Christmas in Hong Kong

So Christmas has passed but Hong Kong is still in Christmas mode. For a region that's not particularly Christian but very consumerist, let's just say that Christmas is just another excuse to shop and take pictures with cool stuff. There's no snow in Hong Kong but there's a ton of "Christmas" decorations. Well... ostentatious sparkly stuff that's somewhat related to Christmas.

Exhibit A:


The Christmas Tree at the New Town Plaza in Shatin.

Then there are Christmas trees that are blatant displays of the commercial side of the holidays.

A tree made of fake Ferrero Rochers in Tsim Sha Tsui.


A Toy Story-related Christmas tree in Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui. A huge ad for HK Disneyland's new Toy Storyland was outside.

Some Christmas decorations were kind of simple, classy and pretty, like these twinkle lights, at Lane Crawford in TST.


Other times, it was kind of random...


Times Square in Causeway Bay.

And then sometimes, you had no clue what the hell is going on...


Megabox in Kowloon Bay.

Sometimes you had some decorations that were really gorgeous...


This is right under the super long escalator at Langham Place.

... Only to have it marred by some random Hello Kitty stuff that's somehow related to Christmas.


(I didn't take either of the Hello Kitty pictures, they were taken from the internet.)

Sigh. I'm literally dreaming of my white Christmases, though there wasn't one this year in Toronto.

Well, on a brighter note, at least the only Hannukah display I could find was not a moment of sensory overload!


At the statue garden in Central.

Happy holidays, everyone and happy new year!!!

TOY STORY LAND

Disney recently opened Toy Story Land and as a result, the people of Hong Kong are bombarded with images of Buzz, Woody and the rest of the crew on T-shirts, mugs and all sorts of paraphernalia in all sorts of shops. But of course, that's not enough. Disneyland also had to put a gigantic ostentatious Toy Story installation in TST. Admittedly, I enjoyed it quite a bit even though there were a ton of people.





I think I'll post some pictures of Christmas around HK soon.

Bauhinias in bloom...

I know the bauhinia flower is a symbol of Hong Kong but I never knew that it would bloom in November. Then again, anything blooming in November is a bit strange to me seeing that I come from Canada. So far, I've seen dark pink bauhinias and light pink ones. They smell sort of like hyacinths but less bold. Here are a few pictures:






Enjoy!

National Day in Hong Kong

October 1st is a national holiday in Hong Kong as it was the day the People Republic of China (to which it belongs to) was founded today in 1949. In other words, it's like the 4th of July in the U.S. or July 1st in Canada day but for *mainland* China. The main celebration was of course, the fireworks at Victoria Harbour where people lined up for hours to secure a spot in Tsim Sha Tsui but a friend suggested that we go elsewhere ('tis a secret spot) and some friends and I did and we got to partake in a 20 minute display of fireworks. Awesome.


National Day wasn't all about fun and games though. As I was walking down Nathan Road, a small parade was marching down as well. There were marching bands and most of the parade consisted of people holding up banners. It seemed all cheerful and whatnot... until you read the banners. I'm pretty sure I saw one that said, "The PRC was born out of ten thousand (a figurative number that's often used to express the idea of infinity) atrocities." It might've said something else along those lines since my Chinese reading skills are still limited but I'm pretty sure that's what it said. Unfortunately, that banner went by before I could pull my camera out and take a picture but here's some of the other banners.


In the end, I think the entire parade was organized by the Falun Dafa, a sect that is prosecuted in Mainland China and therefore, followers have been fiercely opposed to the Chinese Communist Party.

I guess this is the funny thing about Hong Kong. Despite the fact that its ties to China are strong, there's still an element of independence here. This little parade on this national holiday would not have been allowed if these people had hopped on a train and went north for about 2 hours. It's the same with the candlelight vigils held on June 4th.

In any case, today was the first time I began to feel a little happier with this living situation. It's hard to NOT be homesick when you realize that you're not going home for a year but seeing the National Day celebration and the parade protest/whatever you can call it really made me remember why I wanted to come here in the first place.

My first typhoon...

So, storm Nesat passed through/by/whatever Hong Kong today and I got to experience my first typhoon (storm signal level 8 was issued for most of the day). How was it, you ask? Well, the winds were super strong so sometimes it sounded like they were going to rip A/C units right off the side of apartments. I don't think that actually happened but a taxi did get squished because some scaffolding blew off a building. The heavy winds brought rain that came on and off, sometimes in small droplets, sometimes in heavy torrents.

Luckily, I was inside through most of it but the busy road outside was completely devoid of people (it's a miracle!) and a lot of stores were closed. The wet market nearby, though, was open for business.

Overall, it was a pretty relaxing day seeing that I got the day off work. I felt bad for the people who did have to work since a lot of buses were taken out of service and the MTR was running with limited service with trains coming every 10 to 12 minutes. Things have calmed down since and it looks like tomorrow will be back to normal.

Miscellaneous: August in pictures...

September is here! But before we enjoy this month to its fullest, here are a few pictures from August that I couldn't post in my previous blogs.


I found a giant figurine of one of the 2008 Beijing Olympic mascots in Shatin. The equestrian events were held in Hong Kong.


One day, I was going out to get groceries and in this public square nearby, there was this guy with two pet tortoises! One of them was named Peter. It was so cool!


This is the biggest ice rink in Hong Kong. It's in a mall called Megabox. Needless to say, there will be no figure skating competitions held here. Although there were some people who were learning how to figure skate.


I don't know if this is creepy or cute. Little monkey doll thing dressed up as Totoro. The monkey thing isn't cute but being dressed up as Totoro is.


My Chinese reading is still in the works so I didn't realize that the "Lai Chi" in "Lai Chi Kok" would mean lychee. Unless I'm just being gullible.


A stunning view from one of the bird observation houses at Hong Kong Wetland Park. A nature awareness and conservation site in the boonies.


Hong Kong bakeries have the cutest cakes!

That's all for now!

Transformers in the sky... and stuff

Here's a typical postcard of Hong Kong which shows the skyline at Victoria Harbour. It looks cool as a totality but when you approach each and every one of these buildings individually, you can't help but feel awed by their epicness. I'll leave the pictures to do the talking for this blog post.

The Lippo Building (My mind was blown when I saw this thing, it looks like a transformer!)

The Bank of China building (A story that's floating around is that it's all pointy unlike all the other buildings because the bank wanted to shoot bad feng shui at the British to make them leave.)


The Legislative Council building. (It's a very historical building so it's not a skyscraper like everything else.)


HSBC Headquarters

Here's a link to a full picture of it on wikipedia.

Jardine House


I haven't seen all the cool buildings in Central on Hong Kong Island but stay tuned for more pictures in the future!

In a sea of capitalism...

Hong Kong is undoubtedly a place in which capitalism is thriving as it has done since the founding of the British colony. As I was exploring Hong Kong on Saturday with one of my friends, you couldn't help but notice it everywhere.

Giant shopping malls (some super expensive and fancy ones too!) in which wide scale consumerism takes place are literally everywhere. You don't even need to try and you'll be able to find one. My friend and I stumbled upon many of the malls in this post. And yes, we saw them all during the same day.

Pacific Place Shopping Mall in Central:


Interior decor store at Pacific Place:


ifc building complex (it's a fancypants shopping mall, hotel and possibly other stuff as well):

(Outside - 1 of 2 towers)


(Inside)


(The picture of the necklace above was also taken in the ifc.)

1881 Heritage (this is more like a collection of shops in a historical building aka the former Marine Police Headquarters):


A gallery store near 1881 Heritage.


Closeup of another tusk (can you imagine anyone putting this in their house?):


The crazy capitalism in HK can also be seen in residential areas where old buildings are constantly being replaced with skyscrapers and new building complexes as real estate is some of the most valuable in the world. Here, you can see a variety of housing (which in turn represents the social stratification here): old shanty houses for low-income tenants (see the lower right corner), medium sized apartments for middle-class tenants and high rise buildings which are fancy condos for rich people (aka the buildings that didn't fit into the picture because they were so tall).


Political parties or policies that belong to the left of the political spectrum are sorely lacking in Hong Kong so labour laws and unions are not as powerful as they are in North America. Good for the entrepreneur and strike-haters, bad for the average Joe or Jane who's being paid about $3.50 (USD) or less an hour passing out flyers on street corners in 30+ degrees (Celsius) weather.

Then again, this doesn't mean that the political left doesn't exist in Hong Kong. In fact, right across from Times Square (aka crazy big shopping mall in Causeway Bay) is a Communist cafe/bookstore, featuring Mao Zedong as their logo.


They serve drinks in jars in this cafe. It was kinda cool. You could also purchase these jars (as well as cups with Mao's face on it) for home.


There were also books on the June 4th, 1989 Tiananmen Massacre and Marxist ideology. It seemed very much like an iconoclastic cafe in many ways.


What an interesting place this is... In any case, my adventures from Saturday continues in the next blog post, coming soon to a browser near you!

The Hong Kong Museum of History

I'm in Hong Kong! And there are now new picat00rs! Yay!

Hong Kong is just as overwhelming as I remembered it to be. The uncontrolled energy of the place seems to multiply tenfold when you're jetlagged and exhausted to the point where you just want to pass out.

On my first day, I was brought to the Hong Kong history museum. For $10 HK (slightly less than $1.50 Canadian or American), you can go through exhibits on the history of Hong Kong since prehistoric times. The museum presents a very surprising interpretation of HK's history since a lot of it is about daily life in the Chinese community during the various eras. Compared to many history courses, the focus is not on the politics and (mostly British) politicians but on the people of the Chinese community. The museum seems to attempt to be kid and adult-oriented but I would've like a little more substance. It was great to see facets of daily life for the average working class Chinese in Hong Kong, but it would have been nice to shed some light on a few leaders in not only the Chinese community but in other ethnic communities. I'm surprised that the Indian community isn't mentioned at all as well as the Muslim community. I mean, H.N. Mody, an Indian merchant gave a substantial donation that allowed for the building of Hong Kong University and there has to be a reason that there is a mosque smack dab in the middle of Tsim sha Tsui aka prime real estate.

In any case, here are a few fun pictures of the HK museum:

A tower of lucky buns for some sort of festival in Hong Kong.


I was absolutely fascinated by this old report card.


A display that emulated an old pastry store. It was cool because they created several tradition general stores in Hong Kong with audio recordings in which old store owners would describe the wares they sold and business in the pre-war era.


A festival stall. I rather like this picture.

Also, there was one exhibit on life in Mainland China meant to "create nostalgia over the past eras of China's past." (Or something like that.) The entire exhibit pretty much glorified daily life in the Maoist era and of course, there was no mention of mass starvation, factional political fighting and economic breakdown in any of the exhibit. But hey, there were a lot of pictures of Mao - great if you have a fetish for the Chairman. Many of the objects were fascinating nonetheless like a huge array of ration coupons and ration books (and all the things you hear about in lessons on modern China), Mao pins and comic books.

Here are a few pictures:


Ration coupons for industrial goods in Beijing. If you took modern Chinese history classes, you would also know that there would be ration coupons for each region and the rare and valuable national ration coupons that could be exchanged anywhere. Many of those could be found in the exhibit as well.


Mao looking pretty dapper in this comic called, "Before the Heat of the Battle."


Popular clothing in the Maoist era.

Pins with Mao cameos that were very popular during the Maoist era. Some of these were surprisingly big.

In any case, I'll end here. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to visit the science museum in the future.