Sunday, October 12, 2008

Views from atop a bus (photo-essay)


As regular visitors to this blog know, I like seeing Hong Kong and taking my share of photos while out hiking. I also have been known to go on foot to check out more urban sections of the Big Lychee. At still other times, I like to take bus rides to and through other parts of the territory. And while it can be difficult to take photos on moving buses, I often have my camera at the ready while sitting up top and in front of the double deckers favored by Hong Kong's bus companies and consequently, on occasion, have come up with snaps that I like and reckon are worth sharing, like in the following photo-essay:-

One of those older Hong Kong buildings
that I think possesses plenty of character

A more modern building complex with significance
for Hong Kong movie fans (especially those
who have seen and liked Hollywood, Hong Kong)

Speaking of movies:
Hong Kong's got lots
of video stores like this one...

And stores with fruit and vegetable
on open display like this too


Golden dragon (statue) in Causeway Bay

Not modern art but, instead, part of
the China Gas Company complex
over in To Kwa Wan

The first of Hong Kong's three cross-harbour tunnels
for cars and other road vehicles

(There are a further three for trains)

Travelling on the Tsing Ma Bridge
(yet one more Hong Kong landmark

that's appeared in its share of movies!)


10 comments:

Dragonstar said...

Oh yes, I like the look of that first photo, and that glorious golden dragon is bound to appeal to me! I've always loved the lines of a gasometer, though most people think I'm mad! We don't have ant locally, and I kind of miss them. The bridge shot is great, too. It's nice to see a bus-eye view like this.

Anonymous said...

This is a good demonstration of the fact that you can't experience the culture of a place by just visiting the tourist locations as suggested in travel guides. You have to dig it yourself.

sarah bailey knight said...

ytsl,

I hope you had as much fun taking these pictures from a bus as I did looking at them. Love the slice of Hong Kong life seen from just above.

YTSL said...

Hi Dragonstar --

Thanks for liking so many of the photos. Wish the bridge shot was clearer but, well, the bus *was* moving quickly and that was a polluted day. Hopefully, I'll get a better shot at some point in the future!

Hi laicheukpan --

Agreed -- and for those who doubted it: Yes, there really is lots of different things to see (and do) in Hong Kong!

Hi sbk --

I did have fun taking the pictures, and am glad you had fun looking at them. And have to say that yours and others comments are encouraging me to do a photo-essay along these lines again. :)

Glenn, kenixfan said...

Yes, those are the highrises that Zhou Xun's character aspires to live in in Hollywood Hong Kong -- or she had a lover in those buildings from what I remember of that film.

You don't take pictures riding around on a bicycle like Simon Yam in Sparrow?

YTSL said...

Hi Glenn--

"You don't take pictures riding around on a bicycle like Simon Yam in Sparrow?"

Nah, that kind of thing only happens in the movies, I reckon... ;b

Willow said...

I like to sit upstairs on those double-decker buses wherever they're available when I'm traveling. No roof to block our views; great for shooting snapshots.

YTSL said...

Hi Willow --

My sentiments exactly! :)

Unknown said...

Wow, exactly that bridge shot was in Exiled, am I right?

YTSL said...

Hi Timo --

It's been a while since I watched "Exiled" but, if memory serves me right, it was set in Macau, not Hong Kong. OTOH, if you want movie connections, the Tsing Yi Bridge's greatest moment on film might well have been in "Heroic Duo"... ;b