Longtime Los Altos residents Sylvia and Roger Eng, D.D.S., visited Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, last spring. As co-vice presidents of Los Altos Sister Cities Inc. in charge of Bendigo relationships, the Engs have close ties with the Australian city.

They traveled to Bendigo to observe the annual Bendigo Easter Fair and Parade, held continuously since 1871 to raise money for the local hospital.

The highlight of the parade is the block-long Chinese dragon removed from the Golden Dragon Museum only once a year, on Easter Sunday evening.

The “Awakening of the Dragon” flows into a torchlight parade, followed by a 30-minute fireworks display over a nearby lake. Both parades maintain a theme that is 50 percent Chinese and are manned by residents at least 1/16th Chinese Australian.

The Engs attended the Bendigo Winegrowers Festival at Castlemaine Botanical Gardens where 31 different wineries featured their finest wines.

Bendigo, a city of 100,000, is approximately 90 kilometers northwest of Melbourne in the state of Victoria. Gold was discovered there in 1850 and continued to be mined for 100 years.

Today the main industry is wine production, arts, crafts and tourism. The state and city governments are active in restoring and maintaining many of the old Victorian mansions, commercial buildings, electric trams and Chinese heritage, which includes the Golden Dragon Museum and Garden, Chinese Joss House (on its original site) and the Chinese cemetery.