Visit Bath and Celebrate Chinese New Year

We’re always looking for a reason to celebrate, and this weekend our reason is that it’s Chinese New Year! Here are a few of our suggestions for how to make the most of it.

This year on Saturday the 28^th of January it will be Chinese Lunar New Year (each year Chinese Lunar New Year is on a different day because it falls on the new moon between the 21^st of January and the 20^th of February).

This year, of the twelve animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac, it will be the Year of the Rooster

and so our first suggestion for celebrating the arrival of the new year has to be dining on one of the fantastic chicken based meals at the fantastic Peking Chinese on New Street. The ambience is a perfect mix of modern luxury and traditional Chinese decoration. And although Bath is by no means lacking in fine restaurants whatever your culinary preference, after all it is home to the likes of the award winning Menu Gordon Jones and the utterly delicious Ole Tapas, this weekend Chinese surely has to be order of the day. Our other top picks for a great Chinese meal are lunch at Chilli Family Noodles on Dorchester Street (easy to find near the bus station and some of the best Sichuan noodles in Bath), and Hong Kong Bistro on Southgate Street.  

On Sunday the 29^th, the day after Chinese New Year, Bath’s Museum of East Asian Art will be holding their own special Year of the Rooster Celebration to mark the occasion. Entry to the museum will be free (the museum is open on Sunday from 12:00 until 17:00), and in addition to all that the museum usually has to offer by way of ceramics, jades, and art which spans from the year 5,000 BC to the present day, there will be traditional crafts to try, food and tea tasting, the chance to try your hand at calligraphy, and storytelling with a professional storyteller and puppeteer. The storytelling sessions are limited, charged at only £2.50, and each is intimate at only 20 people per session. With this is mind, if you plan to go then it’s best to book spaces at your preferred time (the sessions are at 13:00, 14:00, 15:00 and 16:00) by phone on 01225 464 640. The museum is nice and easy to find. It’s just off from Bath’s grand Circus, and almost opposite the Assembly Rooms, at number 12 Bennett Street.