Chinese New Year Starts in HK with Grand Parade 　　A float parade was held in Hong Kong on the Spring Festival, China's Lunar New Year's day, to welcome the Year of the Rabbit. 　　The 12 dazzling floats, each built on a 5.5-ton truck, and the performance of 14 international and 31 local performing groups along the Central-Wan Chai harborfront attracted more than 100,000 spectators all the way along the route. 　　The parade, organized by the Hong Kong Tourism Association ( HKTA), began at about 2:00 p.m. It was led by Lee Lai Sham, a Hong Kong Goodwill Ambassador and an Olympic and Asian Games gold medalist, and other Hong Kong Asian Games gold medalists. 　　Different from the traditional route at Tsim Sha Tsui East, Kowloon, this year the parade took a new route. 　　Starting from the Tamar Site in Central, the procession of floats and performing groups traveled along a circular route through the Wan Chai North area, around the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, and then returned to the Tamar Site. HomeNews 1999-02-17 Page2 Full Story in Chinese