Sam Kung Temple, Tai Po

Another little side excursion from Ting Kok Road that isn’t too far from the formerly mentioned Kwun Yam statue is the recently rebuilt Sam Kung (three palace) Temple of Shuen Wan.

Shuen Wan is of course the proper Chinese name for the area known as “Plover Cove” which includes the area west of the Sam Mun Tsai headland (the bit that now contains that utterly hideous construction known as The Beverly Hills). A large proportion of the original ‘cove’ was lost in the mid-60′s when the Plover Cove Reservoir was built, but the remaining area still contains a few Hakka hamlets that have been along this shoreline for a considerable amount of time.

St Francis of Assisi Primary School, Shek Kip Mei

To start off the year I am lacking a bit of inspiration and motivation to write about much (just seem to be getting one cold after another at the mo) but until I am back and fully fit here is a quickie from down the road.

It’s a rather well-known local religious school that is worthy of note due to its so-called ‘Chinese Renaissance’ architecture.

If Only It Were That Simple…

People will tell you many things about the way HK has changed since the handover. I’m not really an expert on the subject because I wasn’t living  here (but came a few times pre-97 for extended holidays visiting friends) but HK definitely has a more Chinese – as in Mainland – feel to it. The reasons are many but one of the issues that crops up every so often is the use of Simplified Chinese in local shops signs/menus/adverts etc.

Gung Hei Faat Choi!

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…

Ping Shan Heritage Trail, Yuen Long

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.

The Bruce Lee Guide to Yau Ma Tei

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.

God Kuan Ti – left or right hand?

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.

Former Site of TVB Studios, Broadcast Drive

Here is a quickie before we head off for the usual end-of-term getaway.  I’ve got a ton of stuff on my to-do list (about 7 or 8 things I want to post) but they invariably involve the need for some up-to-date piccies and seeing as school term ended last week going to get these snaps usually involves some sort of immense pain caused by my kids’ incessant moaning about how bored they are looking at old ruins (yes, readers that includes me). You bribe ‘em and they still moan, it’s a lose/lose situation and sometimes not worth the hassle. As a result, you may have to wait a few weeks for me to get around to finishing them off (the articles I mean, not the kids). Until then…

Avenue of Stars – A Guide For The HK-Film Ignoramus Part 2

Back by popular demand (ha!) – and you thought I’d forgotten about it…

Alas no, here is part two of my idiot’s guide – part 1 found here – (photos courtesy of Thomas Podvin’s excellent HKCinemagic site unless otherwise stated) but in the meantime let’s get moving on with…

Hong Kong’s Old Fire Hydrants

At the risk of sounding like a bit of an anorak (let’s face it, I’ve been called worse, and also there is probably a small ring of truth to it) I thought I would bring to your attention the various old fire hydrants that still exist in various parts of the territory.

Bruce Lee Residence – results announced.

I originally wrote this post in 2010 (the results were announced in January of that year) before all the kerfuffle broke out and the museum hot potato was quietly dropped by both interested parties (or perhaps more appropriately: uninterested) in the hope no one would notice.

Chinese Celebratory Banners

I can’t really think what else to call these things simply because I can’t find any reference to them in any of my books, but one thing is certain, whenever there is any sort of celebration in Hong Kong – from the large Da Jiu festivals to the simple (but rarely humble) opening of a new shop – these brightly coloured edifices sprout up and remain in place for the duration (and then some).

Green Minibuses

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 transport: trains (over/underground), trams (old and new), ferries and buses. Perhaps the most ubiquitous of these is the trusty (or should that be “rusty”) old minibus.

Bruce Lee’s Hong Kong

What started off as an obsession with Enter the Dragon locations (on the original Livespace version of this blog, at least) has blossomed into a reasonably thorough consolidated list of many Lee-related locations here in Hong Kong (and Macau). I’m certainly no expert (at least not compared to some of the cool people who have helped me put the list together) but I am in the enviable position of being here in Hong Kong and can blend this info with some of my own local knowledge and give some modern day context to many of the sites.

Sometimes it is hard for Lee fans to understand that modern Hong Kong is a vastly different place to the one Lee was familiar with. The pace of development throughout the 70′s and 80′s was massive and as such many of the sites Lee would have known well have completely changed or disappeared altogether. To be honest, we’re quite lucky to have the ones that still remain – or at least remain for the time being.

So what we have below is a list of various places, some featured in his various films, some part of his personal life and some are just thrown in because there may be some obscure tenuous link I read about in an old magazine somewhere. Anyway, enjoy and feel free to help me enhance – I’m not a Lee expert (nor am I a collector) just a long time fan with a big interest in Hong Kong, so it is highly likely there is a mistake about dates times etc. Please feel free to correct in the comments section below.

Hong Kong Shophouses

What is a shophouse? They were buildings designed, or at least used, for joint residential and commercial  life. The shop/business was downstairs on the ground floor whilst the family resided on the floors above. That in itself doesn’t really explain them in the context of HK because the term is used here almost exclusively to describe a style of building that juts out over the pavement with supporting pillars at the front. I say almost exclusively, but I should make it clear that these particular shophouses are in fact Canton-style or Guangzhou-style shophouses.