According to Hong Kong’s primary news channel, 3rd February 2008 was the coldest day of the winter so far. The south China winter monsoon is the worst to hit in 50 years and had made its way towards Guandong, thus thwarting plans of a day trip across the border. Hong Kong Tourist Board have cancelled 500 tours to the region and stampedes of evacuees at various Guandong train stations have left one woman dead with thousands fleeing the region in a headstrong effort to find shelter. News images showed Chinese police trying to control the pressing crowds - a scene which looks unlikely to ease all week - and report that the price of candles has shot up to 100 times the usual going rate in areas affected by blackouts. I consoled myself by taking a walk through Kowloon up towards the Lunar Flower market.
Nathan Road runs north-south from in the heart of western Kowloon. The area is a flurry of excitement; people walk elbow to elbow and you cannot fail but to glance up at the colourful array on neon signs in a bewildered state of awe. Of course, doing so would mean that its more than likely you’ll unwittingly find yourself underneath one of the hundreds of taxi’s or ‘Public Light Buses’ hurtling around street corners at a startling speed.
The Public Light Buses consist of 16 seats and are similar in appearance to the camper vans that stoned hippies from bygone days would use as transportation to summer festivals. Most are coloured in the same hues as ice cream vans with crass adveritisements emblazened across the side.
After a few wrong turns I negotiated my way north towards Fa Hui Park. The park is located north of Boundary Street; the demarcation between the Kowloon Peninsula and the adjacent New Territories. The Lunar Flower markets were pleasant enough, and I soon learned the importance of kumquats during Chinese New Year celebrations. As a symbol of prosperity, most stores and homes place a kumquat plant outside their front entrance to symbolise prosperity they hope to gain over the forthcoming months. Everywhere I looked, kumquat plants were being lugged around by crippled old Chinese ladies. Using their umbrellas as walking sticks they slowly hobbled on their way, dropping kumquats to form a trail that vanished from sight. The market’s busiest time will be 6th February, when locals will drop by to pick up brightly coloured blooms just before the New Year Celebrations begin.
A short walk across Boundary Street brought me to Yuen Po Street Bird Garden. Small songbirds of various colour and plumage lined the streets in beautiful ornate birdcagesmade of teak and bamboo. I found the way in which the elderly local men studied these birds very bemusing. Hoards of pensioners cowered around cages, poking their frail fingers into the cages and whistled to the birds. If the birds returned a tune then the men would embed a wad of notes into the sellers hand before making off with their prize.
I later learned that a birds singing prowess will often determine its price. Which is possible why a cage of songbirds with more reserved personalities had been placed precariously above a garbage disposal bin with a sign that read ‘For the disposal of dead birds only’. If that didn’t spur them to break into a chirpy tune then it appears nothing else would.
I carried on towards New Kowloon with a brief visit to the site of the historical Kowloon Walled City. The design of the Kowloon Walled City Park is based on the Jiangian garden style of the early Qing Dynasty. It is basically very similar to the Chinese Garden of Friendship in Sydney.
I flicked amongst the tourist information leaflets and found one about exterminating rats which was oddly misplaced and unthinkably inhospitable seeing as though the country is on the brink of celebrating the Year of the Rat.
I took the Metro for the first time from Lok Fu to Jordan to look around Temple Street Markets. I can finally comprehend why I have heard Sydneysiders winge for the past two years about the Sydney Transit Authority. It stinks in comparison to the MTR in Hong Kong. Here, you are practically spoon fed your destination and everything is so easy to find, it’s clean, it’s fast and it’s cheap.
The markets on Mong Kok literally sweep you off your feet – I had to take refuge in numerous doorways as I bodysurfed my way down Nathan Road on a sea of people in the wrong direction. After hankering after some yum cha I somehow finally ended up at Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut in Hong Kong is unlike any Pizza Hut I have ever seen. It took five pages of sifting through apperatifs, appetisers and gourmet European fusion dishes until I reached the pizza section!
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