With a significant population of Chinese living and working in Laos, our little city saw its fair share of Chinese New Year festivities. However, nothing will ever compare to celebrating Chinese New Year in China. As we kicked off the Year of the Rabbit, Tony and I were feeling a bit nostalgic for the real thing. Luckily, Vientiane has a newly renovated Chinese temple at the Mekong riverfront.

According to the website Chinatownology, this is a Teochew temple called Fu De Miao, which was first dedicated in 1968. The area around the temple was previously a muddy embankment but is now a park, constructed as part of a $37 million flood management project funded by a loan from Korea.

We visited the temple recently and liked it immensely. The only thing missing was deafening fireworks.