Dog Index - Chinese New Year, this year is the year of the Dog and the inspiration for this Fire Dog section.

http://www.garieinternational.com.sg/clay/doggy_cny.htm

"Here's more information about the Red Fire Dog,

The Year 2006 (Red Dog) is the 4703rd Chinese year. The Chinese believe that the first king of China was the Yellow King (he was not the first emperor of China). The Yellow King became king in 2697 B.C., therefore China will enter the 4703rd year on February 4th, 2006. Also, the Chinese Year uses the cycle of 60 Stem-Branch counting systems and the  Red Dog is the 23rd Stem-Branch in the cycle.
Since 4700 = (60 *78) + 23, therefore this Red  Dog Year is the 4703rd Chinese Year.

Some web sites say the year 2006 is the 4704th Chinese year. If you
cannot find the explanation, here is a possible answer for you. The Yellow King's inauguration was held in the spring of 2697 B.C. But the calendar of Yellow King used the winter solstice day as the first day of the year. So the first winter solstice was on around December 23rd, 2698 B.C. Today's January 1st means nothing to Yellow King. If we count that extra eight days in 2698 B.C. for a year, then year 2006 is the 4704th Chinese year.

Best Regards,
Garie"
 

http://www.chineseastrologyonline.com/2006.htm

http://www.mythinglinks.org/LunarNewYear2000.html

http://www.astrologycom.com/firedog1.html

http://chinese.astrology.com/dog.html

All this planning for Chinese New Year makes me hungry for dumplings.
http://www.olvera-street.com/html/chinese_new_years.html

http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa011901b.htm

Click to see how big these really are.

CITY-0-Clay

ClayAlley

First Three Years - Biz-Archive

NJ Archive 1997-1999