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Hong Kong - One Year On

Well I didn't blog about it last year, and I know a few people still click here occasionally only to be confronted with the Kilburn Bop ... and besides, I've got a new fancy camera so here we go again ...

On our last day in Hong Kong, we headed down to the waterfront in Kowloon for a light lunch consisting of a pork bun and a luncheon meat and cheese bun (a revelation - you have to try one!) and whilst eating our fine cuisine, we were asked if we'd answer a few questions by a couple of local students doing some sort of school project about visitors to Hong Kong - one of those was "What is your main reason for visiting Hong Kong?". Hmmm ... difficult one - I expect a lot of people say shopping, certainly that's what a lot of people expect you to say and speaking to various other people on our trip, does seem to be a reason for some people, but despite all the opportunities, it's something we barely did at all, mainly passing through the multitude of shopping centres as a means of getting to the other side or grabbing a coffee.

Personally I think the reason we visit most place is to soak up the city, the culture, the place, the people - yes, there are sights to see and we certainly do some of that but we don't try to cram it all into a couple of days like lots of people would - we did it over 9 days, doing one or two things, or maybe one area in a day, and then spending the rest of the day meandering, observing, listening and smelling- in some cases a pleasant experiences, in other areas not!

But they were doing a project and obviously wanted an answer that was easier to classify, so after a few seconds thinking I gave the most instinctive answer I could think of - the temples. They seemed somewhat surprised by this and perhaps people who know me would be surprised I gave this answer - I'm by no means a religious person and I don't think people who know me would think of me as a particularly spiritual person, but there's something wonderfully peaceful, evocative and strangely relaxing about these places, even the busiest of them. They are also places that, more than anywhere else, seem to show the contrast between the traditional and the modern - young people coming along to use their prayer sticks to predict fortunes, or leaving offerings of oranges or other food, brought along in designer shopping bags. I associate Hong Kong with Temples in the same way I associate North Wales with castles - after year after year of holidays to North Wales as a child I probably felt that I'd "done" castles after 5 or 6 years ... but after 2 visits to Hong Kong I still want to pop into every temple that we pass by, and they seem to pop up everywhere.

The first temple we went to was one of the smaller ones, but also one of the most evocative, Man Mo Temple in Central (I'm not giving directions - this isn't meant as a travel guide and you can google as well as I can). The temple is fairly dark inside and full of smoke from the giant incense spirals hanging above - I used to hate joss sticks but in the right place, i.e. a temple and not a student house, the heady scent is magnificant. People come in and out to say prayers but visitors are welcome and, whilst you keep your voices to a respectful murmer, you don't feel like you're intruding as you can in a church.


A visit to Sha Tin in the New Territories served the dual purpose of a visit to the Heritage Museum, which was well worth a visit in its own right, and a visit to the Temple of Ten Thousand Buddhas. Located at the top of a rather steep climb up 400+ steps, thankfully the multitude of Buddhas that flank the path help distract from the walk up, each Buddha different from the next. Most of the ten thousand Buddhas appear to be in the main temple room, row after row of them on shelves, all slightly different from the next, and an amazing sight to behold. The temple also, as a number of temples do, provides a good place for a cheap but very tasty vegetarian lunch, which can be a blessing after feasting on meat based fare night after night.






I'll be doing another blog about the island of Cheung Chau but this small traffic-less island was dotted with numerous temples. The largest of these, Pak Tai temple, was the only place where we faced a hawker inside the temple, trying to persuade us to buy joss sticks to light. I gave a contribution into a collection box, as we did at every temple, but didn't feel that lighting sticks myself was appropriate - it's not my religion ... although if I was forced to take one up it would probably be between Buddhism and Hinduism (based on my very limited knowledge but I don't normally let such things stop me having an opinion!).

We didn't return to the Big Buddha on Lantau this time, but we did go back to Wong Tai Sin Temple in New Kowloon - this was by far the busiest temple we visited, but despite the numbers still had an air of tranquility about it, and the Good Wish Garden behind the temple afforded space to take time out. At the front of the temple is a long row of fortune tellers where worshippers could take the results of shaking their prayer sticks or throwing their Buddhas Lips, for interpretation.



Like a lot of temples in Hong Kong (and the Big Buddha), Wong Tai Sin is my no means old, being built in the early 70's - and those that are older have often been moved from their original locations - but such is the contrast between these buildings and their surroundings, it seems to almost lend them an air of antiquity even where it doesn't exist.



So that's temples ... Cheung Chau and numerous other Hong Kong based blogs to follow ... and I'll try to make it less than a year.