The Year Of The Pig To Get A Roasting Start

The Hong Kong Observatory said that temperature touched 24.9 degree Celsius on Monday noon, marking it the second warmest Lunar New Year’s eve in the record book.

The weathermen forecast that the weather pattern will continue into the holidays starting from Tuesday, making it a warm and humid start to the Year of the Pig.

Hong Kong's hottest Chinese New Year eve was recorded in 1953, when the temperature hit 27.8 Celsius.

Stalls selling flowers at the new year fair at Victoria Park were cutting their prices hoping to speed up sales as they say flowers were blooming faster than expected because of the warm weather.

On Monday, markets at various districts also were crowded with people shopping for family dinners. Some vendors said they have seen an appreciable rise in pork prices.

This comes as the number of pigs imported from the mainland has dropped almost half to around 2,000 as the outbreak of African swine fever spread on the mainland.

Pork traders have previously announced that they would stop slaughtering pigs for three days starting from the first day of the new year, which falls on Tuesday. They said they would thoroughly clean the slaughterhouses to allay people’s concerns about eating pork.

Some shoppers queued up to buy pork at the Kowloon City Market before the three-day sales suspension. But some said they would eat other types of meat, instead of pork.