A visit to the Hong Kong Maritime Museum

Inside the Hong Kong Maritime Museum

The very modern museum does look back at the past

as well as informs about contemporary subjects

 Guess who decided she wanted to check out what 

it'd be like inside a deep sea diver's helmet? ;b

Earlier this week, my German friend (visiting once more from her native country) and I went and checked out the Hong Kong Maritime Museum which has relocated in the past year from Stanley's Murray House to the Central Ferry Piers.  Although the museological establishment has been in existence since 2003, this was the first time that we had visited the museum.  But based on how interesting we found the exhibitions there, I sincerely doubt that it'll be the last time we will be going there.

My primary reason for wanting to visit the museum was to check out a special exhibition of historical photographs which is on until the middle of next month.  Through the Lens of John Thomson: Hong Kong and Coastal China (1868-1872) includes some really splendid landscape pictures by the Scottish photographer and portraits of Chinese people that were really fascinating, not least because many of the people in his photos look so very different from Chinese people these days.  

We're not just talking here of those people who lived more than a century ago having different hair and clothing styles from present day folks.  Rather, many of the people in the photos had incredibly dark skins -- the result, I'd presume, from their spending much and many of their days working outdoors in the hot sun.  Also, so many of them were really thin and had faces that were on the gaunt side.  Put another way: the general sense was of life having been pretty hard and harsh for many Chinese people in Hong Kong and those parts of Qing-ruled China that Thomson visited.

After spending about half an hour viewing Thomson's photographs, my German friend and I headed to the museum's permanent galleries which turned out to be far more fascinating and also higher in quantity as well as quality than we expected!  All in all, we ended up spending a little more than three hours at the museum -- and would have spent even more time there if not for the institution's closing time being earlier than we would have liked!

One thing I really liked about the permanent exhibition galleries was how there were items on view that hung above our heads as well as at eye level and the more usual spaces.  I also was impressed by how there are so many interactive devices, including not just electronic pages of information and short videos (including about Poon Lim, a Chinese seaman who survived a record-breaking 133 days alone at sea) but also live web cams and various electronic games on such as the identification of ship types, and morse code.  Really cool too was there being an innovative display area which utilized one's sense of smell.  

If truth be told, maritime history is not among the subjects that I normally find all that fascinating.  But the Hong Kong Maritime Museum really does present it in a super interesting way.  All in all, this private museum comfortably ranks among the territory's top five museological institutions to my mind.  And yes, I think there really are many Hong Kong museums that aren't only worth visiting but, in fact, are worth visiting more than once!