Hong Kong. October 2019
postcard from Hong Kong
Home. Sweet home.
It was a weird time to return home. Friends and strangers alike ask why I haven’t postpone my travel plans. It’s been 3 years since my last visit, and I was already traveling half way around the world, so it was a no brainer. I was excited to be back to see family and friends, and honestly didn’t think the protests would impact my plans. And for the most part, my trip was not affected at all. The city is still the one I know and love, but this time I saw a city divided and in need of healing.
My visit to Hong Kong this year is probably the shortest I have ever done - a total of 3 days… over a very interesting time. I got in late in the evening on a Sunday and took the airport express and MTR to stay with my grandparents. I felt the impact of the protests immediately upon arrival as the weekend is prime protest time so the MTR was skipping stops (people have joked that the MTR, the world-renowned mass transit system known to have 99.9% on-time rate, was running express), and I made it to East Hong Kong from the airport in a little less than an hour. News broadcasted on the train were all on the protests and the latest station closings, but people sharing the ride with me seemed largely unfazed by the disruption. I begin to wonder if they see this as the new ‘normal’.
The next few days I mostly went about my days as I planned. I took care of a few errands while in town, did some sightseeing in my favorite parts of town, and met up with family and friends. My heart is heavy every moment I see a glimpse of the impact of the HK protests - and they are everywhere.
After finishing my errands in the Sheung Wan area, I followed Google maps and headed to Cat Street, a market filled with antique, art and souvenirs shops on Upper Lascar Row. With the familiar HK radio show playing in the background, the street was otherwise quiet with few tourists on the late morning. I stumbled upon a cute store named Fleurs & Thés (花茗堂) towards the end of the block and headed inside. The owner Wendy saw me with a camera in hand and allowed me to take photos around the floral/ tea shop. I saw a very cute Peking Opera pearl necklace and she even help me set it up on the table for the photos! She had just opened the shop in Sheung Wan after being in another building in Causeway Bay. I asked if the businesses on this tourist street have been impacted by the HK protests and she said it’s too early for her to tell as she has only been in this location for 2 months, but her neighbors have expressed a difference in foot traffic.
I bid goodbye to Wendy and went to a few other shops, and came across an antique shop that had recently open. They have many items I’ve only seen in photos or in movies - I even saw a driver’s license from the 50’s! Oh the nostalgia…
I walked across Hollywood Road towards Man Mo Temple, the same one I visited 3 years ago. I love walking around in Sheung Wan because there are older buildings with old school mailboxes right next to modern luxury high-rises - a mix of old and new.
I continued heading west and stopped by a shop called Soul Art Shop, spending some time with the house cat. I spent some time at the shops in PMQ, one of my favorite places in Sheung Wan, before ending my excursion at the same wall mural I visited on the last trip.
After my Sheung Wan outing I headed to Admiralty to meet my long time friend for lunch (we’ve known each other since kindergarten! Isn’t that crazy?!). We walked over to Wan Chai for lunch and did a little bit of shopping in the area and checked out Lee Tung Street, formally known as Wedding Card Street - 囍帖街 (which by the way, is also a great Canto song if you have never heard it). This street marks the drawback of urban development as the street was once a symbol of the cultural heritage of Hong Kong - it was known to be the center of the manufacturing of wedding invitations. The street has since been redeveloped into a luxury shopping mall and apartments, with festive decorations that draw (mostly) tourists and instagramers.
Concrete Jungle
The next day was the 10/1 National Holiday and because of planned protests and public activities I stayed mainly in the Tai Koo area. I Went to my favorite bookstore and stocked up on my Chinese reads, and met up with a friend for lunch at a coffee shop. I later met up with another friend at the nearby iconic, instagram-famous ‘Monster Building’, a housing complex built in the 1960’s that symbolizes the concrete jungle that Hong Kong came to be.
From Tai Koo/ Quarry Bay I decided to take the tram, and I walked by a Lennon Wall filled with post its and posters - a symbol of the HK protests. And throughout my trip I would pass by a dozen other Lennon Walls throughout the city, all with post its and clear messages of democracy.
I headed back home on the slow moving tram, sitting on the top deck, all the way to the Shau Kei Wan Terminus. The Eastern district of Hong Kong is where my grandparents have been for decades. My dad went to school in the area (his alma mater is right by the Terminus) and made life-long friends. It is also where my parents started a family and where I spent the first 5 or so years of my life. My parents would always tell me about the dates they used to go on getting street food along Shau Kei Wan Main Street East. I tried to relive that by getting an order of the egg waffles at Master Low-key Food Shop (you know it’s good when there is a line every day).
I had planned to go see my grandpa at his oyster sauce factory at Kwai Chung in the morning the next day. At his age, grandpa is still taking care of everything at the factory and showing no signs of retirement. I have been to the factory numerous times as a kid and remember we use to help with the year-end accounting. I would be given a ledger book and a calculator and would sum up the totals on each page. It was a lot of fun for me because I never got to use a calculator to do math and I loved the clicking sounds of a calculator. Grandma would always cooked for us and I remembered playing with the cats near the factory. With the address I got from mom, I found the factory on my own and got to see grandpa for a little bit. He and the team were busy bottling as it’s the start of the month so I didn’t stay long. Before I left he gave me 2 bottles of oyster sauce to take home.
With 2 bottles of oyster sauce in my bag, I headed to Tsim Sha Tsui as I have plans to meet up with a friend in Central later in the afternoon. I got off the TST MTR station and walked by The Peninsula, Hong Kong Cultural Center, and 1881 Heritage (historical building turned high end shopping area) before getting to the ferry station.
The ferry ride is the iconic HK mode of transportation between TST and Central - one that allows you cross the Victoria Harbour - and is one of my favorite activity in the city. They still have the old token purchasing machines in use today, even though most use their Octopus card as payment now.
From the Central Star Ferry Terminal I made my way towards Central and the mid-level escalators and passed by the flash mob protest sparked by excessive police forces used in yesterday’s 10/1 protests where an 18-year-old was shot at point-blank distance. For once I was able to see the scale of the protests with my own eyes. I don’t think I can really use a single word to describe how I feel - it was a sense of pride to see how Hongkongers gathered in times of need, but at the same time I feel helpless. I simply don’t know how things would unfold.
After lunch at a Taiwanese place in the area, my friend and I headed to Tai Kwun, the former Central Police Station Compound and now the Center for Heritage and Arts. The buildings date back to colonial times, and comprised of the Central Police Station, Central Magistracy and Victoria Prison.
We walked through the jail blocks and Victoria Prison, the oldest and longest running jail in HK. It was actually in operation from 1841 till 2006. Ho Chi Minh was actually confined in Victoria Prison from 1931 to 1933, and he described in his dairies a narrow courtyard where he was allowed to exercised for 15 minutes each day. It is believed to be the courtyard that connects A and B halls. Inside each of the jail cells, artistic installations describe what life was like in confinement.
In the main courtyard separating the Police Headquarters and the Barrack Block stood the legendary mango tree. Rumor has it that if the mango tree bore a lot of fruit, something big would happen. Some sources also say Indian police officers introduced mangoes to their HK counterparts back in the day.
I wished I could spend more time at Tai Kwun but I had booked an aerial yoga class at 4PM in Central (yes it is important to get your regular exercise routine in while traveling). The class at Flex Studios was awesome and it was even better that I was able to use my regular Classpass credits for the class without dealing with any plan changes. In short - use Classpass when you’re traveling to try out new studios in different countries and get a feel of what it’s like to exercise like a local!
As the last tourist activity of my trip I decided to take the tram from Central all the way to eastern Hong Kong (I would later get some shade from my grandma for choosing the slowest mode of transportation to get back in time for dinner with the fam). Here are some last shots of HK from a tram at sunset!
Till next time, Hong Kong! 🇭🇰