This is another guest post, this time written by my nephew and niece, Karl and Anna Maher. Karl is a senior at Northwestern University, majoring in Film. Anna, a Vocal Performance graduate of James Madison University, is a singer and model living in Orono, MN. Although both have traveled abroad, neither of them had been to Asia before, so they chose to spend their spring break visiting us in Hong Kong. We had a busy and fun week together, and although their flight left just a few hours ago, we miss them already. This blog post was written by them and contains their photos from their week in Hong Kong.
From Karl:
The Ventian Hotel & Casino in Macau
Macau: On Thursday after a leisurely start to the morning, Anna and I walked down to the Macau/HK ferry terminal and made the trip across the water to the gambling paradise of China. At the urging of a mysterious looking David Beckham, we opted to take the free shuttle to The Venetian casino, and arrived at an outrageously overdecorated hotel in Taipa, a southern island of Macau. After meandering about the casino floor for a while, I opted to try my luck at roulette, bet twice on black, and lost my $20HK (about $2.50). To be fair, a fortune teller from the other night did say I shouldn't gamble, so I guess I was asking for it.
Incense coils burn at a Macanese temple
With the tables clearly not going our way, we decided lunch was in order and hopped in a cab over to Old Town, a section of Macau yet un-Vegasized, with plenty of old Portuguese influence. We looked up a hole in the wall cafe on the internet with good reviews and had a delicious lunch. Afterwards we wandered aimlessly around Old Town, finding an incredible temple in the process, one of the three largest in Macau. We spent about an hour there before deciding it was time to get back to the ferry. We walked "kinda that way" until we managed to find our way back to the central strip of Macau and the ferry port. Returning to Hong Kong, we snagged some delicious pad thai from Thai on High and capped off the night at the apartment. A great end to a meandering and satisfying day.
Incense burns at a Macanese temple
Anna near the ferry terminal in Macau
From Anna:
Nan Lian Gardens
Since this was my first trip to Asia, I decided to come into Hong Kong with only a small amount of expectations. I wasn't sure if I would be walking onto a different planet, or a place where I could still find similarities despite enormous differences. I found both. Hong Kong provided plenty of differences to be a foreign city, but enough familiar moments for it to be comfortable even when we found ourselves lost (again). It is absolutely a city. The amount of people crammed into this small island is absurd. High rise apartments are practically the only apartments around, and people are even buried in a sort of tiered cemetery system. It's as busy as New York, as hilly as San Francisco, and probably has the population of both combined, times two. The language barrier was less of a problem than imagined, as most Hong Kongers speak at least the basics of English. I'm usually someone who likes to get some basics down for the language I'd about to be immersed in, but Cantonese is a completely different animal than the romance languages I've been so exposed to. Something that struck me from the very first day were the temples and shrines that were about as plentiful as Starbucks in New York. Whether completely overwhelming like the temples at the Chi Lin Nunnery, Ngong Ping or Ten Thousand Buddhas, or the little unassuming shrines that dotted street corners and hid under staircases in the city - there was always a peacefulness to them, as if kneeling or sitting in
Incense sticks burn at Po Lin Monastery
front of them could wipe out the noise and chaos of the city and tourists and put you in a more reflective state. There was also plenty of incense that accompanied the temples and shrines, which made me miss burning it myself. Karl and I both ended up picking up a pack of the standard incense being burned at all the temples we had been to. The smell is rich and incredibly calming (at least for me).
Food was, of course, the major highlight for us. Americanized versions of foreign regional cuisine is a huge pet peeve of mine, and I relished the idea of having Asian cuisine so close to its roots. Chinese food, in and of itself, is not something I've ever really had a zeal for (unlike some of my college friends), but I was most looking forward to dim sum, since dumplings are absolutely one of my top favorite foods. Tim Ho Wan, a Michelin star rated dim sum place (with unbelievably cheap prices) was literally our first meal here, and it did not disappoint. One of the things I really loved about Hong Kong was the incredible variety of good regional cuisines you could find. Aside from sushi and dim sum and the like, we found an amazing French cafe in Stanley, some good Vietnamese on the Peak, excellent Indian in Central, Japanese ramen that did NOT come from a cup or plastic bag, simple Portuguese in Macau (appropriately), and pad thai, another one of my all time favorites. We actually got take out from a Thai place down the road and brought it back while Carolyn was out at a business dinner. Obviously, some of the best pad thai I've ever had. We also managed to snag high tea at a restaurant on the top floor of a very tall building with very very very fancy food and very very very fancy bathrooms (and a very, very, VERY nice wine cellar, though that was regretfully not explored).
Ramen at Ippudo
Vietnamese chicken salad
Something I personally found interesting was the extreme interest in luxury the Chinese culture
Inspecting Banyan Trees onthe Peak Circle Walk
seems to have. There are a LOT of extremely nice cars here. We saw a handful of both Ferrari and Lamborghini, as well as numerous Bentleys, Rolls Royces, a couple of Maserati, Porsches... you get the idea. If it wasn't a car that would put you in debt, it was a reasonably standard Toyota or Hyundai that had been completely reworked with after-market paint jobs, spoilers, and body kits. Karl and I both remarked at how utterly unnecessary things like the spoilers were, as well as how useless a car like a Lambo or Ferrari would be in a city environment such as this one. They are purely symbols. All this heavy emphasis on the expensive is also reflected in the sheer amount of high fashion designer stores there are in the area, as well as on other islands like Macau. Keep in mind, I'm talking about the same city where Karl and I both bought some lovely knockoff Ray Bans (affectionately dubbed "Faux Bans") for roughly $6.50, and passed by numerous stalls hawking knockoffs of all kinds - from Rolex (Fauxlex) to Abercrombie flip flops. An amusing juxtaposition. Selfie sticks (yes) were as common as pigeons, and taking selfies was a top priority for any Asian tourist. We admittedly had some fun ridiculing the practice.
Most of all, I am just absolutely and totally grateful for my lovely Aunt for hosting us and both showing us around, and sending us off on our own to fend for ourselves. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for our wonderful vacation.
The Kowloon Walled City Park is in Kowloon City District
When we moved to Hong Kong last year, I had only visited once, and Jeff had never been here before. Our mental images of the city had been shaped in part by famous photos of airplanes flying precariously low as they made a last-minute ninety degree turn over tall apartment buildings on the final approach into Hong Kong's old Kai Tak Airport, located on the Kowloon Peninsula. Although we knew that Kai Tak had been retired and replaced with a new airport on safer ground on Chek Lap Kok Island in 1998, we did not know the colorful and rich history of one of the neighborhoods under the old flight path: the Kowloon Walled City.
The Mountain View Pavilion in the Kowloon Walled City Park
Now a city park, the Walled City sits in what is now the Kowloon City District of Hong Kong, making it a kind of city within a city, within yet another city. The irony of describing it that way is that for a period of many years, neither the British nor the Chinese asserted any real jurisdiction over the Walled City. Established as an imperial fort under the Song Dynasty (10th to 13th century), its original purpose is believed to have been to monitor salt trade. When Hong Kong Island came under British control in 1842, the Walled City gained new significance when the Qing Dynasty expanded it, adding a defensive wall to strengthen its position against the British. After the British and Chinese entered into a 99-year lease over Kowloon and the New Territories in 1898, the location of the Walled City fell within British territory, but the lease contained a clause permitting the Chinese to maintain a military presence. That arrangement lasted only one year, until the British invaded the Walled City and expelled the Chinese resident officer for inciting rebellion against them. From that point forward, the Walled City fell into a kind of sovereign no man's land. The British revoked the clause in the lease, asserting their right to control the city, while the Chinese continued to maintain that the Walled City was Chinese territory. In reality, neither government asserted much influence there for the next forty-five years.
Jeff inspects the foundation of the South Gate, one of only a few preserved relics of the Walled City
During World War II, the occupying Japanese forces destroyed the city's wall, using the stone remnants as fill for expanding Kai Tak Airport. Following the Japanese surrender, the Chinese re-asserted their right to control the Walled City, and its population swelled as refugees poured in, seeking the protection offered by the Chinese government. With the Walled City rapidly becoming a slum, the British attempted to clear it in 1948, but failed when residents objected on the basis that it was Chinese territory. The neighborhood then fell under the spell of organized crime (known as Triads) and became notorious for its dens of iniquity. Remarkably, it also became known for its close-knit sense of community among families and neighbors who maintained tight bonds and helped one another out in the cramped quarters. Basic services like water and sanitation were limited. Many families hauled water in buckets from one of only a few fresh water standpipes in the neighborhood. There were reports of children suffering from rickets due to a lack of sunlight. Although the city provided mail service, the couriers assigned to that route had to post makeshift house numbers on the dwellings just to make deliveries.
A Moon Gate makes a peaceful passageway inside the Kowloon Walled City Park
By the late 1980s, with 33,000 people living in 500 buildings across its 6.9 acres, the Walled City was considered the most densely populated place on Earth. Building heights were capped at fourteen stories due to its location under the Kai Tak Airport approach, and a concerted effort by the Hong Kong Government had reduced crime and the influence of the Triads. In 1987, shortly after Britain and China signed the Joint Declaration which outlined the terms for the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997, the two governments finally agreed that the Walled City fell under British control, and the decision was made to demolish it. A total of US$350 million was distributed to the residents and businesses as compensation; demolition began in March 1993, finishing a little more than one year later. Construction of the existing Kowloon Walled City Park began right away, and the park was dedicated by the final British Governor of Hong Kong in December 1995. Produced to mark the 20th anniversary of the demolition, this Wall Street Journal retrospective provides fascinating perspective on the population density and life in the Walled City. Many of us could not imagine living in the kind of conditions that existed in the Kowloon Walled City. For us, a measure of privacy, running water and basic sanitation are a way of life. But it is fascinating to learn how a strong sense of community developed and thrived among the people who lived there, even making many of them reluctant to leave when the days of the Walled City came to an end.
A Bronze replica and cross section of the buildings etched in glass provide insight on life inside the Walled City
