Last days in Hong Kong

Coming back from Macau, we still had a couple of days left in Hong Kong. Actually, Mathilde's cousin Emeric, who's been living in HK for about five years, had invited us for dinner, so we headed straight from the ferry terminal to Kowloon, where we were meeting him.

Kowloon (the name comes from 9 dragons, referring to the 8 hilltops in Kowloon, as well as the 9th dragon, the emperor) is what could be called the "real Chinese Hong Kong". It's an impressive multi-ethnic mix featuring street markets, eateries of all sorts, fortune tellers, parks, a walled city, temples, and more and more modern constructions & impressive skyscrapers.

Emeric picked us up at the metro station, and took us to his flat, a traditional HK style apartment (to reuse a worn out phrase, straight out of a Wong-Kar Wai movie) he was sharing with his newly-wed wife (we attended the wedding just a couple of months ago in France!), who is a Hong Kong native. Emeric cooked up a very authentic hot pot meal (the idea is simple - just cook the ingredients you fancy in a big pot with a spicy sauce).

After dinner, we went out on a tour of the local neighborhood. A tour with a real local tour guide - it seems that Emeric has integrated very well into his neighborhood. He took us around all the markets that make HK and Kowloon in particular such a buzzing and lively place (here we could see the Chinese sense for commerce truly in action). He showed us the kind of stuff you don't read about in the guide books (like the wholesale market where restaurants and shopkeepers come at night and during the early hours of the morning to stock up). After our interesting "Kowloon by night" tour, it was time for us to catch our ferry back to Discovery Bay.

The next day, the plan was to head back to further explore Kowloon - Raphaelle was thankfully able to join us as well (Ollie was working, alas...). We started by checking out the biggest and most popular temple in Hong Kong - Wong Tai Shin temple. The temple is dedicated to all three main Chinese religions (Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism) - even though it was only open to Taoist believers until 1956.

People come here to pray for good luck, and to ask for advice on all sorts of matters such as marriage, job prospects and so forth. Apparently it's also a place where gamblers come to get their blessings - no wonder the place is so popular. Anyway, it's an impressive and interesting place to visit - what makes it interesting is that it's not just a tourist attraction (which is mostly the case with some of the other famous temples we've seen here in HK). The Chinese-style garden is very nice too.

We then continued our exploration of New Kowloon - by checking out what is possible my favorite tourist attraction in Honk Kong - the Kowloon Walled City Park. Kowloon Walled city was a rather fascinating place - it started off as a military fortress, turning into an enclave once the Brits took over in 1898. The fortress walls remained, but the population inside the walls grew, until reaching an impressive number of 33,000 in the 70's. The enclave was largely ungovernable, controlled by the triads. It was known for drug trade, illegal dentists, and cheap factory-like workshops, among other things.

The walled city was finally demolished in 1994, and reopened in 1995 as Kowloon Walled City Park, a wonderful haven of peace now open to everybody. Some historic artefacts, like the city walls, and the old Yamen building (the administrative building), still remain as a testimony of the place's past. It's a beautiful place to visit - and the place's history just adds to the places attraction. If you ever visit Hong Kong, make sure you come here!

We then headed off to the nearby Thai neighborhood to take in yet another aspect of Kowloon. Emeric joined us for lunch, and took us to an "Islam food" restaurant. Of course, there are Muslim ethnic minorities in China (such as the Uighur), so I suppose Islam food is what they eat ? Be that as it may, I really loved the food - quite different from what we've tried so far, and absolutely delicious (and not expensive).

Emeric then continued showing us the Kowloon he loves, showing us yet more colorful markets, crowded streets and shops selling pretty much everything one could imagine needing/wanting. I suppose there were places in the West similar to this before the onslaught of supermarkets, chain shops, Ikeas and the like...

One interesting place worth mentioning in particular is Yuen Po Street Bird Market. It's a kind of market selling birds, food for birds, and equipment for taking care of birds  - anything related to birds, really! But the real reason to come here is to watch (mainly old) Chinese men come here and hang out with their birds and their like-minded bird-oholics.

Our route continued via the Chungking building (another Wong-Kar Wai reference, Chungking Express anybody...?) and the rather tranquil Kowloon park and then to Tsim Sha Tsui, from where we took the ferry to Hong Kong Island (we had to rush off for our evening drink rendez-vous with Martin).

We met Martin at Hennessy building, which features a rooftop bar. Predictably, the views from up there were just amazing. Finally, I got to indulge in some proper night-time photography! Great to catch up with Martin again.

And then, 'twas time for us to bid farewell to our excellent Honk Kong guides (Martin for Hong Kong island, Emeric for Kowloon), and head back to Discovery Bay, where we had a last dinner with Olivier and Raphaelle (not to forget about young Lucas and Louis, of course!).

The biggest thanks goes to Ollie and Rafa, who put us up (put up with us?) for one week, and showed us around this fascinating city. I guess this gives me a good foretaste of what China will be like, once I embark upon my Chinese journey in November.