- Day 2 -

Introductions

After being all tourist-y taking photographs around the Kowloon Park, we finally arrived at the arranged classroom. Just about 30 minutes late. In the small setting of the classroom, we were given a quick run through on the purpose of the course, what we know and what we want to know. We got a feel of how the course is to be based on our personal experiences and interpretations of the tour, as admittedly there is only so much we can learn within the classroom. Rather different from the usual structured courses we are used to, but we would be fine. As we always are.


Kowloon Park


Another sign


Disrupting the police...

Lunch at Dim Sum Restaurant

Lunch was at this crowded Chinese restaurant where we had dim sum for lunch.

Tourism has often promoted Hong Kong as an attraction because of the food they can offer. I have expected to find really cheap and top quality food around in Hong Kong - their staple food of rice of noodles, their specialities, and even still, their street food (jie bian xiao chi), which is supposed to be simply delicious. Dim sum was one of the food I thought would be much better than those in Singapore.

It turns out I was quite wrong. The food in Hong Kong isn't exactly as wonderful as I thought they would be. In fact, there are plenty of restaturants in Singapore which can do as well, or even better, and at cheaper prices too. Rather disappointing.

It was interesting to find out from Linda, that the best dim sum is not found in Hong Kong. Instead, one of the best places to have dim sum is actually all the way back in Vancouver. It turns out that many of the top-notch dim sum chefs have migrated to Canada to seek a better life, and they have brought along their culinary skills which have been further developed.In fact, Linda (UBC) mentioned that the standard of the dim sum was really poor as compared to those back in Vancouver.

A small mental note on how cultures can be exported and refined overseas, while the local cultures have been eroded and decimated. What is the "true" culture of Dim Sum?


One of the mountains of dim sum we had...

Chung King Mansions

The Chung King Mansions, which is now a cheap housing area and a very run-down shopping arcade stands proudly near the harbour of Kowloon. A rather odd sight, especially in comparison to the new museums, hotels and other huge shopping malls nearby. It is supposed to be a historical site, rated as one of the top ten "cultural places" to visit, a display of how immigrants used to work so hard to make a living then. Life was difficult, and they lived on very simple necessities like food and shelter.

As we ventured into the dark, dirty and gloomy building, we found ourselves in the midsts of many Indians and people of dark ethnicity. Cramped shops line both sides of the walkways, people peddling their stores hopefully to us visitors, people standing around not seeming to do anything... For a moment, it really felt like I was walking through some alley in some unknown parts of a developing country. The air was somewhat stale and the place had a stink of the lack of hygiene.

Undeterred, we went up to one of the motels on the 8th storey, and asked to be let in, on the pretense of looking for a room, just to see how the living conditions really were.

It wasn't appropriate to take too many photos, but this was the general picture. We entered a rather empty unit, roughly the size of an entire floor at PGP residences. When we entered, we were in the middle of a corridor with doors along the sides of the corridor. As we were showed a room, we were quite stunned. The room was perhaps only 1.5 metre by 1.5 metre - just an L-shaped raised platform with straw mat on it. Something we would think is a bed. But the most interesting find was that given the short length of the bed, the person renting the room probably cannot sleep lying flat. He would have to curl up his body to the L-shape.

It was interesting to note how eager I was to leave the place. It simply gave me the creeps -- the levels of cleanliness and hygiene, the stale and suffocating air, the cramped conditions, the suspicious people looking at us, the cold "you're-not-welcome" stares from some... What have I learnt from this trip here? That our forefathers had hard lives? I guess I wanted to get out so badly that I didn't give it much thought. But now, I feel that practicality rules, as always. While the Chung King Mansions could have been an important place in the past for holding immigrants, it is simply not practical anymore in the world today. Is it still something worth preserving?

This leads me to think more about a question that has been bothering me... Can culture be artificially preserved? Is there value in these old artifacts, or are they no longer relevant and should remain part of history?


The nice signboard...


How it really is like...

Avenue of Stars

The "xin guang da dao", known for the celebrities who have graced the harbour street on their way to the cultural centre nearby.


Bruce Lee captured in his famous pose


The Director


The Actor


View of Hong Kong Island from the Avenue

Mongkok

The famed tourist shopping district of Hong Kong where you can get cheap goods. By foriegn standards of course.

Vendors setting up their shops


The swarms of people

The Peak

The peak is one of the highest point on Hong Kong Island, from where we can see the a bird's eye view of the Kowloon mainland from the height. But the climb and descent of the peak is almost as fun as the top itself. To get to the top, we had to take a long long series of escalators, get lost and make our way down half the hill before finding the elusive tram station we shouldnt' have missed. After taking a slow peak tram up, we took a public bus down from the top, which is one of my scariest bus rides yet. In short, riding that double decker bus speeding down the winding roads was like riding a roller coaster down. Rather sharp turns, insane speeding along parts of the road, hard braking at stops... Phew~ Fun.. But I'll rather not risk my life again. One slip, and we'll be tumbling down perhaps 20 storeys into the open seas.


Night view from the top