Hong Kong: Saturday: Kowloon

On Saturday, I criss-crossed the Kowloon peninsula in Hong Kong, walking this route.

As always, I took pictures on the way.

Starting at 8:30am, I walked by two old buildings, then spent an hour or two exploring Kowloon Park, another of Hong Kong's nice, sizable parks. By nice, I mean varied greenery (flowers, trees, and more), lakes with fountains, swans, ducks, geese, pelicans, and koi, and an attractive design. Like the parks I visited the day before, this one also has aviaries! Huh. But, unlike the others, this one has recreational facilities.

I was up early enough to enjoy seeing many people practicing tai chi in the park. I took some pictures as samples.

Within the park, I visited the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre. Its one exhibit is comprised of portraits of famous buildings that've been restored. I found it interesting to learn how the approach taken to restore each building depended on the budget, the final purpose of the building, the amount of disruption allowed to current activities in the building (and neighboring buildings), and also the particular conservation techniques employed.

Upon exiting the park, I stumbled on the Haiphong Road Temporary Market. The vegetable and meat section felt like any other Asian wet market (e.g., in Shanghai), but this market was exciting because it has a feature markets in Shanghai don't have: a cooked food section. Yes, I found a hawker centre (a la Singapore) in a market in China (well, Hong Kong)! I didn't know they exist in this country.

Then, as I explored more of Kowloon, I wandered through a Singapore-sized series of malls called Harbour City. Now hungry, I began a long hunt for food. I hate having to choose a place without researching and planning beforehand. I have trouble making a decision, as you can tell from the zig-zagging that happens at this point on my walking route map. Eventually I ended up at Joy Cuisine, a dim sum joint near my hotel where I almost ate breakfast (but didn't because I figured I'd find a nicer dim sum joint because most opened later in the day).

After lunch, I went to the Hong Kong Museum of History. It's a quality museum that starts with Hong Kong's geology, flora, fauna, and environment, and traces Hong Kong's history through its early prehistoric inhabitants, and through its evolution over the course of China dynasties, through to British occupation of Hong Kong (including the wars and the Japanese occupation), all the way until the handover. It also presents the cultures of the various different groups of Chinese who moved to Hong Kong in its early days, including displays on marriage rites and ancestor worship. One large display is on salt making; I didn't realize its importance to Hong Kong's history. Now I understand why I see so much dried fish for sale.

In general, the museum has a lot on daily life, including models of early buildings: tea houses, post offices, banks, pawn shops, etc. It also covers daily life during the British occupation, showing Hong Kong's currency, postal system, trade, and even early postcards.

I spent two hours in the museum, more or less.

Walking more through Kowloon, I bought two snacks and a drink, finally ending at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. It's a decent museum, taking me 1.5 hours at a rapid pace. (I knew I had to hurry to see it and meet Di Yin on time.) Though much of the museum didn't speak to my interests, there was one section I thought was awesome. I'll save description of that for last. :P Much of the museum is devoted to antiquities (e.g., purses, snuff bottles, headwear, things made of gold). Though often pretty, I wouldn't call this stuff art. The museum has a big section on ceramics (vases, statues, bowls, etc.), including pieces from all over China, done in all the various styles, and produced during all the different Chinese dynasties. Also, the fine art section is devoted to Chinese paintings from the 80s and 90s. I didn't like it. Another exhibit is of experimental art by HK residents. It was fine.

Another exhibit has scroll paintings (Xubaizhai Collection), all donated by one collector. I liked most of the landscape ones and, in general, liked the detailed background given about each artist. This exhibit also has a series of pretty-cool panels deconstructing the features (style and content) of a landscape scroll.

By far the best aspect of the museum was the special exhibit in traveling to Canton (Goungzhou), a province in the south of China. In particular, the exhibit pretends to be a travel guide for Canton written in the early 19th century before the opium wars. Illustrated by paintings and documents from Canton at the time, each plaque covers topics for the tourist: sites to see, safety issues, food, lodging, health, sanitation, legal concerns (e.g., foreigners were under many restrictions, though some were not regularly enforced), etc. Some plaques were snarkily written--a few were laugh-out-loud funny--but all had that kind of twinkle in the eye that the best travel guides have. I read every plaque, as it appeared so did everyone else who I saw in the exhibit. I left not only feeling educated about Canton from many angles but also with a grin on my face. If only all exhibits could be as well done as this one... I liked it more than any museum exhibit I can remember.

From the museum, I walked rapidly down the Avenue of Stars and back to my hotel, where I met up with Di Yin. After a little discussion and showing her the restaurants on Kimberley Terrace, we decided on a nearby Cantonese restaurant, Kimberley Restaurant, that's highly rated on Hong Kong's version of yelp. We were nervous because the restaurant is inside a hotel and because it was empty, but we shouldn't have been--it was the best meal I had in HK this trip.

After dinner, we walked to the Temple Street night market and browsed half of it. Its stalls sell a variety of goods: trinkets, small statues, clothes, undergarments, bags, sunglasses, basic electronics such as shavers and adaptors, Chinese new years goodies, knickknacks, key chains, early PRC kitsch, ... lots of stuff. For food, some hole-in-the-wall joints expanded with tables into the streets; such places are called dai pai dong. The first dai pai dong we passed had food that looked good, especially a prawn omelette that Di Yin and I caught each other eying. We sat down for a final dinner course.

After exploring the market a bit more, we hiked back to my hotel, picked up my luggage, walked to the metro, took it into Hong Kong island (my first and only metro ride on this trip), and headed to the family friend of Di Yin's where we were to stay the night.