Posts From the Way Back Machine #4: Rhymes with Chariman Mao

Editors Note: In this latest installment of our Hong Kong retrospective, Ian offers insightful commentary on some general Hong Kong strangeness.

A lot of what we saw in Hong Kong were little things too brief to warrant their own posts. I've collected five of our favorites and done a short write-up for each.

Item #1: Snowman Bao

He's smiling because he knows none of us like bao enough to actually eat him

Hong Kong has a lot of bakeries - there were four within a block of our apartment. Anyone who's ever been to China (or Chinatown) knows the Chinese are fans of sweet and/or savory stuffed buns known as 'bao.' A few of the bakeries in Hong Kong like to get a little creative and shape their bao into assorted figures and animals. Presumably this appeals to youth who, after being exposed to countless violent video-games and television programs, prefer a graphic demise for their bakery treats.

Item #2: Very large time-piece

"I said I have a really big clock"

I have two theories to explain this thing:
1) There is long-standing animosity between Japan and China, which can express itself in unexpected ways. Japan has a well known love/fetish for miniaturization and very small things. This monumental chronometer may be a subtle jab at the Japanese aesthetic.
2) Hong Kong strives to provide free or subsidized public services to its residents. Standardized time is a convention that generates tremendous social value, and has a strong network effect. However, most Hong Kong residents live in lofty high-rises, rendering a stationary, normal-size public clock illegible. This giant clock may be the first in a planned network of thousands, designed to insure that anyone can see the time by glancing out their 45th floor window.

Item #3: Safety Eggs

Humpty Dumpty: Never Forget

After an outbreak of Avian Flu instilled panic throughout Hong Kong, the government has taken a major focus on poultry-related food safety. While most of their public awareness campaigns have proved effective, their efforts to ensure that all eggs be equipped with safety harnesses and hard hats has largely been viewed as a failure.

Item #4: Santa Carnage

Santa's been hitting the nog pretty hard

China is not known for its celebration of western religion - the phrase "godless communists" comes to mind. That said, as Special Administrative Regions (SARs), Hong Kong and Macau have no beef with celebrating the largest commercial holiday of the year. We noticed that once the candy cane fueled holiday buying frenzy was over, Santa was literally thrown out on his ass.

Item #5: Greased-Up Educational Guy

A sino-Adonis prepares to show off his kickin' bod

Hong Kong has a wonderful science museum - admission is free on Wednesdays. Anyone familiar with the San Francisco exploratorium has a rough idea of the kind of hands-on science learning found there. Tiara and I are essentially six-year-olds, so we had a lot of fun. However, one exhibit was a little disconcerting. An interactive display allowed you to select a muscle group to learn about. Upon making your selection, a video screen plays a clip of a ripped, oiled, and almost naked man jumping around to demonstrate the muscles for you. In short, the exhibit provides young children with an introduction to musculoskeletal anatomy and homo-erotic video.

Posts From the Way Back Machine #3: Unchecked Narcissism

I know you're all thinking it, so I'm going to come out and say it. The only reason I'm still on staff here at Farang HQ is my looks - it sure ain't the writing. So drool on fangirls, this post is all about Ian eye-candy.

Pic 1: Ian on the Hong Kong Trail

Look out Babe Ruth, there's a new hunk in town

Hong Kong has a reputation for towering sky-scrapers and bustling city streets, but a linked network of trails ringing the island is one of the true gems. Tiara and I took a walk on the 'Dragon's Back,' which offered stunning vistas of... well let's be honest, the best views on the island weren't the verdant slopes and azure coastline, it was the towering figure of yours truly.

Pic 2: Mecha Strike Force Ian-XGZ Sapphire

Nerdeditors note: While large, this is far from a "life-size" replica. Full-size Gundam units are controlled by humans piloting from a seat in the mammoth robot's chest cavity.

Here's a picture of me next to a large/buff robot statue. I think I compare quite favorably. 'Nuff said.

Pic 3: Ian Sharp Rock Walking

Ow!

Here's a picture featuring my "softer side" - namely, the tender bottoms of my feet. That's right, dear readers, my relationship to the Greek Achilles goes much beyond my superficial resemblance to Brad Pitt's character in Troy.

For some reason people in Hong Kong think it's a good idea to walk around on really pointy rocks without wearing shoes. Either that or these are clever traps for foolish tourists, and they snared another unsuspecting victim.

Here's a low-angle shot of these "death rocks":

Seriously, these things were like three feet high and razor sharp.

That's it for the photo session, the show's over - you can roll your tongues back up into your mouth now. Our more astute readers may notice that I am wearing the same pants and same hiking boots in every photo. No, these were not taken on the same day. Let's just say you have to make choices when you're spending a year living out of a back-pack.

Free Hong Kong: Chrysanthemum Show

We are continuing to take advantage of all the free things Hong Kong has to offer. Earlier this week we went to the chrysanthemum show at the Yueng Yueng Institute in the New Territories. It was a pretty serious trek to get out there, necessitating three different modes of transportation (tram, metro, and minibus), but it was well worth it. Seeing all these flowers set among temples, incense, and lanterns made me feel like I was seeing a piece of China as I envisioned it when I was a kid. Here's the picture dump:

Pretty!

Chrysanthemum pheasants...or peacocks.

We loved this statue of a melty old man.

In addition to the beautiful flower displays, the neighboring monastery and temple were stunning. What these pictures sadly can't capture is the otherworldy chanting the monks were performing. Our new camera will have a better video function, so we can bring you sounds in addition to sights.

I love this photo. Temples, silk, lanterns - so many cliched yet very beautiful images of China all in the same picture. Also, how great are those colors?

I got a little carried away taking photos of lanterns.

Cantonese hedges.

Free Hong Kong: Hong Kong Park

Hong Kong has a surprising amount of dedicated parks and green spaces. Hong Kong Park, in the central district, is an extensive park with nice landscaping, fountains, and museums. Our two favorite free attractions here were the conservatory and the aviary. The conservatory, though small, had a nice collection of desert and tropical plants. The aviary was spectacular. You walk through the space on an elevated wooden walkway. We were fortunate in our timing - they'd just put out lots of fruit so the birds were all in full view, snacking away. The aviary had a large variety of birds, including parrots, pelicans, pheasants, kingfishers, and all sorts of things my bird-watching parents would get very excited about. Best of all, it was free, free, free!

Elevated walkways in the aviary.

Holiday art displays in the park.

The Peak

The Peak is the tallest point on Hong Kong Island. We took the bus up here for some city views that we were hoping would be spectacular, but which were actually pretty smoggy. The bus ride was really fun, though. The city buses here are all double-decker, and the prime seats are in the very front on the upper level. It was pretty exhilarating to experience the steep road and tight turns with nothing in front of us but the windshield.

There are some nice trails around the peak, and it was nice to get away from the city streets for awhile. We also enjoyed the informational signs about the different foliage we could see on the trail. The writer had a bit of a poetic, romantic streak. Stay tuned for more of these signs in the next few days.

View of Hong Kong's central district from the top.

In case you were wondering what mainland China looks like from Hong Kong, there it is! Smog, smog, smog.

Ian loves these trees.

Good flower signage. Click on the photo to read the text.

Free Hong Kong: Chinese Instrumental Concert

Hong Kong has a reputation for being expensive.  We're out to prove otherwise with our "Free Hong Kong" series.  We've found some directories of free events happening in the city in the next month, so we'll be getting as much free entertainment as we want.  Our first event was a Chinese instrumental concert held in a park downtown.  The music was lovely and it was a relief to hear the Chinese violin make sweet sounds, rather than those horrible high-pitched scratching noises generated by the Chinese violinist on the Berkeley campus.