Happy New Year to you all and thank you for the excellent information you all post.

Thank you Clifftop and wishing you a wonderful New Year too!

LOL!! I might hold the record for the most "Comment has been removed by Fodor's moderators" post!!!

Great GTG and wonderful company!

What did I miss??

Nicky - I'm wondering the same thing! Luckily a few Fodorites have "advised" me of the missing deleted posts - something about a certain tropical fruit out of season!

thanks,Pook. same to you and yours. lots of snow here in Cambridge. We have run out of places to pufsh it. Sight lines while driving are crazy. Banks are too high.

Thanks Andy and great to hear from you! I remember having to put chains on my tires in the States but that was a long time ago.

Have a good weekend and hope you will be traveling again soon.

Hi Pookster! Happy holidays to you and to your family! And to everyone else here!!

Thanks Eks!

Chalk up another victory for Richie Daley --annexation of Thailand. I wonder if Rahm is aware of this added responsibility?

I just returned from China Friday. It was a lot of fun to experience the New Year celebrations there. Thanks to all the gracious and helpful Chinese! Happy New Year!

I received CNY greetings from my Tai Chi instructor, and she referred to this as the "Year of the Metal Rabbit." Any comments on that translation? The Year of the Golden Rabbit sounded more likely to me, but my Chinese is "rusty."

Kathie, metal is one of the five elements. Try this: http://www.simple-chinese.com/chines...-elements.html
By the way, Happy New Year to all.

Kathie - it's a 60 year cycle - five elements times 12 animals. Completing the full 60 is very auspicious.

Good question Kathie! They say that this year is a "Golden" year as well as "White" and "Metal" year. It depends on which Chinese calendar you look at. Let's hope it will golden for everyone!

FYI:
Rabbit Years: 01/29/1903 to 02/15/1904 (Water), 02/14/1915 to 02/02/1916 (Wood), 02/02/1927 to 01/22/1928 (Fire), 02/19/1939 to 02/07/1940 (Earth), 02/06/1951 to 01/26/1952 (Metal), 01/25/1963 to 02/12/1964 (Water), 02/11/1975 to 01/30/1976 (Wood), 01/29/1987 to 02/16/1988 (Fire), 02/16/1999 to 02/04/2000 (Earth), 02/03/2011 to 01/22/2012 (Metal).

Thanks for the clarification!

The word 金 by itself usually means gold, but it can also metal in general. And in my opinion, here it does mean metal, as one of the five "elements" with fire, wood, earth and water.

Of course, many people these days want to think it means "gold", as wealth is all they care about.

Why have so many comments been removed on this thread? Have you guys been cursing in Mandarin?