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left: front row - Raymond, Kaori, Ayumi, Claire back row - Maggie,
Takuya, Serina, Mitsuyo, I right: 3 flags - Hong Kong Convention Center, P.R.C., Hong Kong SAR |
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left: front row - Raymond, Kaori, Ayumi, Claire back row - Maggie,
Takuya, Serina, Mitsuyo, I right: 3 flags - Hong Kong Convention Center, P.R.C., Hong Kong SAR |
| After exiting the HK Convention Center, we took a tram to Sau Kei Wan. We entered an old European styled building, the Western Market. It is a four-storey red brick building built in 1906 and now fully renovated. It had many souvenir and tailor shops inside, not to mention a restaurant upstairs. We later walked out and explored the local streets. These streets had a much lower population density compared to many other places in Hong Kong. We stopped by a local bakery to eat some egg tarts and a Wellcome to buy some water. There were quita a lot of antique shops around the area, not to mention a coffin shop! (i wanted to take a photo but my conscience wouldn't allow me to |
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Since we were walking upwards, we had to climb many stairs. In fact, we
were walking up towards the mid levels which is more of a residential
place. The people around here drive cars more often and are usually quite
rich. Maggie used to come to this area to attend high school so she knew things about the area. The environment is very different from all the other places I had already seen in Hong Kong. It justs seems very local and isolated from the convenience of the MTR and KCR systems. Maggie hasn't come here for about 5 years so she had to ask many people for directions! |
 | Maggie wanted to bring us to this building, which is known as the "Ghost House" (Gwai Ngouk). It does look quite scary, doesn't it? It used to house the mentally ill. However it is no longer used and long abandoned. The only things alive that live in there now are stray cats and dogs. The house is now in the process of demolition because a new flat is planned in its space. |
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Left: Bank of China Right: Lippo Centre |
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After taking a bus back to Admiralty, we decided to have dinner at
Chungking Mansion. Yes, the place made famous by Wong Kar-Wai's film,
Chungking Express. The moment we entered the building, we were swarmed by
Indian advertising people who wanted us to eat in their restaurants! We
went to some place which Maggie recommended. The food was quite spicy and
we kept ordering "nan" because we just didn't ordered enough. This photo was taken in the corridors of Chungking Mansion. I'm sitting down, Mitsuyo is looking very sad, Ayumi is crying and Takuya is....hey, he's smiling! |
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As soon as we finished eating, we walked to somewhere near the harbor. We
waited only 15 minutes for the fireworks display to begin. Although the
time was very short, we still had an excellent view! It was a very good
display! A photo can never capture the true essense of the real thing because it does not present the loud explosions nor the movement of light. This particular photo was taken during the finale. |
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After the fireworks display ended, there were many people trying to leave.
However some policemen created a barrier to keep in some people so
that there wouldn't be too many people on this streets. However those
people were quickly losing their patience and began complaining to the
police. After a while, they were released. This is a picture of some policemen looking over the human traffic. One of the policemen (the one looking at the camera) said to his colleague in Cantonese, "Hey, they are taking a picture of us!" |