And with that I shall present my final uploaded picture ever. This is it folks, the last one, no more after this until I can pull my finger out and pay (aaargh!!) for some new media space.
Have a happy Chinese (though strictly speaking we should say Lunar because it ain’t just the Chinese who celebrate it) New Year.
Ah man! who would ever want to be the back legs on one of those things.
Until the next time…
On the same trip where we (the Gwulo gang – a bit like the Red Hand Gang only with less bum fluff and perhaps a more mature sense of dress) all headed off to Ho Hok Shan, and after eating lunch (at Tai Hing BBQ restaurant in the nearby Sun Yuen Long Plaza) where we spent most of the time picking bits of the wilderness out of out clothes, we nipped off to the nearby Ping Shan Heritage Trail.
This is one of two so-called ‘heritage’ trails in the New Territories, the other one being the Lung Yeuk Tau trail in Fanling. I must admit it’s taken me an absolute age to get to this place after many, many abortive attempts that have seen me waylayed for various reasons (too many to go into) – so it was nice to finally make it.
I was wandering around Tai Po the other day with Glenn Griffith, after having a rather large dim sum brunch at nearby Choi Fuk – Glenn’s a pessimist, so I am sure he wasn’t disappointed with our spread – and happened to glance down at the ground and see not just one but three old Rediffusion covers on the pavement. Stone me, I thought these things were hard to find and here I am with three of them. Glenn offered to lend me his camera but I really felt that I was already sad enough - having 1) spotted them 2) taken an interest in them and then 3) actually told someone else about them – and I didn’t want to do anything that might push me over the edge into complete and utter trainspotter territory - besides, I could always come back later 
Happy new year to everyone and here is a small one to get this years ball rolling. A few weeks before the year end I joined the Gwulo gang on a trip to Yuen Long to investigate some suspected trenches on a hill called Ho Hok Shan.
Time for the annual automated blog post. But just to add a few words and say many thanks to all who read and/or commented on these humble posts during the last year as well as those who have actually come to HK and looked me up for a natter and some food/beer. Happy new year to everyone and here’s looking for ward to an interesting year to come…
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 73,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 3 days for that many people to see it.
Well, here we go, the last post…of 2011. I’ve been putting this one together for quite a while simply because I don’t have the time to walk the whole thing in one go but I trust the route is the most efficient, makes sense and that people find it useful. Not only is this a great way to see some Lee related sites in YMT, but it’s also a good solid walk taking you through a large part of Kowloon that wouldn’t necessarily be on the usual tourist/visitor itinerary.
As before it’s mainly Bruce with some local interest thrown in for good measure and, like #1, you can get the route from Googlemaps where I have plotted out the main sites listed below. This walk involves a lot of crossing roads so make sure you have your best walking shoes on and, seeing as this is HK, it will be hot. Even a HK winter can be warm and a bit sticky, especially if you are traipsing around Kowloon with all its poor air flow and heat-radiating concrete.
A while back Roger left an intriguing comment about this place and it’s been on my ‘to do’ list for some time. I had never heard of this former site until then, and actually Roger has pointed quite a few interesting places out for me so many thanks to him, and others, for taking an interest in this stuff and offering suggestions and information.
Well, I had a bit of spare time today on the way back home and decided to make the very short detour up Tung Lo Wan Hill Road to check out the brass plaque that has been attached to the side of this residential complex.
Following on from Drumbrake’s comment about using a site such as FLICKR for storing my photos I have decided to experiment with connecting my FLICKR account with my blog and see what happens.
What better way to start than sticking in a snap of an old shophouse in Sham Shui Po. Notice the date at the top? It actually says 1932 which makes it perhaps the second oldest I have seen yet (the current record holder seems to be this nice looking one on Nathan Road).
Anyway, it looks as though I may be limited to one picture per blog this way so might not be the most practical solution but at least it is an extra option if I get desperate. So many thanks to Drumbrake for making me aware of it.
While I count down to the end of the year – and to the end of my free ride on WordPress – and also while I collect all the snaps I need for the upcoming Bruce Lee guide to Yau Ma Tei (it’s taking me ages, sorry), here are a couple of interesting artifacts I have noticed on my wanderings (to go along with the lot marker and Rediffusion inspection cover recently noted). The first one is one of the old octagonal-headed fire-hydrants that are becoming increasingly hard to spot (remember the one on Man Ming Lane that disappeared not long after I did a post on it here?).
Speaking of observation skills and the ability to see stuff that most people just walk by, I have had some good training from the guys over at Gwulo. I’m still amazed by the stuff they can see that still escapes my not-so-all-seeing eyes. Anyway, just after spotting the Rediffusion inspection Cover at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, I walked around the corner where Gascoigne Road meets Nathan Road and noticed a stone sticking up out of the ground. Actually these guys are everywhere, but seem to be easier to locate near to Govt or Military (and ex-Military) sites.
I was having a wander around Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kowloon the other day, as you do – don’t worry I’m not an ambulance chaser nor did I need any attention at the A&E department, I was merely taking snaps for an upcoming Bruce Lee walking tour. Anyway, just as I was heading back down Queen Elizabeth Hospital Road I noticed an old inspection cover that deserved closer attention.
Yes, it’s time for another bus tour, who needs The Big Bus Tour or the Rickshaw Bus when you can be a cheapskate like me and get on a local double-decker and head off on a whim. Of course it helps if you have an inkling of where you will end up, so here is another brief intro so you can board the bus without fear of ending up somewhere the other side of Shanghai (or even worse…Coventry. eek!).
Now, to be honest, the following route (#307) has all the action at the beginning (HK-side, that is) before it crosses the harbour and starts to peter out, but even so it still remains my preferred method of getting in and out of the Island. It’s also great if you are staying on the Island and wish to find a more novel and rewarding way of getting to Tai Po for some NT discovery. The less attractive alternative is to catch the MTR from: Central -> TST -> East TST (West Rail) -> HungHom (East Rail) or Central -> Mongkok -> Kowloon Tong (East Rail). Trust me, the bus is a much more interesting and value-for-money alternative.
Here’s a good example of how you should never take HK’s landscape for granted – something I am guilty of all the time despite knowing better.
A while ago now (2010 I think?) a nice fellow called Sean Olson posted some old pics on Gwulo.com in an attempt to wind up a few remaining loose ends concerning his family history (a decade long research project – the result of which can be found on Sean’s website: The Hong Kong Legacy). Sean had a whole bunch of old snaps that needed the locations identifying. It can be fun trying to nail these places, and let’s face it I’ve had a reasonable amount of practice – sometimes it’s easy, but sometimes the topography of the land has altered so much due to development that it can be quite a challenge (for an excellent recent example of how you can be fooled, check out this recent addition to gwulo and the ensuing discussion that followed – a picture supposedly of Castle Peak turned out to be 50km away in Macau!).
Tucked away in the backstreets of YMT is a great looking little building that would be easy to miss if you weren’t a fan of cricket. I should point out that I am definitely not a fan (sorry) but have stumbled on this place thanks to a combination of curiosity (well, okay, nosiness) and luck.
I’ve been down here a few times now, and often take my kids for a spin on the Cox’s Road playground (which will be included in my upcoming Bruce Lee tour of YMT) and usually it’s a relatively quiet part of town (relative to Nathan Rd at least) but just this last week it was absolutely heaving thanks to the Cricket Sixes (I think I even followed the NZ team back up the road) and unfortunately, for some reason – probably to stop non-paying spectators – the playground gets closed whenever something is going down at the K.C.C.
I don’t have the knowledge or space to give a detailed account of Kuan Ti’s extensive and legendary background – wiki can do that for me – but I thought I should mention a ‘fact’ I heard many years ago and recently sprang back into my mind because I think I spotted an example of it (I say fact but actually I have no idea if it is true or some sort of urban myth). Incidentally it’s also mentioned on the wiki entry I just linked to. Read more »
Shelter Island sits in the southern part of Port Shelter and is about 6km from Sai Kung public pier making it, probably, the second most visited dive site next to Sharp Island. Most of the better diving is to be had on the north and west parts of the island where depth stays fairly shallow (above the 10m mark) and therefore has a fair bit of coral to see and associated reef fish.
Here’s one that despite me living very near to I had no idea it existed. I have Cheddy to thank for giving me a nudge in the right direction because he had some aerial photos that showed the place – try and find it at ground level and the place is completely obscured by trees. Anyway, I promised I would have a dig around and find out what it was.
Anyone who has spent time reading this…stuff, will know that i do like my curvy architecture. It’s not just the style it’s because it almost invariably means the building has a bit of age and perhaps some interesting history behind it. Anyway, following on from my previous post on Luen Wo Market – here is a building sitting right next to it that looks like it has been around as long as the old market building itself.
A great example of interesting architecture applied to a core part of every day Chinese life can be found out in Fanling. Luen Wo market is a fine example of modernist/art deco (feel free to call me out regarding the correct terminology, after all I am an architectural dufus) building design sitting right slap bang in the middle of what used to be a very rural part of the New Territories.
A bit of the more recent Colonial history of HK can be found when looking into the details of Fanling Magistracy (粉嶺裁判法院). It’s not a particularly old building by the usual standards (certainly compared to other ‘official’ Govt buildings that can be found in the NT) because it was ‘only’ built in 1960.
However – and this is an oft-repeated sentiment, not just by me – the fact that it’s a ‘certain age’ (hmm, older than 30 years?) and has yet to be turned into a high-end shopping mall or apartment complex styled means it should be embraced and treasured as part of the territories ‘built heritage’. Consider also that in 1960 Fanling was, like the rest of the NT, largely undeveloped and certainly nowhere near the size and scale it is today – and even these days the town itself is fairly small. So at the time of its construction this building would have been fairly grand and imposing.
Incidentally, it was the very first magistracy to be built in the New Territories (previously, crimes etc committed in the NT were heard in the Kowloon District courts) which means, despite only a poxy Grade 3 listing, it is a historically significant building in terms of NT development and modernisation.
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