hong Kong already for a decade and the Chinese New Year has always been the local festival that I love the most. The city is filled with a joyful atmosphere as everybody dresses up smartly to meet their relatives and friends, and offers their greetings for prosperity and good luck in the coming year.
As usual, we will host our Chinese New Year race meeting at Sha Tin Racecourse this Saturday – the third day of the New Year. We have once again arranged a huge programme of activities including a colourful opening ceremony, 11 exciting races, a wide range of on-course entertainment and a closing parade featuring top overseas acts. There is also a free "Scratch and Win" Game offering more than 5,000 prizes, and an estimated $33 million Triple Trio jackpot up for grabs. I hope you'll come along to celebrate this joyful festival with us.
While getting ready for the festive season, we at the Club are also very concerned about all the less fortunate people affected by snowstorms across the Mainland. I'm sure that you share our worries about this. Yesterday our Club Chairman John Chan announced that the Club has made a donation of $10 million to Hong Kong Red Cross China Relief Fund to help bring immediate relief to residents of the most severely hit provinces. We've also set up donation boxes at both racecourses and all our off-course betting branches and have pledged to match your donations dollar-for-dollar, up to a maximum of HK$20 million. We've called this fund-raising drive "Action Red Packets" because we think it would be a nice gesture for people to donate their lai see money to this very worthwhile cause. I appeal to you all to support our campaign and show warmth at this festive time for all those affected people on the Mainland.
Though I'm from Germany, I've followed traditional custom in Hong Kong and prepared some lai see in the past few years to share my happiness with colleagues I meet at the Chinese New Year Raceday. It will be no exception this year!
All the same, I'm not a person that will always stick to customs regardless, as I love listening to fresh opinions and applying new ideas to strive for excellence. That's why I'm now introducing a new idea in this special New Year blog by creating this short video footage for you. I hope you'll all enjoy it.
May I wish you prosperity in the Year of the Rat, along with all the energy and agility associated with this clever little animal.
See you at Sha Tin this Saturday.
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