I continue my development into the next Werner Herzog with this, my latest ridiculous iMovie production.
Shanghaied!
If you’re going to write about a trip to Shanghai, can you title it anything other than “Shanghaied!” (exclamation point required)? I mean, really. Not using that title would be as conspicuously resistant as using it is conspicuously obvious.
But anyway! We went to Shanghai last weekend and had a very fine time, despite temperatures hovering in the mid-30s. (That’s mid-30s Fahrenheit, mind you; we’ll expect mid-30s Celsius in Hong Kong in July.)
The first thing we noticed about Shanghai—and which we’d been warned about, but it was still alarming—was the thick brown haze hovering over the city. Here’s a view from the plane. Continue reading
A short film
As promised/threatened in my last post, I offer for your enjoyment a short video of worshippers at Wong Tai Sin Temple. You will be shocked to learn that I made this all by myself. That ridiculous Chicago-to-Hong-Kong globe animation at the beginning? That took nearly 30 seconds of work in iMovie, 20 of which were devoted to deciding between the regular map and the old-timey map.
I note that Koyaanisqatsi came out in 1982, and Baraka in 1992. That means we’re 10 years overdue for a follow-up. Once I get, like, 90 more minutes of footage like this, I’m going to commission a minimalist soundtrack and go for it.
Fortune-telling at Wong Tai Sin Temple
Another weekend, another trip to a religious site. Hooray!
Last weekend we took another short jaunt on the MTR to Wong Tai Sin temple (黃大仙祠), a very popular shrine just east of us [Wikipedia entry, official site]. We had originally planned to combine a visit here with our trip to Nan Lin Garden and Chi Lin Nunnery, but I’m glad we didn’t. There’s enough at each of these places to merit a trip of its own.
So it’s pretty impressive just approaching, yeah. Continue reading
A not-so-secret garden. Also, a Buddhist nunnery.
Mostly a photo tour today, but a good one.
Last weekend, Cate and I took a short jaunt on the MTR, just three quick stops east on the Kwun Tong MTR line to Diamond Hill.
We were heading to two excellent sights, the Nan Lian Garden and the Chi Lin Buddhist Nunnery. Both of these are relatively recent creations, but they’re both done in ninth-century Tang style: impressively solid, dark-timbered buildings that surround spacious courtyards and pools. Oh, and the buildings don’t use any nails. (The Garden has a nice exhibit showing how the timbers are made to interlock. The short answer: with an exceptional level of craftsmanship.) Continue reading
Filed under Kowloon
China under construction
Last week Cate and I went on a short adventure to mainland China. Zhuhai is just across the Pearl River delta from Hong Kong, adjacent to Macau. It’s about a 70-minute ferry ride away. Oh look, here’s a map.
The first moment of hilarity was on the ferry ride over. China is well known as a producer and purveyor of fakes—errr, replicas. Copies. Tribute creations. You can’t walk down the main touristy thoroughfares of Hong Kong without offers of “copy watch, copy handbag,” and it’s even more out in the open and ubiquitous in the shopping centers of Shenzhen.
While it’s one thing to see knock-off Louis Vuitton handbags and Rolexes on offer, there’s something extra hilarious about the audio system in the Chu Kong Passenger Transport Co., Ltd.‘s ferry sporting an iTunes logo on its “MyGica” player.
Where have I seen that icon before?
Fire safety, Chinese-style
We found a couple of interesting lunch-box-sized containers in our Zhuhai, China hotel room last week.
I don’t read Chinese, but I’m guessing this is what it says: “In case of terrifying, metropolis-consuming conflagration, calmly put on this aluminum respirator and a thick, acid-wash denim jacket. Stand still. Breathe normally.”
The images of skyscrapers are for scale. The person wearing the fire helmet is actually 97 stories tall.
Fair enough.
Filed under Uncategorized
Strange banners
In the past few weeks, some puzzling banners have appeared in the high-traffic area of Tsim Sha Tsui. (For those interested, that’s pronounced “Chim Shah Choy” by Anglophones, which is actually a pretty good approximation of the Cantonese pronunciation.)
Labeled as the work of the harmless-sounding “Hong Kong Youth Care Association” (which has this benign website), the banners sport very strongly-worded slogans about Falun Gong. Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Greyhound comes to town
There’s a new restaurant under construction in our mall. It’s called Greyhound Café.
Two things about this are noteworthy.
- They will serve Thai food. I like.
- They have no problem with trademark infringement. Continue reading
Filed under food
Sheung Wan and Man Mo Temple
Last weekend we explored a bit around Sheung Wan, on Hong Kong Island. Sheung Wan is one of the old neighborhoods of Hong Kong Island. While the British were developing Central (just east of Sheung Wan), the Chinese population of 19th-century HK were developing Sheung Wan. Here’s a little map for you.
In Sheung Wan is Possession Point and Possession Street, which mark (you can probably see this coming) the spot where the British formally took possession of Hong Kong in 1841 near the end of the First Opium War. Behold:
Filed under Hong Kong Island, temples
Unforbidding City 