WORLD : Chinese Hail Year of the Horse
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HONG KONG — Asians began welcoming the Year of the Horse today with family gatherings and predictions of surging gold prices and global instability.
Across China, people hurried home from work early to begin the four-day holiday, the nation’s biggest festival.
The Year of the Snake gives way to the Year of the Horse on Saturday.
The eve of the lunar New Year is the only day of the year that Chinese police are allowed to drink on the job, and those who patrol the streets around the Beijing train station joined the rest of the nation today in celebration.
Hong Kong’s noisy street markets were jammed with last-minute shoppers buying food, flowers, watermelon seeds, nuts and candy from merchants happily charging up to three times normal prices before the city shuts down for the weekend.
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