Hong Kong | Fotoeins Fotografie

Posts from the ‘Hong Kong’ category

Seattle Lake View: Bruce & Brandon Lee

Honouring the surname

In the mid- to late-1970s, our parents took us to single-screen movie theatres with names like Olympia, Golden Harvest, and Shaw for cinema night to watch movies made in Hong Kong. There were dramas; some high on the melodrama and low on character. Some were historic-period pieces, and there were kung-fu movies for which Dad passed his love to me.

There’s nothing quite like seeing a kung-fu action sequence on a big screen. I was mesmerized the first time I laid eyes on a memorable fight scene set in Rome’s Colosseum, that epic scene observed by little stone dragons between “Little Dragon” himself, Bruce Lee, and Chuck Norris’ character in the 1972 film “The Way of the Dragon“. As a kid, I was proud to have had the same surname as this Bruce fellow, and memories of seeing his on-screen characters prevailing in fights have stuck over time (e.g., “Boards don’t hit back.”)

Tragically, Bruce and his son, Brandon, died too young. I’m certain when I was a teen that I asked where Bruce Lee was buried; my parents didn’t know and in pre-internet days, it was more of a challenge to find those answers. But the mystery has long been solved: Bruce Lee and his son, Brandon, lay side by side in Lake View Cemetery in Seattle’s Capitol Hill.

Despite multiple visits to the city in years past, this particular return trip to Seattle has been decades in the making for a chance to honour a part of my childhood and a part of my heritage. When I find the Lees, my arrival means another answer has been quietly realized. On a crisp bright autumn morning under blue skies, I feel my father’s spirit with me; he never had the chance to come to this cemetery. My lips move without voice, a prayer I utter into the ether, pushing for hope to reach him. Because I know now that this, is also for my Dad.

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Tian Tan Buddha, Ngong Ping, Ngong Ping 360, Lantau Island, Hong Kong, fotoeins.com

My Hong Kong: above on the Ngong Ping 360

If you’re in Hong Kong and you’re thinking about visiting the “Big Buddha” on Lantau Island, you should consider the 6-kilometre Ngong Ping 360 cable-car high above the island.

From the Tung Chung lower station to the Ngong Ping upper station, the 25-minute cable car ride offers a 360-degree view of the Tung Chung development, Tung Chung Bay, the HKG international airport at Chep Lap Kok, and the forested parklands of Lantau North Country Park. At Ngong Ping village, most will head out on foot to visit the nearby Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha (known also as the “Big Buddha”), hike across North Lantau back towards Tung Chung, or hop on a bus to any number of villages along the island’s coastline.

From central Hong Kong, hop onto the MTR Tung Chung transport-line to the western terminus station in the town of Tung Chung. Located across from the MTR station is the lower station for the “Ngong Ping 360“, labeled ‘T’ (for Tung Chung) in the map below. ‘N’ marks the upper station at Ngong Ping. As of June 2014, adult fares for the standard cabin are $105 HKD one-way (about $14 USD) and $150 HKD return (about $19 USD); private cabins or “crystal” cabins with glass floors cost extra. The 360 operates weekdays 10am to 6pm, and weekends/holidays 9am to 630pm.

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Hong Kong: almost China at the Lo Wu gateway

I’m at the turnstiles, off to the side from the steady stream of people going through to the other side.

I’m standing on the one side in Hong Kong (香港).

The other side is the city of Shenzhen in the People’s Republic of China’s province of Guangdong (Kwangtung | 廣東 | 广东).

MTR trains come in from Hong Kong and stop here at the end of the line. People pour out of the trains, and head for Shenzhen. There are occasional lulls in between frequent arrivals and departures of the trains, reminding me I’m in the middle of the countryside and at the frontier section separating between what most people know as Hong Kong and China.

Over on the “other” side, Shenzhen is a strong economic force, helped along by its special designation as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), but there’s still a special allure for many to working inside Hong Kong’s Special Administrative Region. MTR rail passengers depart Hong Kong and enter Shenzhen at either the Lo Wu or Lok Ma Chau (Spur Line) crossings. The average cross-border passenger traffic numbers are 220,000 and 80,000 people per day, at Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau, respectively (Source 1, Source 2).

From an economic, urban planning, and logistics point of view, it’s no surprise there’s a push to amalgamate Shenzhen with Hong Kong to create a super-metropolis here at the mouth of the Pearl River. Hong Kong has over 7 million people, whereas the population of neighbouring Shenzhen exceeds 13 million. Many would like to see easier and faster movement of goods and people between the two cities, but many in Hong Kong fear an exacerbation of existing problems with overcrowding and overburdened resources.

But what of the people going back and forth? How many from China and/or Shenzhen enter Hong Kong for work or school, and reverse course at the end of every day? How many from Hong Kong go to work in Shenzhen?

I wonder what the daily routine is for someone going back and forth between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. I watch patiently, and I wonder what it’s like on the other side. I have no doubt there’s someone on the other side in Shenzhen who’s wondering the same thing.

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Sun Life Stanley Dragon Boat Championships : Stanley, Hong Kong

HKG Dragon Boat Championships in Stanley

As a boy to Chinese parents in Vancouver, I remembered looking forward to the middle of the calendar year, because there would be plenty of sticky-rice dumplings (粽), which CantoDict describes as a “glutinous-rice dumpling or tamale, made by wrapping the rice in broad leaves of reeds and boiled for a few hours, usually with other ingredients such as meat, oysters, beans, etc.”

A very popular Chinese holiday surrounds the Duanwu Festival, which occurs on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month in the Chinese calendar; the big festival day occurs on 23 June and 12 June in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Along with the consumption of rice dumplings, the festival is known as the Dragon Boat Festival with the racing of dragon boats. Tradition tells the story of boats set out to retrieve the body of poet and scholar Qu Yuan who drowned himself (278 BCE) after false accusations of conspiracy forced him into exile.

On a June-weekend, thousands congregate to the south portion of Hong Kong Island, all there to attend the annual Dragon Boat Championships. On 23 June 2012, my sister and I head out to Stanley by friends’ invitation to witness the spectacle and party from the comfort of the Horwath HTL boat in Tai Tim Bay. This turns out to be a big bonus, as the weather in June is oppressively hot and sticky. Instead of being stuck in the midst of huge crowds on dry land, we find ourselves in the middle of the bay, surrounded by countless ships of all shapes and sizes in relatively calm conditions.

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Chicken, mushrooms, snow peas in black bean garlic sauce

Chicken with black-bean garlic sauce, HL style

Above: Chicken, mushrooms, and snow peas in black-bean garlic sauce – 26 January 2013.

I’ve had versions of this dish before, hundreds of times, either at home or at a restaurant. When I decided to make this dish, I didn’t start with any recipe: it was all about ingredients, memory, and experience.

When I posted a picture of the final product (which was delicious), I was urged to describe my makeshift recipe. The most common question (re. demand) was: “how’d you make that?”

I describe here what I’ll make from scratch …

( Click here for ingredients and recipe )