Hong Kong

Over the Korean Thanksgiving holiday I made a quick trip to Hong Kong. We slept in Chungking Mansions, which wasn't unlike walking into the open gates of Hell (it looked and smelled like people had died there, prostitutes everywhere, every other person selling drugs, and all 16+ stories of the building were swathed in a giant green tarp), but otherwise the trip was great. Hong Kong is big, vertical, international, and mostly sparkling if you leave out anything related to Chungking. In many ways, it reminded me of Tokyo. We ate and drank well, shopped, saw some temples and gardens, and wandered into markets. It was a success.

Chi Lin Buddhist Nunnery

 A nun and a lamp

Nunnery garden

 Taoist temple decked out with lanterns for the Harvest Moon Festival. I'm sure it would have been lovely at night.

Hall of fortune tellers outside the temple. Steve had his face read and apparently he has a chicken-hearted nose. 

View of the city at sunset from Victoria Peak

Statue Square was one of my favorite spots, in spite of the fact that there was only one statue.

Grand Plaza

 Lanterns

Side alleyways are always the most interesting. Did you know Peking Duck is sold with the head still attached, beak and all? I didn't.

We were there during China's Harvest Moon holiday, which is also observed in Hong Kong. They celebrate with lantern festivals (More about those soon. I went to one in Korea over the weekend.) and moon cakes.

Moon cakes are round and stamped on top with the current year's Chinese Zodiac sign. This year's moon cakes had the sign of the rabbit. They're meant to be eaten by an individual at one go (more calories than a Big Mac and it's back luck not to finish) and come with a variety of fillings. The traditional filling is sweet bean curd and four egg yolks that represent the four phases of the moon. A nice civilian lady in the bakery convinced me that this was the very best one, and I should have known better. I hate sweet bean curd. And with whole egg yolks? Really. Steve's, filled with chopped nuts and dates, was much better and tasted like baklava.