OMG! HKG!

The first stop on my second tour of the far east is Hong Kong and how I do love this city. But before getting into how attractive and interesting Hong Kong is first look at the photo below taken as I was flying in. You can clearly see the level of pollution that hovers over most of China. (the brown band beneath the blue) It doesn't really effect much but does make it difficult to see long distances and creates a shield that keeps in light and heat in most cities. But anyway I still liked Hong Kong alot. It's up their with Beijing and San Antonio, TX in my favorite cities list. I'll admit that I was in a nicer situation than my normal travels. Here is a view from my hotel.



But what I liked most about this city was the feeling that you were living in a tree house. The plants (jungle really) mixed and covered with the concrete city. And everything was built high (because of floods) and moving up the mountains (for space) This picture I'm actually standing on a sidewalk looking up at an overpass. I also really liked Hong Kong for it's mix of British and Chinese culture. Native Hong Kongians have a sense of propriety and civility that the rest of China doesn't have (they don't spit on the streets) but the essence of China was still there. For instance I ate something called "Beef flavored crunchies" that contained the warning "Product contains: milk products, soybean products, fish products and crustacean products." And no I did not get sick from it.


My first night in Hong Kong I went to see the world's largest fixed light show at Victoria Harbor that used 30+ buildings of the downtown buisness section to make a show set to music. The show was not so great but the skyline of Victoria Harbor blows away any competition from Shanghai's Bund or anyother waterfront I've seen thus far.
Also, included along the water is the Avenue of Stars, showcasing the handprints of famous Hong Kong people. Of course Jackie Chan was included in this, being a Hong Kong native, as were other famous action stars like Bruce Lee, Andy Lau and Sammo Hung. Jackie Chan has bigger hands than me.
And if you were not yet aware. The year of the Ox is approaching in the next few weeks. So everybody is decorating and preparing for the Spring Festival (It's not called Chinese New Year's in Asia since almost every Asian country celebrates it)
Hong Kong is made up of two big islands( Hong Kong Island and Lantau), a bunch of little islands and a pennisula (Kowloon)

I visited Lantau on the second day. It was beautiful with beaches and an indian summer made it warm enough to walk barefoot.
But one of the best things I've see so far was the Po Lin Monastery that kept up the Tian Tan Buddha. It's litterally a massive bronze buddha on a mountain. I think that's awesome.

A view from the Buddha at some of the other islands.
The other thing worth seeing on Lantau is Tai O, a traditional fishing village. Again, with floods being a problem the houses are built on stilts. And though toursits get bused through here daily the villagers still make their living fishing as evidenced by the smell of fish and fish paste drying in the sun.
And then you can take a lovely cable car over to Kowloon to meet the subway. Though all the islands are connected by ferries.


Did I mention Hong Kong is a mix of jungle and Europe. Here is City Hall, my favorite building. It has banana trees in the back.
The next day I went up Victoria Peak on the tram that has been running since 1888. And it goes straight up with an incline that I swear is more than 45 degrees.
At the top of the peak is everything. A mall, food, a daycare and pre-school, real estate agency... All within walking distance of the few massive mansions of people rich enough to live up here. Everyone else just comes on Sunday to walk their dogs on the paved path around the top and gossip with their girlfriends. Everywhere else I went in Hong Kong was mostly Chinese tourists at Victoria Peak it was all European natives. I don't think the two mix very often.
The rest of the day was spent getting lost and thus, subsequentially, climbing three mountains. (I really need to learn to ask directions) At the top of first mountain I climbed (everything is at the top of a mountain in China) I found the local Lutheran church. Asians are not particularly Christian but those who are are with an intensity that scares me. The second mountain led me to the city crematorium. This mountain was easier as there was an escalator that went most of the way up. (Those aren't stairs in the picture under the awning)

The crematorium was impressive with about 50 rooms each room holding the ashes of about 500 people. All marker with a slate with the person's name and sometimes a picture. As Spring Festival is coming it is tradition to visit the ancestors and so the place was hazy with incense and smelled like sandalwood.
I finally reached the place I was going on the top of a third mountain, the 10,000 Buddha monastery. The most camp place in the world. Built in the 1950's it is still a working monastery. The walk up this mountain featured at least 200 lifesized, plastic figures of Buddha, each in a unique position and none of them looking like Buddha at all.
Here is my personal favorite. Buddha of the Long Eyebrows. This monastery took Buddha lore from everywhere and made models of it. After going to this monastery I've been forced to go searching for answers as to why Buddha was shown riding a giant blue dog or why he had an extended arm. I'm still trying to understand all that I saw.
There were other figures that some how are attached to the Buddha myth but I don't know how.
The Buddha's extended up the hillside. But the reason this in the 10,000 Buddha Monastery is that in the main temple there are actually 12,800 unique figurines covering the walls. It's mesmerizing but doesn't do pictures well.



The last stop in Hong Kong was the Chi Lin Nunnery. I'm not sure exactly what a Buddhist nunnery is like but it's pretty. This one is made entirely of wood and due to the architeture style not a single nail was used.
But what I liked most was the Bonsai garden in the courtyard. Bougainvillae can apparently be pruned into bonsai trees.
And then there was a rock garden. A head monk was there arranging it. And I found this ironic that a monk was acting so aristocratically as to command the garden tennants to move and rotate the rocks this way and that while he watched under the shade of his umbrella.
I realized that I also have never really talked about the currency in Asia. I find it pretty. So here is a picture of a half Chinese yuen (also called renmenbi RMB), 1000 Korean won, a US dollar and 20 Hong Kong dollars. They are arrange in value increasing from least to greatest though the Yuen and the HKD are about equal and 1000 won is about 70cents US. Anyway. I liked Hong Kong alot and will move on to Kunming presently, a city in the Southern part of China in the Yunna province. But I will say one more thing about Hong Kong; the people are short. Everyone knows the stereotype that Asians are short and I've never found it to be true except in Hong Kong where I had about five inches on everyone.