From Lantau Trail Stage 10 down to Lower Cheung Sha Beach (Photo-essay)

As it so happens, I had dinner earlier this evening with the friend I went on the hike I've already put up two photo-essays of (here and here). But it was only after I got back to my apartment and prepared to put up a third photo-essay of the hike along Lantau Trail Stage 10, then down the old Tung Chung Road to Lower Cheung Sha Beach via South Lantau Road that I got to thinking that maybe I should ask her why we haven't gone hiking together again since!

Was it all the spiders we saw on the hike? Or the hike being lengthier than she had expected (even while easy enough in that it was largely on level ground or downhill)? In any event, too bad -- since I thought it was a pleasant enough day out... and one that yielded a number of photos that I reckon are nice enough to look at and share (with visitors to this blog though not willingly with those who put them on their own blogs in order to financially profit from doing so)!

View looking southwards not far from
where I ended the previous photo-essay

Another friend e-mailed me to register her horror
at the number of spider pics on my blog -- but,
in all honesty, I think these creatures are fascinating
and the webs they weave often amazing and beautiful!

View that takes in both Cheung Sha beaches and the
Chi Ma Wan Peninsula dominated by Lo Yan Shan

A solitary cow grazes at the peaceful picnic area
where Lantau Trail Stages 10 and 11 meet

The single lane Old Tung Chung Road in the foreground,
the significantly wider New Tung Chung Road in the
background, and a paraglider appearing as not much
larger than a small speck in the blue sky above

Hong Kong -- particularly Lantau -- truly is a place
where unusual flora as well as fauna can be spotted

It was close to sunset when we got
to Lower Cheung Sha Beach

So after taking a few more photos like this one,
we settled down to dinner at The Stoep before making
our way home to other, more urban parts of Hong Kong

Spiders galore over on Lamma's eastern section

Large female Giant Golden Orb Weaver
and its way smaller as well as redder mate

Male spider doing something behind
-- and to? ;b -- its larger female mate

Update: a friend who saw this photo
told me that it's of a spider's exoskeleton!

Update: this is the baby female spider whose
exoskeleton I spotted hanging above it!

Up until today, I had looked upon the Lantau Island hike I'm currently in the middle of putting up photo-essays on (see here and here, with one more to come in the next few days) as the hike which had yielded the most spider spottings.

But this super hot and humid afternoon, my regular hiking companion and I saw -- no lie! -- at least 50 spiders on the 4 kilometer eastern circuit that led us from Sok Kwu Wan to Mo Tat Wan, Mo Tat Old Village, Yung Shue Ha (which has been identified by some as Chow Yun Fat's home village!), Tung O (another village also identified as Chow Yun Fat's ancestral village), up to a pavilion that lay 136 meters above sea level and then back -- and back down -- to Sok Kwu Wan.

More than a decade and a half ago now, I went on safari in Tanzania to Lake Manyara National Park, Serengeti National Park, Ngongorogoro Crater (which falls within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area) and Tarangire National Park. In Tarangire, there were so many elephants about that my safari companion (an Irish aid worker friend with the very Irish name of Fionnuala) and I actually became quite blasé with regards to viewing them -- and only got really excited when seeing such as large herds of the pachyderms crossing a river.

By midway through today's hike, that how my regular hiking companion and I got to feeling about the spiders we saw along the way, despite many of them being pretty large indeed. At the same time though, we recognized that some of the webs we saw this afternoon were among the largest we've seen -- with some of them having a three dimensional quality in that they were double and even triple layered and some others actually had corners to them that curved to form something akin to a sticky cobweb box in which to trap prey!

Then there were the two forms we saw and initially thought were dead and dessicated spiders, only for them to move when we pointed our cameras at them. After looking some more, I've got to thinking that at least one of them (that which is in the four photo at the top of this entry) is a baby or at least still juvenile spider.

But I'm not sure if the thing hanging above it (i.e., that which is in the third photo above) -- that resembled la scary alien from a Hollywood sci fi movie to my eyes -- is another baby spider or something else altogether! (Update on July 14th: a friend -- thanks, David S! -- has told me that the third photo is of an exoskeleton and confirmed that the fourth photo is indeed of a baby female spider! :D)

Near (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

How far would you go for a good meal, a change of scenery and/or a nice leisure day out? For many Hong Kongers, the answer might be as far as some 60 kilometers (around 37 miles). More precisely, the Big Lychee's sister Special Administrative Region of Macau is a popular destination for day trips and weekend visits -- and I even know of at least one person who thought nothing of heading to the former Portuguese enclave for dinner after a full day's work in Hong Kong!

Considering how different Macau can feel as well as look -- and really is -- from Hong Kong, it can come as a surprise that the two Pearl River Delta territories actually are located fairly near to each other. And the distance between them can feel even smaller as a result of there being so many routes and transportation options to travel between Hong Kong and Macau.

For decades now, the territory which got its name from a goddess (AKA Tin Hau in Hong Kong, A-Ma in Macau and Mazu or Matsu elsewhere) has been Hong Kongers' "go to" place to scratch their gambling itch (but these days, it's not just Hong Kongers who can be found there as Macau has become a bigger casino town than Las Vegas). However, the territory that the Portuguese only handed back to China in 1999's principal attractions for me are its photogenic UNESCO world heritage-listed core and related old sections -- and the food served up in restaurants like Fernando's, A Lorcha and O Manel. (And for those who are wondering: O Manel is where the fellow who went to Macau just for a meal dined!)

And yes, it's true: I too now number among the people who will go to Macau from Hong Kong just for the day -- targeting a morning ferry ride that gets me into Macau in time for a big lunch, followed some sightseeing and strolling about to walk off lunch and build up an appetite for tea (I simply can't resist those yummy Macanese egg tarts!) and then a light dinner (sad but true, I have never been able to have a big dinner after the big lunch and afternoon egg tarts!) before making the return ferry trip back to Hong Kong.

And to Photo Hunters contemplating visiting Hong Kong for pleasure, I do recommend a side trip to (relatively) nearby Macau. So budget at least a week to do this part of the world justice should you decide to holiday here! :)

A hike with plentiful bug sightings as well as scenic views (Photo-essay)

Before anything else: thanks to those of you who wrote encouraging and empathetic/sympathetic responses to my previous post about blog content theft. And in particular because of comments like those of fellow bloggers duriandave and sbk, I've decided to go on with the show.

So without further ado, here's going ahead and putting up another photo-essay to follow that which chronicled the first portion of a Lantau hike a friend and I went on last summer that has come to live in my memory as a hike during which we made a particularly large number of large spider sightings (and also spotted a fair number of other interesting bugs):-

Speaking of spiders, here's an unusual
side view of one of those large arachnids!

I wanted a photo of this nest but didn't want to get
too close to the flying insects whose home it was... :S

One of those bugs that look more like an alien creature
than one who calls Earth (and Hong Kong in particular) home!

Proof that I did spend time admiring scenic vistas
along this hike (rather than just bug hunting!)

With so much budding and blooming though,
small wonder that the bugs were out in force that day!

Looking inland along the summer hike,
one caught views of mist-covered green mountains

In contrast, the view on the other side of the same trail
was that of populated coast and neighboring sea

One of those scenic vistas that makes me sigh and
think that Hong Kong really can be very beautiful

To be continued one more time...!

Blog content theft taken place

A photo taken on a hike earlier today that
I want to share with this blog's visitors --
and for the record, the blog in question's URL
is http://webs-of-significance.blogspot.com

Today, my regular hiking companion and I went on a cool hike that took us from Discovery Bay to Mui Wo on a hot and humid day. Along the way, we encountered a number of interesting critters, got to behold several scenic and panoramic vistas and also visited a Trappist monastery's chapel. In an ideal world, this hike would be the focus of today's blog entry. However, this isn't the case because... well, do please read on:-

A little more than three years ago, I posted a picture theft notice on my blog. This weekend, I discovered theft of content from my blog that's on a larger scale -- whole entire blog entries, text as well as pictures; and indiscriminate too in that it's not only hiking photo-essays but also movie reviews, Photo Hunt posts and at least one whimsical entry about Hello Kitty!

If, as I suspect, the theft is being done automatically, this post will appear on the offending blog as well as mine. I also am guessing that the offending blogger won't mind too much because all he or she is focused on is attracting visitors on to his or her blog which is not ad-free like this one. However, I really hope that whoever visits there will realize that his or her has been stealing other people's contents (including those at Hong Kong (& Macau) Stuff and Gwulo: Old Hong Kong along with CNN Go).

Of course, what I would really, really like is that the offending blogger will have enough of a conscience/sense of shame and/or guilt that will make him or her stop stealing from my blog. And ASAP.

And should you, the offender blogger, be reading this: yes, I know that you credit me on your blog -- and I am not entirely unappreciative of that. But I really do wish you would not be so wholesale in your copying from my blog. Above all, I really wish you would generate your own content that's worth viewing and reading. For only then will you be truly contributing to the online/blogging community as opposed to currently being the parasite that you are, and worse.

Busy (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

For most of my life, I've lived in a port city. I was born in one (George Town, Penang) and have lived in three others in very different parts of the world (Philadelphia, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar). And, of course, I now reside in Hong Kong.

Although I don't work in the shipping industry, I don't think it's complete coincidence that I look to have been attracted to life in port cities. Rather, my sense is that port cities are places which are more likely to be more multi-cultural and transnational in outlook as well as their business activities than most other places -- and this suits me to a "T" socially and professionally. Furthermore, at their vibrant best, port cities are busy places bustling with life and buzzing in a way that I find very energizing as well as exciting.

For a time, the port of Hong Kong held the title of busiest container port in the world. And although it no longer is the absolute number one in this category, it definitely still is one of the busier container ports in the world. This is something I am able to personally view and verify every time I do such as make a trip to and back from the airport -- since my route there and back passes by the mammoth and seemingly perennially busy Kwai Tsing Container Terminals (parts of which are pictured in the third and fourth photos from the top of this Photo Hunt entry).

Additionally, on ferry trips between the Central Piers and islands like Lamma, Cheung Chau and Peng Chau, one is invariably treated to views of boats and ships galore including ferries plying the Hong Kong-Macau passenger route and bigger vessels heavily laden with containers (like those in the first and second photos from the top of this blog entry) -- and thus given a reminder that even while you are enjoying your leisure time, others continue to be busy working away. (And I don't know about you but this thought often humbles me -- and makes me even more grateful for having more time and opportunity to play than many others!)

Beginning of the Great Revival (movie review)

The flags of The People's Republic of China and the
Hong Kong Special Adminstrative Region fly above
the Court of Final Appeal (Hong Kong)'s building

Beginning of the Great Revival (Mainland China, 2011)
- Han Sanping and Huang Jiangxin, dirs.
- Starring Liu Ye, Chow Yun Fat, Feng Yuanzheng, Zhang Hanyu, Li Qin, Andy Lau, etc.

On this day fourteen years ago, Hong Kong was handed back over to China by the British. Seventy six years before that -- and thus 90 years ago today, the Chinese Communist Party was founded in Shanghai.

To commemorate the latter event, the directors of The Founding of the Republic, got together to make a sort of sequel to that cameo-studded blockbuster propaganda epic. Originally entitled The Founding of the Party, the similarly cameo-filled film that tells an approved version of how the Chinese Communist Party came into being and the roots for the Chinese Communist revolution were laid is now more bombastically called The Beginning of the Great Revival.

Running at close to two hours long, this Mainland Chinese film (which features appearances by a number of Hong Kong thespians and John Woo) covers events taking between the years 1911 and 1921 in such a way that certain key historical developments feel like they were given short shrift in favor of fluffy scenes detailing such as romantic moments between a patriotic general (portrayed by Andy Lau) and his concubine (played by the decades younger Angelababy), and Mao Zedong (essayed by Liu Ye) and his first wife, Yang Kaihui (played by Li Qin), and ones in which Chow Yun Fat is given lots of room to strut about as Yuan Shikai, the general who deposed an emperor and then pronounced himself one.

Although Mao Zedong is the film's major personality, he actually doesn't dominate the picture as much as some people might assume. Also somewhat surprising is the characterization of this (in)famous historical figure as an individual who wasn't especially commanding or impressive in the company of such as Beijing University students and faculty -- though upon further examination, it does make some sense to portray the man from Hunan in such as a way that strengthens claims that he truly was a man of the people (as opposed to, say, someone from an inherited elite and privileged background).

By far the most jaw-dropping part and aspect of Beginning of the Great Revival though is its scenes of the May 4th Movement; not least because the stirring scenes of student demonstrations and protests surely cannot help but recall those that took place in the summer of 1989 in the same country. Upon viewing them, one will understand how stories have been circulating of this propaganda film actually having run into trouble with the censors -- and a super heavy-handed (and consequently clunky) coda being required to be attached to this cinematic offering; because even while the messages being shouted in that section of the film are in line with the nationalism that is being encouraged, the actions of angry youth challenging and confronting establishment figures and braving armed forces can easily be interpreted as showing sympathy for a (still) discouraged cause.

If viewed solely for entertainment, Beginning of the Great Revival will surely be looked upon as a disappointment. If judged on cinematic merit, it would be considered a mixed bag, at best --not least because it appears to be such a hodgepodge of genres: historical drama, action (with a particular scene depicting Zhu De (aka Chu Teh) as a most impressive sharpshooting hero as well as military leader being arguably the one most likely to get one's adrenaline going), suspense thriller and, most improbably, romance.

For my part though, I found this film to make for very intriguing viewing -- including in terms of reading how certain historical personalities and events are (allowed to be) portrayed. And even though it provided me with fewer instances of inadvertent humor than The Founding of the Republic, I was sufficiently captivated throughout the work's 118 minutes -- and, as shocking as this might be to some people, am actually considering re-watching this supposed "sincere tribute" to the Chinese Communist Party once more before its run in Hong Kong cinemas comes to an end!

My rating for the film: 6 as a film (but it'd be higher as material to think about and with!)