Everyone who knows I live in China is always surprised to learn that I’d never visited Southeast Asia – up until now I had always been more preoccupied with exploring the mainland and Korea / Japan. I decided to put this straight and during the Chinese New Year holidays and managed to get some cheap tickets to Bangkok in Thailand.
In the second part of our photo walk around the area surrounding Lok Fu MTR station in Kowloon, we pay a visit to the little known walled village of Nga Chin Wai (衙前圍村) – the last of its kind in Hong Kong. Although once in near to the harbour, the village has long since become land locked after the construction of the former Kai Tak airport.
If it were not for some intriguing local history, the area around Lok Fu (樂富) MTR station would be a pretty unremarkable as for the most part it’s made up of generic public housing estates. Part of the district was home to the infamous Kowloon Walled City (九龍城寨), which is today Kowloon Walled City Park. The former Kai Tak International Airport was also located in the district and the area is still in a state of transition.
As part of my job I need to visit Guangzhou in south China every so often (2 hours from Hong Kong by train) and on my last trip there I took the opportunity to venture further inland to Wuhan (武汉). Sitting slap bang at the intersection of many transport routes in the middle of Hubei province its an easy place to reach, and indeed I first visited back in 2007.
A couple of weekends ago I attended DETOUR 2011, Hong Kong’s annual design, culture, and arts festival which was held at the former Police Married Quarters (PMQ / 前荷李活道已婚警察宿舍) on Hollywood Road in Sheung Wan. This year focused on the theme of “USELESS”, highlighting the impacts of irresponsible consumerism through a mix of exhibitions, performances, and forums.
Since moving to Hong Kong at the beginning of 2011 I’ve been slowly building a bigger picture of this multifaceted metropolis and the people who live here – it’s been a fascinating year and undoubtably one of the best. In the first since 2010′s instalment of this series here are some more Hong Kong Moments – from dusk till dusk.
Located on the western edge of Hong Kong Island, Pok Fu Lam Village (薄扶林村) is one of the oldest villages in Hong Kong, dating back to as far back as the 1600s. It is said to be one of the last fully functioning villages in the heart of the urban metropolis and I paid a visit last weekend, camera in hand…
After visiting more than my fair share of Chinese temples over the past five years I have become somewhat jaded to write about yet another (as one might become with churches in Europe also). They usually have the same layouts containing similarly styled statues which makes them a bit predictable but nevertheless good places for spending a relaxing hour or so.
Wrapping up my recent visit to Shanghai below is a collection of random photos I took while out and about. Despite having visited the city many times of the past few years I still don’t feel I have a good grasp of its geography. Perhaps this has something to do with the rate everything is changing or the hurriedness of each trip…
Living in Hong Kong you quickly discover there’s a large divide, both physical and social, between Hong Kong island and the Kowloon peninsula. While the island has all the trappings and excesses of absolute wealth (largely generated by the financial sector) the story is often very different in much of Kowloon.