Borderland views

View from Kuk Po, Hong Kong,
across the border to Mainland China

Just one more from the over one hundred photos
I snapped over the course of the hike I went on today

Earlier today, I went on a hike that took some 7 hours to complete -- if you include a short lunch break midway through. So am on the tired side -- to say the least! -- but still don't want the day to end without my writing a bit about the hike up in the northern New Territories that took two friends and I from Wu Kau Tang to Luk Keng via Lai Chi Wo, an isolated but well preserved village famed for its fung shui woods that I have long wanted to visit.

On the last leg of the estimated 15 kilometer hike, we were treated to views of Starling Inlet (AKA Sha Tau Kok Hoi) and, across it, the border town of Sha Tau Kok and the Mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen. On at least a couple of levels, these made for surreal sights and experiences.

For one thing, Starling Inlet and Sha Tau Kok are within the Frontier Closed Area of Hong Kong that Hong Kong residents (besides those who reside in those areas) are generally barred from entering. For another, like other parts of Mainland China, Shenzhen is a place that the likes of me require a visa to enter. Thus it was that I was gazing out at places -- and within touching distance in the case of the Starling Inlet -- that I technically cannot enter without getting official permission from Hong Kong proper.

In addition, it just happens to be so that the part of Hong Kong that I was in is on the rural -- if not naturally wild -- side whereas the part of Mainland China across the water is one of the more physically developed sections of the territory. Thus it was that I found myself gazing out at the kind of built-up area one tends to associate with Hong Kong -- but which actually is not in Hong Kong -- from the kind of rural area in the territory that is a very far cry indeed from the high density concrete jungle that many people think that all of Hong Kong is. Alternatively put, what an inversion of stereotypes -- but also a fearful visualization of what is to come years from now -- when Hong Kong it is that looks like the backwater vis a vis Mainland China!

Fashion (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

As those who know me well know full well, being fashionable just is not my style. (E.g., I still regularly wear an old school scarf that is now decades old and a couple of sweaters that date to my undergraduate days!) Consequently, this week's Photo Hunt theme was one that I found more difficult to come up with photos for than most -- for even while Hong Kong most definitely has its share of fashionable folks (and bona fide fashion victims) as well stores selling high fashion goods, the fact of the matter is that this is one section of the Big Lychee that I am pretty content to not be a part of.

Alternatively, I also think it safe to say that I am one of those people who makes more than her fair share of visits to museums -- and this being fashion-loving Hong Kong, the fashion and museum worlds do meld on occasion. More specifically, the mega show at the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 2009 was Louis Vuitton: A Passion for Creation -- an exhibition of selections from the Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Création collection that included artworks by such as Andreas Gursky, Gilbert and George, Takashi Murakami and Cao Fei -- while in 2010, the Hong Kong Museum of History's The Evergreen Classic special exhibition took a look at the qipao (AKA cheongsam), the Chinese dress that, among other things, is a major visual element in Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love.

Incidentally, the Louis Vuitton flagship store here in Hong Kong has a space for rotating art exhibitions within it. However, I have to admit that I've never been in it -- this not least because whenever I pass that store, I actually see people having to wait in line to enter it!

I Love Hong Kong (movie review)

...and I love this movie! :)

I Love Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 2011)
- Starring Tony Leung Kar Fai, Eric Tsang, Sandra Ng, Anita Yuen, Stanley Fung, Aarif Rahman (AKA Aarif Lee), Mag Lam, Clorinda Chan, Bosco Lam, Wong Cho Lam, Lam Suet, Wayne Lai, Wu Ma, etc., etc.!
- Eric Tsang and Chung Shu Kai, co-directors

Before anything else, here's wishing this blog's readers -- especially the old faithfuls among you ;b -- kung hei fat choi and happy new year -- since today is indeed the first day of the new lunar year of the rabbit! And lest anyone wonder: yes, this Hong Kong filmophile has managed to get the new year off to a festive and fun start by taking in two enjoyable Chinese New Year movies (Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, followed by I Love Hong Kong) earlier today with large -- and largely appreciative -- audiences.

Additionally, although it's very early in the year still, I'm going to stick my neck out and predict that I Love Hong Kong is going to be a commercial success along the lines of 72 Tenants of Prosperity, Eric Tsang's Chinese New Year offering from last year -- or, at the very least, emerge tops of the Chinese New Year box office charts over a competitive pack that includes yet another installment of the All's Well, Ends Well series and Hollywood offerings such as The Green Hornet (with Jay Chou as Kato) and Category I-rated Yogi Bear and Tangled. (Oh, and Shaolin and Let the Bullets Fly remain in cinemas, and consequently in the frame, too!)

An archetypal Chinese New Year movie in that it mixes together guffaw-inducing comedy, feel good vibes, touching moments that brings tears to people's eyes and star power galore (complete with boasts of its having a cast of 198 stars!), I Love Hong Kong is also essentially a buddy movie revolving around two men who grew up in a public housing estate and, decades after moving out of their modest homes, return to the old neighborhood and, in the process, rediscover the ties that bind them to each other but also the community at large.

After his business goes bust (due to the world economic downturn that caused various clients of his, particularly in the US, to cancel their orders), Ng Shun (Tony Leung Kar Fai), his wife (Sandra Ng) and three children (Aarif Rahman, Mag Lam and Clorinda Chan) move into his old family apartment which now officially has only one tenant in the form of his bone-setter father (Stanley Fung). Although this results in a living situation that is on the cramped side, his understanding wife is moved to observe that maybe their changed circumstances might have a silver lining in terms of bringing the family closer together. And while there is some initial wailing about how little room there is for their stuff (not to mention private space within the place for each individual), the family does seem to quite quickly adept to their new situation and make the best of it.

Of course, this is not to say that this latest phase of their life is not all smooth going. Sandra Ng's character, in particular, encounters problems when out shopping in the housing estate's market and out at the workplace she returns to, only to find that a former underling has become the boss from hell. (But rather than portray these aspects of the story in a dramatic way, they get played for laughs; a good deal of which come out of the multifaceted star actress showing that she remains very game to do whatever it takes to get people rolling in the aisles.) In addition, some angst -- and further physical comedy -- comes out of it turning out to be the case that Ng Shun's old flame, So Ching, (Anita Yuen), also had recently moved back to the old housing estate.

As it so happens, however, the most dramatic development for Ng Shun turns out to not be re-encountering So Ching but, rather, the return of another integral link to his past to the scene. Years ago, Lung (Eric Tsang as an adult; Wong Cho Nam as a youth) had left the neighborhood in a way that had caused Ng Shun (played as a youth by Bosco Lam) to regret their having been best buddies. But now Lung appears to have returned with nothing but good cheer and intentions... and, in his own way, proceeds to help Ng Shun and his family strengthen their ties to their new/old community.

A film clearly designed to appeal to a wide age range, I Love Hong Kong has a nostalgic streak that those who remember the good old days will appreciate but also contains topical commentary and jokes galore of the kind that shows that it clearly is aware of contemporary concerns (and, also, that its filmmakers have a welcome bite and cutting edge to them. In particular, I loved the barbs it threw in the direction of Cafe de Coral and Link REIT.). In any case, it unquestionably is a very Hong Kong movie-- both in content as well as form -- and I have to say that I love it all the more for being so!

My rating for this film: 8.5

Yung Pak Corridor hike (Photo-essay)

When I was young(er), I used to love poring over maps and planning -- or just plain fantasizing about -- where in the world I would like to go visit. Maps produced by the National Geographic Society that came with copies of their monthly magazine that an uncle gave me subscriptions of. A map of (the original) Disneyland gifted by the same uncle. Maps in a beautifully large world atlas belonging to my paternal grandfather. Maps in another, more up to date atlas that I later got to call my own. They all helped me to plan, prepare and dream.

These days, the maps I tend to regularly pore over as well as consult are of a single territory -- that of Hong Kong. And although its 1,104 square kilometers size may not seem like much to many, I have to say that I see so many places on its maps that I want to go to and see for myself. And, yes, hiking is how I get to many of these places in Hong Kong... including those along the intriguing sounding 11 kilometer-length Yung Pak Corridor trail that cuts from Pak Tam Chung across Sai Kung West Country Park to the coastal area along Three Fathoms Cove down south to Kei Ling Ha:-

In the early parts of this particular hike, the scenery
was more agricultural than truly natural

But before too long, we had gone up to
higher ground and left the farming areas behind
-- though, on this hike, never entirely the mist!

On misty days, I've learnt to look around and appreciate
the interesting sights that nature unfurls before one

Is that a large butterfly I see before me there?
(Honestly, I don't quite know for sure!)

Hiking bliss is having hiking companions who also are into
stopping and taking photos of bugs and other neat stuff
one sees while out tramping in the countryside :)

Yes, I really did find this watery sight to be pretty
-- and worth taking a photo of for posterity!

The bare trail was how I like it -- not too dry
yet still not all that muddy (and not too steep!)

But just like in life one has to take the rough with the smooth,
so on this trail one also has to contend with those bits
with mossy stones and wet bits to step on (or around)

To be continued... since, again, I have more photos that I'd like to offer up from a single hike than can be contained in a single photo-essay!

Revealed: the inventive trick behind the balancing 'magic'!

Two men at work in a Cheung Chau street
while a boy watches and waits...

...to get 'dressed' and thereby prepared
to take part in the 'balancing' act
featured in the parade of the 'floating' children

In my previous blog entry (one with Standing as its theme for the Photo Hunt meme established by tnchick that I take part in on Saturdays), I put up a photo of two young Cheung Chau residents who appeared in the midst of enacting an amazing balancing act -- and promised to put up an entry showing how it was done if enough people asked.

So here it is -- and please don't get upset if the magic now feels gone... this not least because I honestly like finding out how creative and inventive is the trickery behind the 'balancing' and 'floating'! Also, to put things into context: the fact that the people in the photos were so open about what they were doing -- working as they did in the middle of a street in Cheung Chau's main town -- makes me have fewer qualms than I otherwise would about putting up the revelatory photographs.

More re the photos: Those who are wondering how come the store fronts open right on to the street might like to know that Cheung Chau is one of Hong Kong's many car-free islands. Also,, those whose attention were drawn to the dolphin plushie apparently floating in mid-air should know that it actually was suspended on a washing line along with other more conventional items being hung out to dry that day by the people living above the buildings' ground floor shops. :D

Standing (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

For more than a century (a very long time by Hong Kong standards!), the islanders of Cheung Chau have been honoring the god Pak Tai with an annual commemorative event that has come to popularly known as the Cheung Chau Bun Festival on account of one of its major activities involving a "bun snatching" competition whose contestants vied to remove as many buns as they could off giant bun-covered bamboo towers.

Visiting Cheung Chau last year on the weekend before the festival was due to take place, I not only got a good taste of what was to come a few days later but, also, a concrete idea of how communal at the core at this event which has become a major one on the Hong Kong tourism calendar still really is. Put another way: I saw many local folks hard at work preparing for the island's big day by doing such as baking the famous Cheung Chau buns in different ovens in various parts of the island, stringing the buns together (while being watched over by large, already standing paper-mache effigies of deities) and fixing the buns on to the bun towers.

Apart from the multitude of buns (on the bun tower or not), another novel aspect of the Cheung Chau Bun Festival is its parade of "floating" children where a number of preteen children appear to be performing impossible feats of balance -- and I was lucky enough that day to also see what amounted to a couple of practice rehearsals of that event.

And for those who haven't quite figured out what I'm referring to, check out at the second photo in this Photo Hunt entry (and click on it to enlarge if necessary!). In particular, look at the child casually standing on the red table top and appearing to hold with her right hand a bunch of objects and, right at the top, another child balancing onto the whole affair on just one leg!

So... how did they do it? Well... if enough people request for it to be so, I'll post a couple of other photos tomorrow* that will show the clever idea behind the "magic". (Alternatively, I'll take silence on this matter to mean that people would prefer to not have the magic be lost by finding out how this "feat" gets enacted! :b )

Update: Since yesterday's "tomorrow" is now here, you can go here to see the inventive idea behind the magic. :)

Violet Hill Path hike (Photo-essay)

Long before his Soft Film blog came about, duriandave and I had already become friends and even met in "meat"- as well as cyberspace. And many months before he decided to call it a day with regards to his latest online venture, I took him on what he came to see as his first real Hong Kong hike -- one that took us from Wong Nai Chung Gap to Tai Tam Road via the same 7 kilometer long Violet Hill Path that I had taken my mother along a couple of years back:-

On the day that we went hiking, it actually was cloudy and
unseasonably humid but the overall visibility still wasn't too bad

Nature and concrete in a single view and photo

A more close-up shot of some of the
rhododendron flowers also seen in the previous photo

One of those sections of hiking trail that
I'm happy to see railings at and for!

Several paths meet at Tsin Shui Wau Au
(AKA Repulse Bay Gap), including those leading
down Violet Hill and towards The Twins

The run off from the Tai Tam Intermediate Reservoir
contains beautiful reflections

The reflections on its still waters help make
the Tai Tam Tuk Reservoir one of my favorite
of the many reservoirs in Hong Kong

Ending on a whimsical note: doesn't this
tree branch get you thinking of a deer
with very long (and thin) antlers? ;b