On the Waterfront

I once joked to a friend that I didn’t think I could live I a place that didn’t have access to some sort of major waterway. In the years since that seemingly offhand comment was made, I have yet to stray from it, with exception of two summer stints. Hong Kong has made it reputation as one of the great ports of the world, linking China with the rest of the world.

I live along a little section of waterfront in Tsuen Wan, which neighbors the main shipping terminals, but thankfully, local leaders saw fit to finish off the area surrounding the city’s lone ferry pier with a park. In a fit of developing largesse, the main section of the park was completed concurrent with the city’s tallest building, yet it stretches along the waterfront for a good two or three miles via a jogging/bike path and isolated stretches of grass.

Tsuen Wan's waterfront shares a certain ubiquity with most modern harbors: a jogging path, outsized granite boulders used as a seawall, plaques honoring former city councils, etc. As I walked along the path, a few bourgeois types jogged past in running kit, interspersed with dogs on walks and elderly people engaged in the slow methodical walk, hands clasped behind their hips, one sees frequently here. Along the pier and at another deep part of the waterfront, fishing is the activity of choice, reel or not. It came as a surprise to see four people plying the waters with only fishing line anchored to a bucket or the railing. The more endowed and industrious fishermen stuck plural poles in the granite crevasses and reclined nearby.

The harbor itself is merely an elbow of channel between the main peninsula and Tsing Yi, one of the most developed of Hong Kong’s islands, housing a portion of the container terminals and new residential developments. Not surprisingly, the harbor is a parking lot for tugboats of various sizes and superfluous ferries.

In the background is the famous Tsing Ma Bridge, notable as the longest bridge to carry road and rail traffic. The bridge’s main span is 1,377m (4,518ft) long and exceeds all but six in the world, including the Golden Gate Bridge.

The last place I lived had a waterfront with multiple historic markers, commemorating the settling of the region via the coast’s natural harbors. The Tsuen Wan waterfront was little more than swampland a generation ago, but for the moment it possesses all the requisite pleasantries for this water-bound dweller.

High Tea, Monkeys and other Cultural Activities

Like most cosmopolitan cities, Hong Kong says its has something for everyone. Parisians, Romans, and New Yorkers may not go around saying they wish their city was more like Hong Kong, but the locals here have done an excellent job of providing for cultural institutions during their brief rise in the ranks of international cities. My personal view is that museums form the backbone of any cities claim to cultural prestige by exposing the general public to great work in all its varieties. Hong Kong’s museums were too late to the game to rival the British Museum, Louvre, or even the New York Met, but they have responded by catering to local history, idiosyncratic niches, and education. Let me walk you through a few examples.

One of the best examples of playing to local idiosyncrasies is the Flagstaff House Museum of Teaware. Here’s a question for you: how can a former colony make use of colonial buildings used to generate wealth for the colonizing country, sometimes at the expense of the local populations? Hong Kong’s answer is the Teaware Museum. Housed in the oldest colonial building left in the city (built 1844), the museum “holds regular demonstrations, tea gatherings and lecture programmes to promote ceramic art and Chinese tea drinking culture.” Also of note is the Hong Kong Film Archive, which collects any and all cinematic depictions of Hong Kong, and screens them for the public.

Many elements of local Chinese culture survived the British only to be obliterated by developers and urban expansion, but Hong Kong has selected a number of quality suites to be preserved as historical parks. I visited two former residential areas which have been partially restored and now serve as parks, the Kowloon Walled City and the Sam Tung Uk Museum. The Kowloon Walled City park rescued 31,000 m² of land, which had fallen into tenement status since the Second World War, and used it to rebuild a 15^th century Chinese imperial outpost. The Sam Tung Uk Museum, built in 1786, is one of the oldest walled villages in Hong Kong and was used as a clan residence until 1981, when it was turned into a period museum, depicting the traditional home life and farming practices of the Hakka people.

Hong Kong has made a few forays into the generalist museums, with only middling success. The two examples that do well are the Hong Kong Space Museum and the Hong Kong Science Museum, both of which emphasize educational programs for kids. There is, however, one type of general cultural endeavor which is hard to screw up, and that is a nature preserve. Hong Kong 7m or so inhabitants cram themselves into only 60% of the available land, devoting the other 40% to country parks, which, I might add, is a very convenient arrangement for the thousands of monkeys living in Hong Kong. Last but not least, the Hong Kong government sponsors an annual, month-long Arts Festival, featuring local and international music, dance, theater and opera.

All this amounts to a respectable cultural scene for a city that went from a backwater re-supply station, was conquered by two foreign powers, and overcame the devastating outbreak of a deadly disease in the last 250 years. What's even better about Hong Kong's cultural achievements is that admission to most only costs 10 HKD.

2 reasons they built a new airport in Hong Kong

And again...

The Name Game, Part Deux

Just for kicks I posted some of the fun English names I encountered in my first six months in Hong Kong a little while ago. I appreciate the interest but I don't want to keep you waiting any longer. The answers are below, and no, they don't make any sense to me either.

Pinkie ………… Ingrid Millet (salon) employee
Kinke ………… Ingrid Millet employee
Winky ………… Jusco (like Walmart) employee
Fish ………… Hair stylist
Rainbow ………… Student
Circle ………… Student
Sony ………… School administrator
Luparker ………… School principal
Bobo ………… 2 Primary school students: one a boy and one a girl