Hong Kong (and some Macau) Stuff

Moving on we get to Nam Sing Street, where you can find a small block of older style tenements. Actually the metal grills in front of the windows reminded me very much of what can still be seen, in great quantities, wandering around the old streets in Macau.

One obscure thing I found here not so long ago (I've explored it quite a bit thanks to the 1 hour of spare time I get every week whilst my daughter does her swimming lessons at the Japanese International School) is a small commemorative stone that stands in a small garden that marks the entrance to Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve. It has taken me a while to get some background information (difficult because it is all in Chinese) and I finally have some information about why the stone is here.

Anyway, it turns out that the stone marks a horrific accident that occurred on August 8th 1955 (1955 seems to have been a seminal year for HK and is a date that keeps popping up again for me over and over again). The inscription at the top says 怒水橋洪流肇禍記 (on the tablet it reads right to left) which roughly translates (and I mean 'roughly' in its most roughest sense) Angry Torrent of Water, Bridge Accident Remembered (that's my comma by the way). This part of the road is actually built on a bridge and a mountain stream (which comes down from the nature reserve and empties into the water in front of Kerry Lake Egret Park) passes under the road at this point. In days long past, this stretch of road seems to have notorious anyway for car accidents due to narrow roads, blind bends and steep slopes (never a good combination as anyone who has watched any car chase in the past 50 years will testify) and has a reputation for being a bit spooky, perhaps even haunted.  But, as is usual, I digress. This stone tablet was erected to remember a group of teachers and students killed by a flash flood.

On said date, spookily on the eve of the Hungry Ghost Festival, a large group of local teachers and their students stopped off at this point of the road and settled down for a picnic under the bridge. It's understandable, the place is picturesque even now, I can't even imagine how pretty it would have been before all the modern developments appeared - idyllic perhaps?. It was a bad move because it suddenly started raining and perhaps because they were sheltered under the bridge they didn't worry about getting wet. Perhaps it's one of life's bitter ironies that their sheltering from the rain is what got them killed because the heavy rain caused a "mountain torrent" to spill down the hillside and the group was either washed out to sea down the nullah (upon which now stands "Constellation Cove") or buried them in mud under the bridge. A total of 28 people were killed and no one seems to know where they all ended up.

Anyone who thinks this story is a bit far fetched is not a resident of Hong Kong. The summer rains here can be highly dangerous if you are standing in the wrong place (under a bridge next to a water course is NOT a good idea) and there really are flash floods that can kill the unsuspecting. Even last year (2008) here in Tai Po a poor girl was washed away down the Lam Tsuen river because she was hit by a surge of water as she was crossing it. Shocking!!

Given this is HK and nothing stays standing for long, the tablet itself is worthy of note. It was erected by the famous (famous if you read my blog at least) Tsat Yeuk village alliance (they responsible for Tai Wo Market and Tai Po Man Mo Temple) and looks to have been broken and restored back to former glory at some point. The writing is a bit faded now and by all means if any Chinese readers can help to fill out some details please feel free to add a comment below.

So there you go, a very sad episode in local Tai Po history and one deserving of a memorial, just a shame no one really knows about it.

On a sidenote, Pete Spurrier has pointed out to me that the late Kevin Sinclair did an article a couple of years ago on this very same stone. Unfortunately, as with all SCMP related articles I think it is stuck behind their paywall and so I don't have access to it (I've already used up all my email addresses getting 14 day trials ). If anyone has a copy I would love to see it.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting MrB from Batgung.com, and I took the opportunity to give him a quick Chinese-style tour (i.e. long enough to pose for photos with fingers in V-signs before moving onto the next place).

MrB is a long-time Hong Kong resident and has eyes like an Apache for seeking out all that is potentially historical and noteworthy - honed from years of hunting out strange holes, tunnels and secret doorways that make up a large part of Hong Kong's historical landscape - it took him about 5 minutes before he totally put me to shame and spotted, on high, a column from an old building long since demolished and replaced. He then of course proceeded to spot the date stone from Kwong Fuk bridge which, despite walking over the thing several hundred times, I have consistently failed to notice. *sigh* I have a lot to learn from Sifu B.

Anyway, joking aside, he gave me a bit of an idea about searching out other pieces of long-forgotten Tai Po and ever since then I have been wandering around with my camera, looking a bit too touristy for my liking, but have "discovered" a couple of new things that have simply bypassed me previously. I'm not talking about the obvious stuff already, by and large, mentioned: Old District Office, Old Police Station, Man Mo Temple etc (just filter by the Category "Tai Po" and all my previous entries should be found), but stuff that people like me normally fail to perceive unless we are specifically looking for it. There is a little bit there. In part this has also been motivated by my previously mentioned photo (in fact, triplet) of Tai Po, taken some time in the 1950's by my father-in-law.


I have fudged it into a full panorama (the originals are still back in the UK) so you can see the complete view. As you can see, the Tai Po of the 1950's was low-rise and consisted of mainly two and three-storey buildings occupying, what is now, the area of the old Tai Wo Market - roughly bounded by Po Heung Street in the east, the pre-electrified KCR railway track in the west and south and the Lam Tsuen river along the northern side.

So what of this old town still exists? Well, not very much is the answer. In the space of fifty so years, no time at all in a place like the UK, Tai Po has been completely transformed into a high-rise "New Town". The huge increase in population caused, in the main, by the victory of the Communists in 1949, saw an increased need for housing throughout the whole territory and Tai Po, being about half way between the Island and the Chinese border, saw its fair share of immigrants. The low-rise buildings you see in the picture above have all been replaced by high rise residential development. I say all but it turns out there are a few places which have managed to survive for a bit longer. Actually, I found quite a lot of stuff and so have decided to split it into two entries - I feel it is too much for a single entry and means I would spend ages writing it all up before publishing. Plus there is some stuff I am trying to find more info about and so will try and spend a bit more time digging up some proper facts before I splurge it all out.

So anyway, I went on a bit of a hunt and turned up a few little oddities that I had not seen before. Some low-rise relics still exist.  Although they are few and far between they are still there and provide an insight into how the town looked in the middle of the 20th Century.

We can start off with our first 'discovery'. A block of three two-storey balconied 'shophouses' that, despite modern appendages and lack of TLC, allow us to discern a rather ornate roof structure.

This block of three buildings looks to be a relic from the above panorama. Situated halfway down Wai Yan Street, the central house's upper balcony is still visible. The other two you can't see because on the left has been blocked by an advert hoarding and on the right either never had one (unlikely, I feel) or it has been blocked up. But you can see the decoration on the eaves above the balcony and a closer look at the panorama will reveal very similar styled house roofs. The lower roof of the house on the right is fairly plain in comparison and perhaps is a reflection of the original owners' relative wealth? Just a shame we can't see behind the Dulux advert.

Not far from Wai Yan Street, on the corner of Tsing Yuen Street , where it intersects with On Fu Road, are some more low rise roofing.


Again, these aren't too frilly, but they do look old and both houses have discernable upper balconies, though now stacked with whatever goods they are selling in the shop below (shoes in the case of the left hand side shop). It's a bit strange seeing these strictly low rise constructions amidst the more modern (though not necessarily modern-looking) high rises that have arisen all around, and I wonder what reasons lie behind their continued survival.



Actually. looking closely it seems that there are also remnants of the gable ends of the buildings roof (look between the red railings), but these have been well and truly concreted over. Actually, I am quite stumped by what has gone on here. All I can imagine is that the house still existed when the next door high rise was built and hence why the column has been attached to the neighbouring wall (makes sense if they are constructing directly on the build line of the adjoining house). Then at some point the low rise house has been redeveloped, perhaps as part of the adjoining building on the other side and because of the embedded nature of the column it has been left in-situ. It's quite strange but, perhaps, offers a glimpse at perhaps how the redevelopment of Tai Po evolved.

The next photo shows part of a block that is reminiscent (to me at least) of the Prince Edward Road Shophouses that now form part of the flower market in Mongkok. The block, well I can't find it on the old photo above. The first thing MrB said was that the central stairwell reminds him of post-war houses in HK. I think, judging from the photo I think this is a fair bet and it leads me to wonder if perhaps there has been more than one stage of development of the town? Perhaps moving from the two-storey buildings to slightly higher three storied ones before going full on with the high rises that are prominent today? It's hard to say because most Tai Po related history is in Chinese text books or in the collective memories of older inhabitants.



You can just make out (maybe not on the photos) where it says Kwong Fuk Bridge (in English) followed by the Chinese characters and a date of 1957. Not sure quite how the block relates to the current version of the bridge but perhaps was a stone from the 1957 version before the road was diverted and vehicles removed. Either way, it is easily missed and is an excellent spot by MrB. Well done!!.
 
Coming in part two...more low rises in the old part of town, Groom's Cottage, Old Bungalow, more 'possible' shophouses, a house that can be seen on the original panorama, an interesting building on Ting Kok Road plus much much more (bet you can't wait! okay, maybe you can...)

These are the buildings that appeared on the 'unofficial' Wanchai Heritage Walk that I mentioned last year. I originally thought that they were just one big block of Chinese tenements (referred to as 'Tong Lau' in Hong Kong) occupying the space between the two roads, but judging by GoogleEarth and the plans from the Urban Renewal Authority, they seem to be two separate buildings, albeit sitting next to each other with the Mallory Street block being the bigger (and better kept) of the two.

The Mallory Street block occupies numbers 1 - 11 (i.e. a total of six, three-storied tenements) whilst the Burrows Street occupies numbers 6-12 (only 4). Believe it or not, in these 10 blocks, there still live 122 people!! Like the Blue House in Stone Nullah Lane, this accommodation has only the most basic facilities and lacks proper sanitation (i.e. there are no toilets). These type of buildings were all over Hong Kong until only very recently and it is only really in the past 30 years that the majority of them have been demolished to make way for office blocks and the like.

These buildings are examples of Chinese shophouses, with the ground floor being set aside for commerce of sorts whilst families lived in the terraced floors above the street, though they lack the columned facades that allowed the living area to be built directly over the street level. Given the possibility that the tenants probably had to slop-out every so often, the thought of having to walk on the pavement underneath wouldn't have filled anyone with great amounts of joy.

According to the URA website, the roads are named after the two original owners of the land - an American firm named Messrs Burrows and Sons, and then by some fellow called Lawrence Mallory. The site used to house a timber yard, followed by go-downs and coal storage, but was acquired by the HK Land Investment Company in 1905 and the tenement houses were built in the 1920's. The buildings have been slated for renovation/rejuvenation by the U.R.A (in U.R.A speak this could mean anything from getting a new coat of paint to being completely demolished - just google "Lee Tung Street" for an example) and look set to be given a complete makeover. Let's hope they don't mess this one up because these buildings are almost all gone from everywhere else in HK.

 Shaw Brothers were once the major company in film production in Hong Kong. Throughout the sixties, seventies and even as late as the eighties, they were literally churning out film after film from their Clearwater Bay back-lot. They did many genres from comedy, musicals and romance but are probably most well-known for the huge amount of classic kung fu films that launched many of today's (and yesterday's) television and film actors. Many well-established (and even more of those now faded into the mists of time) names in Hong Kong started off their life as actors for the Shaw Brothers stable: Lau Gar Fei (aka. Gordon Liu), Ti Lung, Fu Sheng, the list goes on.  I used to have a few on video when I was younger and some have become classics amongst the genres fans: "Legendary Weapons of Kung Fu", "The Five Deadly Venoms" and "Shaolin Temple" to name just a few.

Shaw Bros even did a few collaborations with Western film companies when riding on the 70's kung fu boom - one such example being Hammer Films, famous for their horror films starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, who co produced "The Legend of The Seven Golden Vampires" starring none other than Peter Cushing ( as Van Helsing, of course) and Shaw stalwart, David Chiang.

Shaw Brothers eventually found their competition, from the likes of Raymond Chow's "Golden Harvest", too great and ceased film production in the mid-80s, but the back-lot on Clearwater Bay Road, which also houses Sir Run Run Shaw's luxury villa, continued to serve film production for quite some time afterwards. Shaw Bros lives on though because it is the parent company of HK's largest and most successful TV company called TVB. TVB itself now operates from Tseung Kwan O on a site which it beat Golden Harvest to.

At the front of the old Shaw studio is the iconic Shaw Building, which used to be Run Run Shaw' office. Its a strange building in terms of aesthetic, with what seems to be art deco flourishes and of course the iconic Shaw Bros shield emblazoned across the front. I have no idea when the place was built but I am guessing it must have been sometime around 1958 - 1960, when the studio first started operating. It is still in use, although no longer by Shaws. Celestial Pictures are the company now based there. When Shaws stopped making movies, they sold their extensive back catalog (about 750 films) to Celestial, who have spent the last few years painstakingly restoring the masters and releasing them onto the DVD market with a whole bunch of extras. Great stuff and still lots of work to be done. The CEO of Celestial, a chap called William Theodore Pfeiffer, is the current occupier of Run Run Shaw's old office. Unfortunately there is no public access to Shaws anymore, in fact there is a big sign outside saying "No Visitors", and no amount of pleading with the guard at the gate could convince him to let us through and take some photos outside of the building (so if anyone has any contacts that can get me inside for a look-see I would be most appreciative).


Anyway, why am I here? The reason is three-fold. First, it is like visiting a piece of my childhood. Many many films I saw were filmed around here, either in the stages or on the slopes of the coastline at the back (Shelter Island in Port Shelter can be seen prominently in the background of many Shaw films, and I have dived around that island many times). The other is related to the Bruce Lee HK Locations project I am doing with my good friend and Bruce Lee fan, Peer. It is known that Bruce was originally offered a standard contract to work for Shaws, but turned it down for a more lucrative offer from Raymond Chow at Golden Harvest (incidentally, Raymond was a producer at Shaws before heading out with Leonard Ho to form Golden Harvest). The rest is history. However, there are photos of Bruce standing outside Shaw House with Unicorn Chan as well as a photo reportedly taken by John Saxon, during the filming of Enter The Dragon, taken when he visited the Shaw Studios on a rest day from filming. Of course, there are also the now well-known photos of Bruce dressing up in some of Shaw's traditional costumes - which led to rumours that Bruce was considering doing some work with Shaws at some point in the future.

Finally, of course the building is great to look at, almost like a cartoon drawing. It is an old building from an old era that thankfully is still being used rather than being demolished (but I wonder how long it will be until that also becomes a reality?).


Additional Links:

Shaw Bros film fans will find the following site very good: Shaw Brothers Reloaded
Celestial Pictures: http://www.celestialpictures.com/
Shaws Website: http://www.shawstudios.hk/
Jason Blogs about a personal tour there: http://jasoninhongkong.blogspot.com/2007/09/miracles-can-happen.html
HK Cinemagic website also takes a tour (lucky buggers!): http://www.hkcinemagic.com/en/page.asp?aid=248&page=1

Alan Whicker's Shaw Bros Documentary on YouTube: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Hong Kong's public transport system is world-renowned and an oft-used international benchmark. It's cheap, efficient, highly reliable, and made up of many forms of travel: trains (over and underground), trams (old and new), ferries and buses. Perhaps the most ubiquitous of these is the trusty (or should that be "rusty") old minibus.

Minibuses (also known as maxicabs or by their more official moniker "Public Light Buses") are like the capillaries of a blood system - reaching places too small for larger vehicles to reach or too out of the way to justify the cost of building larger infrastructure, and providing a link between the major transport arteries. Their speed, cheapness means they are a versatile and popular mode of getting around Hongkong.

Of the two types of minibus - red and green, identified by their roof colour - red minibuses (in general terms) are privately run with no set fare tariff (the companies charge you what they can get away with), and take you from A to B by the shortest route possible. Stopping on the way to pick other people up being at the sole discretion of the driver. Essentially, like a big communist-like taxi system - maybe that's why the roof is red?

Green minibuses are really the guys I like because they are Government vetted, have a set fare structure, set routes and set stops (although they will pretty much let you get on and off anywhere along the route), and best of all a timetable you can usually rely on. In other words they are a integral, yet unsung, part of the transport system as a whole. Best of all they provide one of the more authentic HK experiences that anyone is ever going to have whilst in HK. I can't think of specific reasons why the experience is like this, but here's a few good ones to get the ball rolling...

Lack of English spoken: more so in the NT, not so much Island-side. Only the brave need enter. Non-Cantonese speakers beware, knowing the name of your stop and asking to get off may not be enough, sometimes drivers will turn around and ask if anyone wants to get off (yau mo lok a?) or if there are any spaces left (yau mo wai a?). If you don't answer and still want to get off then don't be surprised if you manage to add a few expletives to your growing Cantonese vocabulary.

No frills ride: a bit like flying Ryanair. Luckily for us the seats are usually fixed to the floor and these days even have lap belts, but don't expect anything else. The inside often looks like the inside of a squat, or perhaps a military transport plane. Bare essentials and nothing else except for a pile of refuse next to the driver (man, they could get an extra seat in there!!) and perhaps a loosely secured metal toolbox at the back of the bus, often giving the impression that this dude also has another job as a plumber and is perhaps using his minibus as his personal transport.

Rollercoaster ride: In days of old when ships were bold and the minibus had no speedo (yes, I used to listen to the Sex Pistols), you had no idea how fast you were being driven and could only guess that the driver was breaking all speed limits. These days there is a red LED display at the front which rather than pressuring the driver to slow down (it beeps when he hits 80KPH) merely confirms what you feared all along...yes, he is speeding and no he doesn't give a shit!!! Watch out for those bends...whoa!!

and finally...

Personalised Tour: Pay attention and on almost any Green MB journey you take it is like being on a Cantonese tour. All the stops you make will be announced by either the driver (asking if you want to get off) or by a passenger (asking to get off). If you have some time to kill why not just sit there and soak it all up, like I said they go to some pretty cool places. This option is available only on the few routes that still don't have buzzers (and most people shout at the driver when they wish to alight).

Anyway, I love the whole experience and the fact that they are quick and cheap just merely adds to my personal feeling of satisfaction. So here are a few routes that I have personally undertaken which the reader may find useful and or interesting to know about.

#1 from Central up to the Peak

My preferred method of getting to the peak is actually on the #15 double-decker, but if you are pushed for time then you can catch this sucker at either end of the journey, and for about $9 take it down/up the winding roads of Central Mid-levels. This one cores 8/10 for rollercoaster worthiness and sheer adrenaline.

28K Tai Po Market East Rail to Shatin City Hall

This goes along the Old Tai Po Road, once the only way from Kowloon into Eastern NT and now a tree-lined and leafy journey that takes you into the hills above Tolo Channel and Shatin Hoi. Some seriously rich people live here and I love looking at the views and the houses. Also takes you past the CUHK. The whole journey takes about 25 mins and costs $8. Bargain.

#26 From HK Institute of Education to Ma On Shan Centre.

Very convenient if, like me, you head into Sai Kung a lot. This knocks about 30 minutes off the alternative route (by rail) and gets me to Ma On Shan in about 10 minutes. The environment at the IEd is really nice and close to Plover Cove.

#56K Fanling East Rail to Luk Keng

Another one that starts urban and ends up in what feel like the middle of nowhere. Once you get away from the Fanling sprawl the hills and mountains close to the border along Sha Tau Kok Road are beautiful and the sight of Starling Inlet going by is wonderful. Take this is you want to explore Luk Keng or neighbouring Nam Cheong.

If I think of anymore in the meantime I will add them as and when, in the meantime here is a link to all the routes in the territory.

Green Minibus Route Tables

The Tai Pak is built on a 105ft long boat and was the first custom made vessel for this particular purpose and its luxurious decor soom became a focal point for the jet set. This may have been helped by "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" which had some scenes filmed there in 1955, shortly after it opened. The scenes include William Holden and Jennifer Jones boarding a tuk-tuk from the Tai Pak ferry pier and boarding the vessel for an evenings dining. The colour and decor may have changed over the years but a quick look at the main columns at the front entrance reveals the same pattern (an abstract oriental cloud pattern with an entwined dragon) hasn't changed in the 50+ years since the film was made. See for yourself below.

Not many people know about this, but if you go past the place it is quite hard to miss. About two thirds of the way up Waterloo Road (which is a massive road that goes from Mongkok all the way up to the Lion Rock Tunnel in the Kowloon hills), in fact at number 145, there is a strange sight. If you look carefully you will see that there is a rather colourful wall with a huge monster-truck tyre cemented into the middle of it. The tyre is huge, easily over 8 feet in diameter and I have no idea what sort of vehicle it used to belong to (oh! hang on...perhaps a monster truck D'OH!!) but this signals the exterior wall of Jackie Chan's official HQ. The colours in the wall are, on closer inspection, created by many hundreds of hand-painted ceramic tiles that have been sent in by his fans from all over the world and cemented into place to form a large mural. It looks quite cool.

As far as I am aware Jackie has been here a long time. He is a Hong Kong institution, not only  huge worldwide film star (although the worldwide has only really become a reality in the last 15 years or so since the release of Rumble in the Bronx) but also a goodwill ambassador, HK Tourism Icon, philanthropist of major proportions, baby kisser and a general all round good guy who never seems to be able to just sit still.

I'll be honest now and show my age, but i remember first seeing Mr Chan in about 1983 when they showed Hal Needham's Cannonball Run on television. Me and my school friends spent the next few days causing painful injuries to ourselves by trying to copy the jumping split kick he does to finish off a couple of biker heavies (one of which may even have been Peter Fonda - I can't remember exactly it was over 25 years ago!!!). Since that viewing I have been a big fan and seen pretty much most of his films since (though the last few years their quality has dropped a bit as he gets a bit older - he was born in 1954!!).

Anyway, here I am in HK catching the #271 bus to Kowloon one day, and I saw a huge tyre stuck in the wall with a stylised Chinese character in it ("Lung", for 'dragon') and I realised it was his office (thanks to Pete Spurrier for letting me know it was around here in the first place) . Mr Chan's actual house is, in fact (at least according to rumours) at 99 Repulse Bay Road above Seaview Promenade overlooking Middle Island, but this is where all his business is done and where he spends a lot of his busy life.

According to Bey Logan's excellent Dragon Dynasty blog (it's good but he updates his Alivenotdead.com profile more frequently), the office used to be open and fans could walk in and have a look around. Unfortunately one Japanese fan decided to spoil in for everyone else many years ago by killing herself (I think she drank some poison) in the office grounds and since that time the high walls have appeared to keep everyone out - although if you are lucky enough to meet Mr Chan I am sure you would be treated with the utmost friendliness - he loves his fans.

Having said that the place is hardly ever under siege by fans (trust me I have to go past it a lot) and  I think there are a few reasons. First, many people don't realise it's there (how many tourists do you know that come up this way - virtually none). Second, he is such an institution in HK these days that people afford him the privacy that he deserves, maybe they are even quite blase about him..."Oh look! there's Jackie Chan...AGAIN...I saw him last week and the week before that..blah blah blah" . Thirdly, he is hardly ever there - the dude is so busy that for the majority of his time he is off doing something somewhere: filming, charity work, television, or just out driving his blue pickup truck with his two dogs.

Getting There:

You can catch the 271 from next to the Peninsula Hotel and get off just past the Kowloon Tong Club. The house is on the northbound side of the road. Perhaps quicker but less scenic is to catch the east rail line to Kowloon Tong and walk down To Fuk Road to York Road. The latter leads out to Waterloo Road one house up from JC's office. Who knows, you just may be lucky enough to catch him at a point when he is actually there.

Anyway, much like the man Bruce, Jackie has made himself felt all over HK with his squillions of films and at some point in the future I will get around to doing a "Jackie Chan's Hong Kong" as I have done with Bruce. there are some quite famous and accessible places that have featured in Jackie's films over the years and some of them are still around (unlike the Bruce Lee stuff).

Hung Shing Temple is also sometimes known as Tai Wong Temple and is striking perhaps because it sits right on the pavement in Queens Road East giving a sharp reminder of a Hong Kong that once was. Its proximity to the kerb also means that often passing pedestrians are shrouded in palls of smoke emanating from the altar room inside. Chinese people aren't shy when it comes to pyromania (the number of hillfires here is real and dangerous testament to that) and many an old woman can be seen carrying billowing joss in towards the resident deity - oblivious to the fact that her hair has also caught fire (maybe that is why there are so many bald women in HK? hmmm, needs investigation...).

Why is the temple so close to such a major road in Wanchai? Anyone who has walked down Queens Rd East can testify to how busy it gets, and the amount of traffic was one of the arguments put forward by those opposing the 'Megatower' project. Well, for a start there isn't much space around here and immediately behind the temple starts the steep rise up into the eastern mid-levels that extends up to and beyond Kennedy Road. Secondly this part of Wanchai was actually the original shoreline of this part of the island. Reclamation, a process that started in the early years of HK and looks set to continue ad infinitum, moved to shoreline several hundred meters north. The temple used to sit on a nice small patch of land sandwiched by mountains to the south and sea to the north. Now it sits on the edge of a very different type of flow and the modern visitor has no idea of the real reason for its seemingly precarious location.

Wordie notes that there was a major refurbishment of the temple in 1860 and a rebuild in 1909 at which point the rooftop pottery was added, but since then other than a lick of paint every once in a while, the temple is seen as it has been for the past 100 years.

Pak Tai Temple aka Yuk Hui Temple or Yuk Hui Kung, sits at the very top of Stone Nullah Lane in Wanchai - Stone Nullah Lane is the same road that houses the Blue House and is named after an open waterway that used to run down its centre (actually, it still does but is now underground). A 'nullah' for those who are interested, is an English-Indian word for a man-made/concrete waterway - such as the famous Kowloon Nullah which empties all sorts of nasty stuff into the harbour next to the old Kai Tak airport (apparently the stuff emanating from said nullah was so toxic it used to make the paint peel off the aeroplanes that were stood next to it - bleurgh!!). Anyway, as usual I digress - the 'Pak Tai' of the temple's name is actually indicative of the fact that the temple is dedicated to the God of the North (pak - or more accurately buk - is a romanisation for the Cantonese 'north').

As mentioned previously the location of the temple is quite idyllic, and very reminiscent of the ambience that can also be found at Lo Ban Temple in Kennedy Town - quiet (relatively speaking), secluded (relatively speaking), tidy (relatively speaking) and above all picturesque, for want of a better word - remember this is HK and one of the busiest urban areas sits right next door. The temple complex itself has existed since around 1860, I can't vouch for whether this is still the original building but one thing can be said about HK and that's that it is often the temples which have stood the longest (though this doesn't mean they are never demolished), so it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was.

Shek wan pottery is almost a guaranteed staple ingredient of HK temples and Pak Tai is no different. The thing that makes this particular temple slightly more interesting is the museum room next door to the main altar room which has nice examples of the pottery on display in glass cabinets - unfortunately with only Chinese text information cards though :-( Actually, one of the things that make this temple very attractive are the well kept ceramic friezes all over the front wall (and elsewhere) showing vividly colourful scenes of birds next to river banks and standing in the branches of trees. As can be seen below, each window frame has an individual picture above it.


Another striking feature, which isn't really part of the temple per se, but hold commanding positions in the front courtyard, are the huge banyan trees. There are very mature trees right next to the courtyard entrance and also further along next to the furnace, and they strike an equal figure to the manmade splendour of their immediate neighbour. I know nothing about trees and especially about Chinese Banyans, but these suckers are big and obviosuly well cared for - go to any part of HK where the trees have been left to their own devices and you will see the trees taking over their immediate surroundings with their dangling aerial roots. Here, no such mayhem exists, just large neat trees.

Tai Ming Lane Square is the focal point for the Tai Po Market area (i.e. the part of Tai Po that is south of the Lam Tsuen river). It really is a hive of activity because it contains a large proportion of popular local shops and eateries (including Yat Lok which was recently recommended by that Bourdain chappy) and because it has a large section set aside for seating and so is very popular with all the Hakka speaking old fogies who sit down and natter with all their wrinkly chums.

The square has recently (during 2007/2008) undergone a transformation, finished in time for the Olympics, whereby it has been re-tiled and restyled and generally made into a very pleasant open space containing covered seating, a pavilion, a small area containing a fountain and some large mature trees as well as a small children's playground. About the only thing that didn't get revamped was the children's playground, which was left in situ whilst its surroundings took on the shiny new look - much to the disappointment of my two children who were looking forward to some extra things to play on.

It is a great place to sit and watch people go by, which I used to do with my son until a fateful day in June 2006 when he was hit on the head by some falling masonry as we walked out of the square. Since that moment in time we have become famous, especially amongst the oldies who were there when it happened (Thankfully, despite the stone being covered in sharp ceramic tiles and weighing about a kilo, an overhead sign took most of the stone's velocity - it fell from the third floor of a tenement and was part of a stone ledge that used to hold an air-conditioning unit - and my son, after a night under observation in hospital and several stitches to a deep laceration on the crown of his head, made a quick and full recovery).

Not so long ago I found in my possession a copy of a photo owned by my late Father-in-Law. I hadn't noticed it before because it was in amongst a bunch taken when he was a railroad coolie in Malaysian Borneo in the 50's. I have only recently been able to identify it as a panorama of Tai Po, taken some time in the late 1950's, and showing the whole area that now houses the square as just a large area of undeveloped paddy fields. Amazing to think the same panorama would be unachievable to day due to the proliferation of high-rises. Anyway, now that I can stick photos mid-blog, here it is:

I heard about Luk Keng when I first moved to Hong Kong, it was one of the places in my now 'lost' booklet entitled "KCRC Places of Interest" which formed the bulk of this list. However, it is only really now that I have found the time and energy to make the journey and I am glad I did. A quick trip to Fanling station to pick up the 56K green minibus (you may have to wait as this is a popular bus route) of which Luk Keng is the final stop - so easy navigating. The bus route takes you along Sha Tau Kok Road before turning onto the road which eventually leads to Nam Chung, Luk Keng and onto Brides Pool Road and Ting Kok Road back to Tai Po.

The scenery in the approach to the village is truly amazing, high hills either side and the glass like surface of Starling Inlet with views over to Shenzhen on the other side of the border in the near distance. You know when you have arrived because the terminus is flanked by some stores serving food and drink (well, that and because everyone, but the driver, gets off ) . The 'Hoi Sam Si Daw' (Happy Store) is a typical Chinese place selling typical Chinese cheap fodder - fried rice and noodles etc, and thus is more popular than its neighbour which has a few dishes (such as a nice fried breakfast) to woo the westerners who can be bothered to come out so far.

Luk Keng itself is a picturesque Hakka village which is fronted by several freshwater marshes and mangroves and is really one of the last bastions of rural Hong Kong before the scenery is abruptly interrupted by the level of development on the Chinese side of the Inlet. See the photo below for an idea, if you look closely you may be able to make out the ex-Ukranian aircraft carrier the 'Minsk'. On a side note, this has long been rumoured - so far unjustifiably - to be a target for acquisition by the owner of the HK Shangri-La Hotel. It turns out Mr Shangri-La is a keen scuba diver and wants to sink it to add some international appeal to HK's strictly local diving scene. It's a great idea but perhaps the Chinese prefer it to be their 'Minsk Theme Park' better. Either way, these long established rumours look in no way about to become true.

Anyway, back to Luk Keng. It is still an inhabited village, unlike some of the others in the area which are slowly being taken back by nature, but even so there are many buildings that have fallen to dereliction and look set to stay that way. I don't know why? The only reason I can think is that Luk Keng is just too far out of the way for the newer generation of indigenous descendants to be bothered with, and thus family property falls into disrepair. Perhaps with the imminent development of nearby Ting Kok Road, some vital links with Luk Keng can be established and persuade the landowners to return and do something about it. Time will tell. It's a shame, because it has to be one of the most peaceful places in Hong Kong. It is interesting to explore on its own, but also provides a starting point for some great trails up into the surrounding hills and further on to Pat Sin Leng.

When you are there you may wonder why there is no one on the inlet. It is a vast expanse of water. Careful examination of any HK map will reveal that the Closed Frontier Border Area (the bit between HK and the Chinese Border which has so far avoided all mass development) actually starts on the banks of the inlet which make it a no-go area for anyone but those who live within the Frontier area (people of Luk Keng do not).




Luk Keng Panorama.jpg

Incidentally, the Batgung guys have a great thread going concerning the various Japanese trenches and pillboxes in the hills around Luk Keng and Nam Cheong. Their remote nature means that they are still in pretty good condition - that and the fact that they didn't see any fighting during the occupation and subsequent liberation of the territory.

Getting There:

Catch 56K green minibus from Fanling East Rail station. It follows Sha Tau Kok Road until making the turn to Nam Cheong (although worth a look around and to see Starling Inlet). Catch the minibus back to civilisation at the Luk Keng terminus. Don't bother trying to catch it back in Nam Cheong as it will be filled up already - there is always a large queue forming to catch the return journey and these buses (previously known as maxicabs) only have 16 seats. An alternative is to hail a passing cab (you gotta be quick mind) and catch it either back to Fanling or takes Brides Pool Road back to Tai Po via Ting Kok Road.

Following the news that Bruce's old house was up for sale (subsequently withdrawn, but read the latest info here), there has been a whole heap of talk in the local press about why a man of such huge global impact has so little, to commemorate him, in the town in which he spent a large proportion of his life. For a start he was the first true international star of Chinese ethnicity and his HK based films did more for Chinese pride and the HK film industry than anyone before him. His name is synonymous with kung fu and martial arts in general. Even now at the close of 2008, 35 years after his death, he is still one of the most identifiable icons in international movie history. You wouldn't know this if you lived or visited Hong Kong, because other than the recent edition of a bronze statue along the, otherwise totally shite, "Avenue of Stars" there is nothing celebrating him. Even the fate of his old house is still undecided, despite overwhelming public support for it to be turned into a museum, the Govt once again, and like so many other similar incidents surrounding cultural heritage, is just apathetic about the whole thing. It's really quite sad and depressing.

Why is this? Most people believe that various details of his lifestyle (eating cannabis to 'relax', rumours of mistresses) mean that the people in power don't see him as a person worthy of remembrance, but this sad fact overlooks the many achievements of the man. Achievements made even greater when you consider that he was only 32 when he died (shoot!!, even I am older than that now) and that his influence is still felt around the world.

I have tried to alleviate this lack of interest by sticking a couple of lists (that have proven quite popular given the number of hits I get from them) with some locations from "Enter the Dragon" and other areas around HK that have some sort of link (albeit sometimes highly tenuous), to Bruce Lee's life, here. Unfortunately the LIST facility of spaces.live doesn't really give enough space to elaborate about the entries, and heck, I am a bit short of stuff to write about at the moment, so I thought a proper entry in the blog would do justice to the man and also be part of my ongoing projects that I can keep updating as time goes on (Shophouses being my other project at the moment). As a result I have removed the two lists and all the information that was on them is now listed below. Hope you enjoy it. Where possible I have included an address so that someone wishing to print this mumbling off can refer to a map to pinpoint to right places.

Incidentally, I have also set up a new group to outline as many BL HK locations as possible. The new group is called (surprisingly) "Bruce Lee Locations in Hong Kong". It's an closed group so please request an invite to join if you would like to take part and start adding to the list.

Enter the Dragon Locations

Aberdeen Harbour

Aberdeen Harbour's Chinese name is actually Heung Gong Tsai, which means "Little Hong Kong", a reference to the fact that is a small but very busy harbour. It has been used many times as an international filming location, off the top of my head I can think of "Love is a Many Splendored Thing", "The World of Suzie Wong", Jackie Chan's "The Protector", "Tomb Raider 2" etc. In EtD it is the place where the fighters board the junk to travel to Han's Island and Williams makes a comment about the boat slums that can be seen. There is also a long shot of the junk leaving the harbour and in the background can be seen the South Horizons power station. The boat slums have long been cleared out and the boat people rehoused in various housing estates around the area, and the power plant was demolished a while back to make way for the South Horizons estate that now stands there.
 
Tai Tam Bay

Situated on the south side of HK Island, not really that far from Aberdeen by boat, but this bay served as the debarking point for the fighters when they arrive on Han's Island. As you can see below, the locations that served as Han's fortress grounds was in Tai Tam anyway.

The American Club and Pacific View apartments located on the shores of Tai Tam Bay

What was the location for Han's fortress was, at the time, supposedly the extensive grounds of a private estate owned by a lawyer friend of Bruce's. The estate has long since gone, replaced by the rather exclusive American Club and the neighbouring apartment complex called 'Pacific View', but various elements of the tennis courts used in the fight scenes still existed up to a few years ago. I remember seeing a UK broadcast documentary on Kung Fu cinema sometime around 1996/97 and the ubiquitous Bey Logan was there again recreating an off screen challenge made to Bruce by some extra sitting on a wall. The clip starts at around 8:26 on this part of the documentary, and continues here. BTW, I am not sure how accommodating the AC is in terms of Bruce Lee fans turning up to see the tennis courts, so don't expect a visit unless you know someone who is a member. Incidentally, the small rock jetty that the group disembarks from the junk is still on the seashore in-situ, pretty much as it was back in 1973. You can reach it via a pathway that runs between the aforementioned developments.

Muslim Cemetery in Happy Valley

This was used for the scenes when Bruce goes to visit the grave of his parents before embarking on his mission. There is free public access to all of these cemeteries so there is no reason why this can't be part of the informal Bruce Lee tour itinerary. The old A.I.A building can be seen in the background of the film, as well as on some publicity stills from the shooting, and is still visible today (which provides a great reference for fans to seek out the right spot). Incidentally, some of the tombstones and trees visible in the film are still there - the tree obviously gained in girth but still pretty much the same shape.
 
Han's Fortress

Well, this one was a bit of a puzzler, only solved when I took the following screen shot and compared it with other pictures. On one of the film links below Bey Logan identifies a building in Aberdeen harbour that served as the cutaway shot of the exterior of Han's fortress. I was unconvinced and investigated further and have nailed the cutaway as being "King Yin Lei", in the mid-levels above Wanchai. It makes sense because the angle is from somewhere where the Happy Valley cemeteries are, and it is a zoomed long shot. However, it is an angle that cannot be found on photos of KYL which are almost exclusively taken from the front. By the way, the new owner of KYL totally trashed most of it before the Govt belatedly stepped in to save it *sigh*. Screen shot from ETD below.


Nga Tsin Wai Road, Kowloon City

This area in Kowloon City is immediately next to the old airport site and therefore it makes sense that the initial scenes of Roper and Williams arriving in HK should be filmed around here. The main difference now is that, since 1998 and the opening of HKIA, the planes no longer swoop overhead.

Kai Tak Airport

Closed in 1998 and still hasn't been put to any better use. The old site - its famous runway jutting out into Kowloon Bay - is currently being touted as a potential Cruise Liner berth. The problem is that no one wants to put any money into it as the cost will be exhorbitant and with little return (so a bit like the Macau/ZhuHai bridge project then).

Tsing Shan Monastery on Castle Peak, Tuen Mun

The initial scenes in ETD, when Lee is seen talking to Roy Chiao's monk character and taking tea with the Braithewaite character, and the famous Lao's Time scene ("it is like a finger pointing away to the moon"), were filmed in and around this monastery. The area can be reached by walking beind the monastery complex and up some steps. It hasn't changed much in the 35 years since filming was done. Some trees are still recognisable, but there are now two red concreete pillars.

Ching Chun Koon, Tuen Mun

Tenuous link here but the ornate golden coloured Pai Lau (traditional Chinese archway) seen at the very beginning of EtD, with temple building in the background, is actually Ching Chun Koon in Tuen Mun. This makes sense if the fact that Tsing Shan was used for filming some scenes as mentioned above because the two aren't really that far from each other.

Chek Lap Kok

Believe it or not, Han's Island does exist!! Let me explain. During the scene when Braithewaite is briefing Lee on his upcoming mission, an aerial photo and a map are shown featuring Han's Island. I know from the commentary that the photo in the film is actually a composite of an island with Han's 'fortress' superimposed on the top. Whether this is Chek Lap Kok or njot is open for debate because the angle is oblique and its difficult to know. However, the map Lee is shown has the outline of Han's Island - with a fictitious border running through the middle - this outline is Chek Lap Kok as it was back in 1973. Of course it has changed drastically since then because someone decided to build HK airport on top of it. Massive reclamation between CLK and neighbouring Lam Chau mean that the island is all but destroyed and the only remaining piece of natural coastline is the south eastern tip facing Tung Chung.

Other various locations

41 Cumberland Road

Bruce's old house in Kowloon Tong. Read more about it here and here (oh yes, and here).

St Francis Xavier's College, Kowloon

Situated between Sycamore Street and Willow Street near to Prince Edward MTR station. It is a middle school ("Jung Hok" in Cantonese) and caters for students from around the ages of 6 - 11. Quite close to Li Tak Street and Maple Street so a visit to all could easily be combined.

218 Nathan Road, Kowloon

Now a shopping mall, but used to be the location of the tenement block where Bruce, and his family, used to live as a young boy in the 1940/50's .

La Salle Catholic School, Kowloon Tong

A well established and highly reputable school in Kowloon Tong which was to see Bruce through his troublesome teenage years. He was a school boxing champion here and on his death, his family donated his "Marcy" home gym to the school. It was used for a while before being acquired by John Little (possibly the worlds biggest, or at least most printed, Bruce fan). For more information on this I recommend one of Little's boks called "The Art of Expressing the Human Body". It is basically a long discussion of Bruce's training regime and there is a nice story about how Little came into possession of the Marcy Gym.

King's Park, Ho Man Tin

A big park in Kowloon where Bruce used to go jogging and also where his office (Concord) looked out onto. It is situated right next door to his old place at Sunlight Gardens and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (which means you can visit all three in quick succession).

Sunlight Garden, Man Fuk Road, Ho Man Tin

The family's first home when they moved back to HK so that Bruce could pursue his film career, It still stands close to Yau Ma Tei MTR station. However, I have no idea which floor they lived on.

Mira Hotel (formerly the Miramar)

This place is famous for a few reasons, first it housed Bruce's favourite Japanese restaurant. Second, it was the supposed meeting place between Raymond Chow, George Lazenby and Bruce, on the day he died. They were due to meet up to discuss a project co-starring Lazenby. On an aside, Chow Yun Fat, now world famous, used to be a bellhop at the hotel.

Maple Street Funeral Parlour

This is where Bruce's body was kept and where the HK funeral took place prior to the body being shipped back to Seattle for burial. There are famous scenes of the open coffin with Bruce inside that were filmed here. Most of the streets around here are named after trees - it's quite close to Francis Xaviers school.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital

This is the large hospital complex in Kowloon where Bruce was taken, unconscious, from Betty Ting Pei's flat and where he was declared dead at arrival. Not sure why he was taken here as there are closer hospitals to Beacon Hill, where Ting Pei's flat was e.g Kowloon Hospital, Kwong Wah Hospital etc

Queen's Theatre

Aah shucks!! Too late, it got demolished already. Such is life in HK.

Avenue of Stars

The single redeeming feature of the otherwise 'truly naff' (I used this description of the place in a letter to the SCMP and it was censored!!) Avenue of Stars, is the bronze statue of Bruce Lee at the far eastern end. The Avenue of Stars is a tacky distraction to some great views over the harbour to HK Island.Best way to see the statue is to go and sit in Pacific Coffee and watch all the people striking poses in front of it. Entertaining stuff.

The Red Pepper Restaurant

Situated on 7 Lan Fong Road, Causeway Bay. Okay, so this is a tenuous link,but as actually the restaurant's exterior can be seen in Game of Death as the baddies hideout. It hasn't changed much in twenty or so years since the final version of the film was filmed.

Lung Wah Hotel, Shatin

This place has been around since the early 1950's and one of the boats on the website is that Bruce stayed here when he was filming "The Big Boss". However, I'm not convinced they have the correct film. BB was filmed in Thailand, I think they mean "The Way of the Dragon" which had various scenes filmed in Shatin, however please feel free to correct me if I am wrong. The outside scenes Bruce gets to kick Bob Wall in the nuts was part of this particular scene. I have no idea whereabouts in Shatin this would have been. Probably untraceable given the way it has grown since the early 80's.

Li Tak Street (Yip Man's school address 1955-57)

This tiny street in Tai Kok Tsui was where Bruce started his Wing Chun training with Ip Man. Good timing for this because there have just been two films completed about the life of Ip Man. One starring Donnie Yen, sorry, can't remember who is in the other one.

Kingsford Terrace (site of former Golden Harvest studios)

This is an apartment complex behind Hammer Hill which occupies the site that was once the location of Golden Harvest Studios. So not only a Bruce Lee connection but perhaps a major connection with the majority of films coming out of HK in the 80's and 90's. Sadly, as with most thing sin HK the developers have removed all traces. The land was on lease to GH from the Govt, who basically decided to sell to a developer (this is one of the HK Govts major sources of revenue - Land Sale) and GH were suddenly without a home for the studios. SO proceeded a fight with Shaw Bros subsidiary TVB, for the site in Tseung Kwan O that TVB have recently moved to from Clearwater Bay. GH lost the fight and have ended up with no new place to build a new studio. Last I heard there were rumours of a GH rebirth in Singapore. We shall see. In the meantime this complex is the closest you will get to the studio locations of Bruce's films. *Sigh*

Ocean Terminal Rooftop

Okay another tenuous one because he wasn't really associated with this place, but there is a famous picture of Bruce looking out from the car park on the roof of Ocean Terminal with the old KCR Terminus in the background. This location has stayed pretty much the same in the intervening years although the KCR Terminus was demolished in the late 70's to make way for the Cultural Centre (some of the columns from this magnificent building are still on display in East TST next to the fountain on Chatham Road South). The clock tower, a protected monument, still allows a good point of reference for the background.

Baptist Hospital, Kowloon Tong

Bruce was taken to the emergency ward of this hospital after suffering a collapse at Golden Harvest Studios whilst recording some of the soundtrack for "Enter the Dragon". This is a well-known incident in Bruce's life as it was a precursor to the event which eventually killed him.

St Theresa's Hospital

Following the fainting session mentioned above, Bruce was then transferred to St Theresa's to undertake further tests. The hospital still exists and occupies a parcel of land between Prince Edward Rd and Argyle Street between Kowloon Tong and Kowloon City (near the old airport). 

Jardim Luis De Camoes, Macao

I did a blog entry on this a couple of years ago which can be found here: Luis De Camoes. Interestingly if you watch one of the clips I have linked to below "Fist of Fury Locations", you will see Bey Logan talking more about it on there.

Miscellaneous others we've identified in our Facebook Group, but yet to investigate (i.e. watch this space):

* (former site) Hyatt Regency, Nathan Road (now a building site)
* Grand Ocean Cinema (saw the premiere of "Big Boss")
* Mirador Mansions (the rooftop was the scene of his last street - maybe should be 'roof' - fight before being coerced to leave HK for the US)
* Golden Crown Court - 68 Nathan Road
* Old GH office at Tung Ying Bldg, 100 Nathan Rd
* HK Observatory (where Bruce's brother used to work)
* Osaka Japanese Restaurant, 14 Ashley Rd (one of his favourite restaurants, it is the oldest Japanese Restaurant in town)
* Gaddi's, Peninsula Hotel (one of his haunts)
* Marco Polo Hotel (formerly Hong Kong Hotel)
* Cox's Road Playground Park (where Bruce's dad used to practice his Tai Chi)
* Shamrock Hotel, 223 Nathan Rd
* Tak Sun Primary School, 103 Austin Rd (another of Bruce's schools)
* St Mary's Canossian College, 162 Austin Rd (one of Bruce's schools)
* Kowloon Bowling Green Club, 123 Austin Road (Bruce used to swim there with his brother Robert)
* 9 Cox's Road
* 67 Beacon Hill Road (Betty Ting Pei's home in 1973, where Bruce died/went comatose)
* Kai Tak Airport (a no-brainer really unless he came to HK by boat!!)
* Ting Ho Restaurant on Nathan Road
* Cadet's Naval School, Stanley (featured in "The Orphan")
* Queen's Cafe, 8 Hysan Ave (used in "Way of the Dragon")
* Shaw Bros Studios (we have photos of him outside the iconic house with his friend, Unicorn Chan)

Other links:

CNX documentary presented by Bey Logan on YouTube here.

Another Bey Logan clip here, this one is Fist of Fury Locations

Documentary "Kung Fu Fighters" Part 1 of 4
Documentary "Kung Fu Fighters" Part 2 of 4
Documentary "Kung Fu Fighters" Part 3 of 4
Documentary "Kung Fu Fighters" Part 4 of 4

That's it for now, when I get more bits I will add to the list.

P.S I have also created a GoogleEarth .KMZ file with these (HK) locations on them, if you want it just mail me and I will send it to you.

Yes, I know, another one that isn't really off the beaten track, in fact it is slap bang in the middle of everything and is fairly unavoidable. But, like Govt House a couple of months ago, this one every so often has an open day for the public, and the past Saturday (29th Nov) was just such a day.

Most visitors to Hong Kong, who have stepped foot on Hong Kong Island, will be familiar with the dome roof of the Legislative Council Building, however, it has only been known as such since 1985 when the LegCo moved there. Prior to its current use, the building housed the HK Supreme Court, and this former use explains in some way why the roof houses a statue of Themis, who also stands on top of the Old Bailey in London. Actually, Wikipedia has a good summary of the buildings history here. Suffice to say it was opened in 1912 and thus is one of the few buildings of pre-war heritage (in fact, according to Mr Tony Banham, there are still visible signs of shrapnel/shell damage around the building, and in other parts of Statue Square, from when the Japanese invaded in Dec 1941).

Rather than queue for hours we opted for the fast ticket system which meant you asked and were given priority tickets for a set time, all you do is turn up at your allotted time and joining the thousands of others who have selected the same time as you and a bunch of people who had chosen a different time but still couldn't be bothered to wait (come on, this is HK, no one queues if they don't feel like it).

As expected, I was the only baby-eating foreigner (thanks to David Leffman for that nugget of insight into Chinese xenophobia ) and so had to try my luck and catch snippets of information as it was announced over the PA system. Having said that, even the missus couldn't hear what was being said due to the constant low-level chatter and the non-stop camera shutter noises. Every spot inside the building was a photo opportunity for my fellow tourists and it was hard to get any snaps of anything other than other peoples heads and fingers held in a v-sign (if you live in Asia, you will know EXACTLY what I mean). So it was here that I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to make the most of it, hang back and simply wait for people to move on. Shame that my plan was wrecked by the following group who were basically on our heels. As soon as the last person of my group moved on, the first ones of the next one appeared. Drat and double drat. So I apologise now for not being able to take full advantage and get some decent photos. It was just never on the cards it seems.

Anyway, the short 45 minute or so tour takes you up on to the second floor via an elegant winding staircase and up into the functional rooms of the legislature, used by the various standing committees and such like. You get to glimpse into the LegCo President's room - with the blue bound ordinances arranged in a nice row in his bookshelf behind his desk, through some more doors and into a lounge. Then up some more short stairs onto the third floor where you can see the wooden beams that support the various parts of the roof, into the large dining hall and then back down into the main legislative council room - what was the supreme court - and then onto various other rooms including the press room complete with its lockers allocated to various newspapers of the world - The Times, The Sun (*snigger*) etc. You know when the tour is over because you head down the opposite staircase and out onto Statue Square.

Even if you don't have any interest in HK politics then the open day is worth going to just to get a glimpse inside the building. Unfortunately the open day wasn't announced on the official Leg Co website, but rather announced via the main Govt site instead. Links below for those interested in coming along for another event.

Leg Co Website

Govt News site

This is one of the oddest temples I have seen, in terms of its location at least, although I have to say it is a great symbol of tenacity in an otherwise unsentimental and constantly changing cityscape. The Kwun Yam Temple (also known as the Shui Yuet Kung Temple) has a reasonably long history (don't forget, in HK anything older than 10 years is considered 'historic' by pure virtue of being able to remain standing!) originating in 1884 but the site it can be found at now has 'only' been its home since 1926. Road expansion works at the former site (on the corner of Waterloo Road and Argyle Street) are the reason for its move to 90 Shantung Street.

Its previous location was known as Tai Shek Kwu and was a rocky feature (Shek is a romanisation of the Cantonese 'Sek' which means 'rock') on top of which sat the original temple. Access was gained via two flights of steps chipped out of the granite and by all accounts the temple was very popular serving the local villages in nearby Ho Man Tin. Alas, it seems that the yearly Kwun Yam festival lost its impetus once the temple was moved however, I can vouch that visiting the place one morning at about 10am it was absolutely heaving with local worshippers burning offerings - illustration of its continued importance to the local people living in this area.

You really have to go and see this place yourself to appreciate the situation it now finds itself in. Sandwiched in between two soaring buildings that form part of the Mong Kok campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK - main campus is situated between Tai Po and Shatin in the New Territories). The temple stirred my interest on a walk one day (mainly, as mentioned, because of its location) but nothing really clicked into place until the 'Gwei Lo' location mapping project started on Batgung and some other readers mentioned that this temple must have been the temple Martin Booth mentions in his above mentioned memoir.

I have to thank my new friend Regis Madec for the heads up on this. I was aware something was going to happen in Lin Au (a village outside of Tai Po), but had no idea it would be celebrated by all 26 villages of the Lam Tsuen valley (turns out Lin Au is one of these despite not really being in the valley per se).

Da Jiu (formally known as Tai Ping Ching Chiu) is a festival that is celebrated at various intervals all over the territory. It is basically a general thanksgiving festival celebrated by various communities and Regis has a much better explanation (and his usual high standard of photography) on his ThaiWorldView - Tai Ping Ching Chiu. For a festival that comes around once every ten years in Lam Tsuen, no expense was spared and the whole valley was adorned with scaffolding bearing huge signboards announcing the festival (see photo below). Various events go on throughout the festival period (6 days in this case) and everyone is welcome, including curious tourists and non-Chinese locals. Depending on which day you attend you could either be watching Taoist rites, Cantonese opera, Lion dancing, puppet theatre, and a massive 'Pun Choi' vegetarian meal where all are welcome.

The Da Jiu tradition has been running in Lam Tsuen since the establishment of the Tin Hau Temple in Fong Ma Po in the late 18th Century (circa 1777 A.D). It is ultimately a religious service to pray for good weather (yes, it is a largely agrarian festival and areas of Lam Tsuen valley are still given over to various types of farming) and peace. Certain acts - tree felling and livestock slaughter - are strictly prohibited. Villagers are expected to purify themselves by fasting and bathing to give thanks to the deities and to placate the roaming ghosts.

For the Lam Tsuen festival the large open area next to the wishing trees at Fong Ma Po were taken over by all manner of bamboo constructions - from makeshift altars, snack stores and the huge Cantonese opera stage. The run up to this event has seen various improvements to the area - such as the addition of a new wishing tree imported from Guangzhou, re-tiling and turfing of the earthen areas holding the various trees and even the nearby Tin Hau Temple, which was looking in dire need of some paint when I last visited a year or so ago, has been given a thorough internal/external face-lift restoring its weather faded appearance (there were complaints that the newly built toilets, which cost approx HK$3million and look very nice - but come on, they're just toilets - looked better cared for than the temple!!).

For those who can't wait another 10 years for the next Da Jiu, some places celebrate it on a more frequent basis, most notably on Cheung Chau - the world famous Bun Festival is exactly this same event (albeit with an 'islander' flavour) and can be seen on a yearly basis around the end of May.

 

    

Ma Shi Chau is actually an uninhabited island in the northern part of Tolo Harbour. It, along with three other islands: Yeung Chau Centre Island and an unnamed island in the centre of the bay formed by Plover Cover Reservoir dam in the east and the Yim Tin Tsai headland (which houses Sam Mun Tsai) in the west, form the 'Special Area' - one of only six in the territory. 'Special' because of its flora, fauna and geological features, but actually it is the rock that give the place its special nature. There are very few places in HK where you can see sedimentary rock, Tung Ping Chau is one such place and is perhaps more famous than Ma Shi Chau, but the latter has rock formations that were formed in the Permian Period (it's a geological age for numpties like you and I), which is 280,000,000 to 225,000,000 years ago. It is thought to be the oldest rock in Hong Kong!!

There is a recognised nature walk which circumnavigates the Island and you will often find large groups of school kids heading in and out of the area. The island itself can be reached from Sam Mun Tsai where it is signposted from the end of the main street - up the hill, past a playground and into the wooded hill area beyond the village. This wooded area is actually one large big burial ground and is strewn with traditional Chinese graves. The pathway is paved for the first third of the journey, but o the other side of the hill, as you break out of the woods and get a view over to Ma On Shan, the path splits. The paved area continues down the hill but to get to Ma Shi Chau you need to hang a right and follow the earthen path along the ridge of the hillside. For those used to the namby-pamby paving found on a large portion of HK's trails, the thought of walking on mud may seem quite novel.

The track slowly runs down the hillside until it meets with the spit of land that connects Ma Shi Chau with the headland. This spit is called a tombolo and is formed over the years by sediment accumulating in one place. The tombolo is perhaps 50 feet wide and the difference in water quality on both sides of it is marked. The harbour side, more open to the elements is more turbid and gets a lot of wave action, whereas the bay side is distinctly cleaner and calmer, the latter no doubt to the sheltering effect of the islands deflecting winds and large wave action. Times like this when I wish I had brought my dive kit - remembering what the water quality is like on the other side of the bay in Tai Mei Tuk is quite surprising at how clean it looks over here.

Once over the spit you are on Ma Shi Chau proper and can opt to wander around the coastline if you wish, but actually we just stayed on the western end and played on the beach. You will find crabs, oysters, sand hoppers and the like (as well as the usual plethora of detritus from human habitation). If you don't fancy the walk back up the hill then you may find that some ladies from the nearby fishing village have driven their boats over to offer the tired hikers a quick (though expensive) trip back to the mainland. I asked how much and the lady said $50 pp which was a little bit expensive for me so we opted for the walk back and grabbed a nice drink from a local shop in Sam Mun Tsai.

Incidentally, there is a small house at the end of the main street in Sam Mun Tsai, that sells noodles. Very nice and hits the spot either before or after a trip through the hills. It is outside the second set of public toilets next to a sign pointing up to Ma Shi Chau.

Sam Mun Tsai is a small fishing village which sits on the northern shore of Tolo Harbour, on a headland called Yim Tin Tsai, that juts out to the west of Plover Cove. It is quite well established and still has a (not so) thriving fishing industry based around some small independent fisherfolk. Even at a weekend, with numerous hikers wandering through its main street, the place can still be described as sleepy. The fishing industry is really on the verge of collapse in Hong Kong, mainly due to years and years of overfishing and the use of destructive fishing methods such as trawling. It is a sad fact that the main victims of this overfishing (other than the fish and marine environment in general of course) is the small village based fisherfolk, who can rarely fish in large enough quantities to cause much impact, whereas the trawlers trundle about unabated  capturing smaller and smaller fish that just end up as fry for the local fish farms. The result is a fishing community that can no longer really support itself through fishing alone. Many years ago, this area was a pearl farm and indeed the pearl industry in Tai Po was well-known. Only when pearl farming became economically inefficient did that particular chapter draw to and end.

Actually, it is very easy to find remnants of the pearl industry in and around Tai Po. The waters still have many oysters thriving on the not-so-clean-anymore waters of Tolo Harbour and you will find heaps of discarded shells around here and also over by Island House on Yuen Chau Tsai (the beach is absolutely strewn with oyster shells). Actually, talking of Ned Middleton (as I was on my Tony Banham blog entry). Ned was based in HK with the British Army in the 70's and used to go diving in the area around Plover Cove reservoir. He told me that he and his army buddies would often find nice pearls, and though not in great quantities, the quality was good enough to be made into jewelry for his family members. 

Sam Mun Tsai retains much of the charm you would expect from a small village, a main thoroughfare one side of which has the villagers uniform two-storey houses, the other side flanked by the bay and a few small huts and covered areas used by the locals for socialising, watching television or dealing with their fishing equipment and boats. They are friendly people and very used to visitors and a few of the more industrious have taken advantage of this by setting up shops and cafes/dai pai dongs.

Life has been disrupted of late by the construction of the huge (and extremely ugly) suburban sprawl that is now known as "The Beverly Hills". God!!, anyone who has sat through the adverts on TV for this place are in for a shock when they realise that dishonest HK advertising has duped them again. The people who have bought and/or live here are richer (though, now a lot poorer ) versions of those currently getting conned into the non-existant fantasy lifestyle that is also being used to flog "The Palazzo" in Fo Tan and "Lake Silver" in Ma On Shan. Don't take my word for it, Ordinary Gwailo has a much better angle on this sort of thing. Anyway, the eyesore that is "The Beverly Hills" (come on, just the name should start ringing alarm bells) has done no end of damage to the natural beauty of the area around Sam Mun Tsai - I guess we can be thankful that it isn't a high-rise development. It's a great example of how taste deteriorates with wealth, of course it's a universal truth, but the Chinese have it down to an art.

Back to Sam Mun Tsai. It does in fact boast a very small fisherman's museum with some interesting old photos and artifacts from its abundant fishing history (including a bronze diving helmet) and there is a very helpful series of plaques along the main drag with bi-lingual signs giving details and photographs detailing the villages origins and subsequent growth.

Sam Mun Tsai is actually very easy to get to. You can either catch the 74K double decker or the 20K green minibus, both leave from Tai Po East rail station and terminate at Sam Mun Tsai so you don't have to worry about when to get off. Be warned the 74K takes a slightly slower route and isn't quite as frequent as the minibus.

Chung Wo Tsing Sze temple is situated at the end of Ma Wo Road, behind the Classical Gardens development and very near to Ting Wai Monastery. The temple is actually just part of a much larger complex which makes up a graveyard and ancestral halls. This is one of the reasons why many locals find Classical Gardens not that attractive - some of the buildings have views right over the graveyards and many consider it to be bad luck. That said, there are many people who don't care about this and actually this area is very quiet and picturesque so perhaps the benefits outweigh the costs for some?

The complex is fairly large, given its position, housing a temple, small pagoda and garden as well as a large covered area for refreshments. I haven't been here during any of the grave sweeping festivals but I imagine the size of the sitting out area is indicative of how many people can come here on such occasions.

The decor of the temple gate and main building give the impression that it has been around for a few years whereas the small pagoda with orange roof is a much more recent addition. The temple has a main altar room of course and two side rooms containing ash plots in the walls. At the time I was there various old ladies were partaking in a ceremony involving them wearing blue overalls and singing along to the beat of a small bell. They didn't seem to be too fussed with a gwei-lo running about the place taking pictures.

Actually, a really nice circular walk can be made around this area. If coming from the station you can walk up Tat Wan Road and taking a small alley between the two schools on the western side of the road. This leads to Ma Chung Road and another smaller private Buddhist temple can be found here (unfortunately it doesn't look as though they are willing to receive visitors).

Turn right onto Ma Wo Road and follow it up the hill. About half way up between Grand Dynasty View and Dynasty View is a small road which leads to Ting Wai Monastery - worth a quick peak if you have time - then follow the road right to the end where it meets a roundabout before going up hill. Immediately above the roundabout is where you will find Chung Wo Tsing Sze Temple. Follow the road around to the right and it become Pan Chung Road. It goes through a very pretty village called Ma Wo Tsuen (i.e. Ma Wo Village) and you can follow this road all the way around the hill and down the other side towards Pan Chung. You will eventually reach the tunnel which goes under the East Rail line and back to the Tai Po Complex.

This one will please my Thai friend Seree, who I used to work with back in sunny Blighty. Just when you think you have Tai Po pretty much sussed, something turns up to give you a nice surprise. For me it is the discovery that Tai Po has its very own Thai Buddhist Temple (maybe we should change its name to Thai Pho?). Apparently there are quite a few Thai Buddhist temples in Hong Kong, though you won't find them on quite the same grand scale as found in the homeland - they are usually simple places which house a few large Buddhas and some basic accommodation for the monks. Wat Maktham Vanaram is definitely in keeping with this tradition. The great thing about this place is that it is really hidden away, and unmarked on any maps I have, so just finding it is a challenge in itself.

The Thai community in Hong Kong is small but well established (anyone who has had a Thai Green Curry in Kowloon City can confirm this) but spread out. Most people employed in the catering trade, manual labour and of course, similar to Filipinos and Indonesians, as domestic helpers. There is enough of a community though to make places like Wat Maktham Vanaram very important and an obvious focal point for Thai Buddhist religious celebrations.

The temple consists of some small two-storey old Chinese village buildings, erected in a large clearing at the end of a path that starts on the edge of Shek Kwu Lo village near the Lam Tsuen river. One of the buildings has been turned into a chapel/altar whilst the others serve as offices, catering and accommodation. The temple entrance is flanked, strangely enough, by a small Taoist altar with God Kwan inside, but once inside the central courtyard is dominated by a large Buddha statue that sits in the shade of some banyan trees on the far side. Don't be afraid of the dogs that start barking as soon as you appear, they are harmless and (cliche warning...) their bark is worse than their bite *ahem*. Once I had let them smell my hand they relaxed and went about their own way again.

The monks seem to be very friendly and don't mind you taking a few snaps, to be honest I wonder how many non-Thai visitors they actually see giving the remote location. There is a sign board immediately past the main entrance which contains news of recent events written in both Thai and English (didn't see any Chinese mind you) and it looks as though I just missed a celebration known as Kathin in which followers donate new robes to the monks. Once donations have been received "crocodile flags" (see below) are put on the temple sign to demonstrate that donations have already been received and people should instead go to another temple to make their donation. The flags had been hoisted by the time I arrived on the scene due to the fact that I am visiting at the end of this particular festival.

The short journey to the temple is quite pleasant as it passes a small village and a stream which runs through the small valley, one strange site I also saw is a private house with its own pagoda. The owner was in his garden and waved but I was toov far away to start a  conversation and will perhaps go back another time and find some more about it.

In trying to find out a bit more about this place I also stumbled on a great website with some really good photography of Tai Po and other places in HK. It's called Thai World View.

Tony is a well-respected local historian who has lived in Hong Kong for the best part of twenty years, and has absorbed himself in the wartime events in and around Hong Kong. The result of his painstaking research is, so far (because, I believe they form part of a series of four), two fantastically well researched and written books - documents really - the first "Not The Slightest Chance: The Battle for Hong Kong 1941" relates, in almost minute by minute and hour by hour detail, the events following the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong up to and including every day of the battle and a one week after the formal allied surrender (which led to 4 years of occupation by the Japanese). It is a truly fascinating read, not only because of its detail, but for me being interested in Hong Kong history there is a lot of reference to places and buildings that still exist in today's HK. I find it bizarre that wartime paraphenalia can still be located in-situ, in many of the major places of battle, given how much and how quickly HK has changed even in the 10 or so years since I first came by. I am not just talking about spent and live ordnance but whole tunnel systems that can still be found in the hills around HK and Kowloon, and of course the still identifiable war damage that can be found on some of those pre-war buildings that are still standing in HK (yes, surprise surprise there are a few: Legco, Wanchai Market, TST Clock tower - the HSBC lions etc).

What surprises me most is that the battle for HK isn't really covered, in any depth at all, in the standard war history books (ignored, glossed over - perhaps because it was a surrender?), and actually I think this is really where Tony's book comes into its own. It really gives justice to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice defending HK at the orders of Churchill and is a fitting tribute to their memory whilst also being informative and a good source of reference on several faspects of HK's history. It is also quite an eye opener, especially when discussing some of the atrocities perpetrated by the invading Japanese. The bravery and heroism of a mixed bunch of regulars, volunteers and militia who managed to hold back the force of the imperial Japanese army for over a week. It is a truly astonishing story and deserves and much wider audience.

Ooh, just a quick note on one of the above mentioned atrocities. Banham describes a civilian massacre on Blue Pool Rd when a private party was disrupted by the Japanese moved over the island. They shot and/or bayoneted all the men, then raped and murdered all the women. Seems as though this area was quite well known for its links to the Kuomintang, and the Japanese specifically targeted the area. Anyway, this is the same massacre talked about in King Hui: The Man Who Owned All the Opium in HK, when Peter Hui describes how two men survived the killing. I can't remember all the details but I do recall that one of the survivors was saved by a piece of jade which he kept in his jacket pocket!

Mr Banham's second book (in a proposed series of four?), "The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru: Britain's Forgotten Wartime Tragedy", detailing the war events of HK, is a story about the Japanese POW transport ship, Lisbon Maru, sunk by an American submarine off the coast of Shanghai in 1942. On board the boat were POWs from HK, all of whom recently played their parts in the events described in the previous book, on their way to Japan as slave labour. Many were killed, many survived and went on to be killed later in the camps, some survived to the end of the war. This book is, again, very detailed in its description of events preceding, during and following the sinking and Tony has obviously made a great effort in providing a (complete) roll call of the dead which means it is a great lasting document of their last moments.

Aside from the historical aspect, this book interests me because I recently heard that a local diving group (possibly Jackie Wu's archeological diving guys?) made a trip to the site of the sinking and managed to dive the wreck - supposedly within recreational diving limits (i.e. shallower than 40 metres). It would certainly be interesting to venture up on a future expedition and dive the area of the wreck to get some photographs. Another reason why my interest was stirred about this wreck was from a conversation between my friend Howard, myself and a published wreck diver - Ned Middleton - the latter is formulating possibilities of the twenty best wreck dives in the world for a new book and I passed him the name of the Lisbon Maru. I should add that this was before the wreck was properly located. Ned mentioned that he probably wouldn't be able to dive it (depth was unknown at the time) but may include the story as a good page filler for his book. Well since then of course the wreck has been found and I wonder if Ned would reconsider and actually try to get there for some photos, I hope so. Ned is of course ex-military (he used to dive in Tolo Harbour - my current stomping grounds- when he was stationed in HK) and would be very keen to ensure proper protocol and respect was observed when diving a wartime grave. We shall see. In the meantime you can read Tony's very detailed account in the book. Again, something deserving of a much wider audience. Right, time to fire a mail off to Ned

Some more links:

Hong Kong War Diary

Tony's page on the HKVCA (Hong Kong Veteran's Commemorative Association) website

HKVCA Website (please feel free to donate)

Sai Wan War Cemetery entry on this blog

Without realising, I actually saw this building long before I ever set foot in Hong Kong. I had (have) been a big fan of Jackie Chan ever since I was fairly young - perhaps since I was about 13 or 14 (ever since I first saw Cannonball Run actually). Well, I am the wrong side of *ahem* 35 now so I guess that makes it over twenty years. Anyway, one of my favourite films was "Project A", aka "Pirate Patrol", in which Mr Chan plays a Marine Policeman chasing pirates all over HK waters, very entertaining stuff with the now very well-known scene in which he tumbles from the top of a clock tower through some awnings and crunch, hits the deck.

There are quite a few shots in the film in which this building (The 'Former' Marine Police HQ) was used for the location shooting - when it was actually meant to represent Central Police Station bizarrely enough (perhaps the station at the time was a no-goer?) - and on my first trip over in 1995, I immediately recognised the collonaded facade through the trees and everything clicked into place. (aah!, so that's where it was filmed)

I am happy to say that, thankfully, this place was declared a monument in 1994, protecting it from complete destruction. It was built in 1884 and for all that time, with a short break during the Japanese Occupation 1941-45, it housed the marine police up until circa 1996 when the HQ was moved over to HK Island - I guess for better access to the 'smuggler' haven of the eastern coast.

Since then it has been sitting around doing nothing until Cheung Kong holdings (Li Ka Shing's development company) won a tender to turn it into a boutique hotel. From the looks of it, despite losing it famous blue and white paint job, the hotel is nearing completion. The development also included the revamping of the Old TST Firestation that stands in the southeastern corner of the site.

While it is still off bounds to the public, the best place to catch a good view is to head to the podium floor at the neighbouring Salisbury YMCA. It gives a good side elevation of the whole site (see below). To get to the YMCA podium use the rear lift - reached by walking past the ground floor cafe, past the office desk and the lift is at the back.

When I get the chance I will put in a decent screen shot from Project A so you can see what the place looked like back in 1983 when the film was made.

No originality at all on my part, this one is lifted from Pete Spurrier's Leisurely Hikers Guide - however, since re-reading "Gwei Lo" by Martin Booth as part of a Batgung location mapping project I have also realised that this walk was, possibly, the same one done by Booth and his family in the book. The difference is that in 1953 I suspect they had harder time of it and they got to spend a night at the monastery.

Booth starts his walk from Tung Chung, then a small fishing village, via Ma Wan Chung. Pete Spurrier's starts off by catching the bus from Tung Chung (now, thanks to the airport a busy, but frankly sterile, new town with an abundance of public transport connections all over Lantau). So we hop on the #34 minibus and take it up to Shek Mun Kap - hard to miss because it is the terminus. Shek Mun Kap is a small village about a third of the way up the slops of what becomes Lantau Peak, so the bus journey means that this walk can easily be done in just a couple of hours. One word of warning for arachnophobes, you see some pretty large orb spiders on this trail and one dropped down right in front of my daughter's face at one point, thankfully she isn't scared of them (whereas I nearly shit my pants!!).

Spurrier recommends popping into the village shop for drink and makes a quip about the old fellow inside trying to sell you beer depending on your age. Sure enough, as soon as I show an interest in the bottled water in the drinks fridge, the old fellow is over asking me if I want beer as well! So we set off up the hill and it isn't long before you come across the first point of interest is the Lo Hon Monastery. Hikers guide says take the path marked by a blue character 'faat' which means Buddha. Unfortunately it must be a while since the book was written because the character is no longer discernable. Thankfully the path is fairly obvious and it follows a wall around to the right hand side.

From here on it is just wilderness interspersed with some impressive views over Tung Chung bay to the airport. The trail leads uphill all the way so don't think that it is easy. Along the way it comes close to a stream which has various collection points where you can cool down your feet, but it is hot and sweaty work. The next grouping of buildings is around Tei Tong Tsai which has several old monasteries and private buildings around which the jungle has provided some natural camouflage. One of the best places to stop is in front of a Buddhist compound with a nice tree in front of the pai-lau. The place is called "Sup Fong Do Yik" which roughly translates as "Ten Square Ways". I am not a Buddhist so have no idea of the significance of the name but it is an active temple and whilst we were there we could hear the afternoon prayers going on in the main temple building. Unfortunately there is a no photo sign up, so I had to settle for just a picture of the gate and the view. When you start off on the walk again you walk through the well-tended gardens of the compound and get a feel for how big the place is. Strange to think it is hidden away half way up Lantau Peak. Very peaceful.

Then another funny thing happened. There is a picture in the Leisurely guide of two nuns walking down the hill. So what happened next? Yup, two nuns came walking down the hill and stopped to say hello and give my kids presents. My daughter (impressing them with her fluent Cantonese) received some prayer beads and my son had to content himself with some Buddhist VCDs!! It brought a smile to the nuns faces anyway and they disappeared with farewells of "Or lay tau faat" something I haven't heard since watching "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin"!!

It's not long after this that you come to a pavilion for a quick rest and further up the hill is a stone pai-lau, which I am quite certain is the same one encountered by Martin Booth when he did this walk. But who knows? It certainly looks old enough. By the time you are here you are almost finished the slope has flattened out because you are now walking alongside the western flank of Lantau peak (this is the second highest peak in Hong Kong after Tai Mo Shan) towards the plateau that houses Po Lin and the great Buddha.

I realise that this isn't necessarily off the beaten path however, it is rare that you get the opportunity to actually go inside unless you are one of Donald's chums. But, apparently, twice a year or so the gates are thrown open and the rabble are allowed to wander around certain parts of the garden and through the middle of the house. Yesterday (October 19th) was one of these days so we traipsed along expecting to join the back of a very long queue (you know what these Chinese are like when something free is on offer). However, we were a bit later than expected and also decided to get some lunch beforehand so by the time we got to Govt House there were no queues to go into the eastern entrance on Upper Albert Road. Yes, heap big plenty crowds inside taking photos (why does everyone in HK have huge lenses attached to their cameras? - even the old biddies) but in general we could walk around unmolested and take some nice pictures. The grounds are quite impressive as is the famous back steps where every Governor, since the invention of the camera, has had their photos taken with staff and visiting dignitaries.

You get to wander through the centre of the house and then out through the front doors and exit via the main gate. The interior is very impressive and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. But then again I enjoy anything with a bit of history and this place is about as historical as HK can get. Old colonial architecture used by a succession of Governors, then taken over by the Japanese during the occupation - during which time the tower was added - and of course serving as the home of Chris Patten and his family between 92 -97 and being famously snubbed by the first Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa.

Anyway, as mentioned these open days are few and far between so you can keep a look out via the official website.

I must admit I had never heard of this hill in Fan Ling. I was out for a bit of a walk exploring Fung Yin Seen Koon (see below) and still had a bit of time before heading back to Tai Po to pick the kids up from school, and I spotted a sign saying Wu Tip Shan Path (Woo Deep is Cantonese for 'Butterfly', but actually the English name for this place is "Stable Hill"). So I figured I would walk for 30 mins and see how far I got before having to head back down the hill. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found.

The initial part of the path takes you past a lot of the Chinese graves that litter the hillside around Fung Yin Seen Koon, before it starts to head out into less-habited places. It isn't a particularly steep climb, and as always the Govt do-gooders have been here before laying down concrete, lest we slip and injure our poor legs, but it does still take a bit of energy and I did stop for a rest a couple of times.

The path goes quite near to the HK Police Forces Special Tactics training centre and for most of my upward journey I could hear the very loud reports of what I can only assume was a hand gun being fired on the range. The crack of the gun was echoing in the surrounding hills, loud enough to make me duck the first couple of times I heard it...

There are a couple of nicely built pavilions, in the traditional sense, along the way, and a large number of shelters made from metal sheeting. Both types equally as popular. Actually I was amazed at how popular this route is. Obviously a well kept secret for the locals. As you get to the top the climb gets much steeper and more prolonged. As I said I was running out of time so didn't really get to follow it all the way around, but I did make it to the 'top' and get some photos, the only pity is that today has been pretty smoggy so my promised panorama of Shenzhen didn't materialise. I could make out some skyscrapers in the haze but that was all. I did notice a strange development on the opposite side of the valley though that I have since confirmed is Gallant Garden in Wo Hop Shek cemetery. The blue roofed pavilions are easily spotted from this vantage point on the opposite side of the valley. The place is recognisable amongst the tiered hillsides on the photo below (tiered because they contain graves, not because they used to be rice paddies). It has recently been in the news because of the two brave firefighters who were killed in the recent Mongkok Karaoke fire. Both have been buried here. Jackie Chan fans may also recognise it from "New Police Story" as it was the location used for the funeral of all his dead comrades.

Once I reached the top I was greeted by a friendly old man who was up doing his daily Shaolin internal kung fu exercises (I kid you not) and unfortunately didn't have time to take him up on his offer of learning, but still he was a friendly old chap and was quite keen to use his English on me. The top is basically a ridge on the one side the slopes of Wo Hop Shek and on the other the valley slopes down towards Fanling golf course with China on the near horizon. Well worth a trip if you get the chance, I intend to go back and learn kung fu.