Cairns and its photogenic Pelicans are enthusiastically taking part in the large scale Chinese New Year celebrations which includes an exhibition by artist Hayley Gillespie of Chinese zodiac signs in the new Aquarium , a group including Chinese artist Yixuan Ruan doing paintings of dogs, harbour cruises in a Chinese junk , an 1880s miniature display of Chinatown , the Cairns Temple display.
On February 21 SBS news presenter Lee Lin Chin will host a Yum Cha Lunch for the Central Queensland University ; there will be a street festival with lion and dragon dancing , a large market with food stalls , a lantern display .
The recently opened expanded Cairns Museum has a special associated exhibition. Our Cairns correspondent, Abra, reports that apart from there being many Chinese in town, there are also large groups of Japanese tourists, the Pelicans receiving much attention .