Hong Kong: The Peak
18 January
With 7 million people, HK is densely packed: 50 story skyscrapers sprouting from the jungle. Apartments are small, streets narrow; mirrors play large roles in interior design. In part because of its sheer density there is a special concern for hygiene here. Hand sanitizers stand at the entrances to many buildings & restaurants. John jokes that the "3 Second Rule" of dropped food is actually 15 seconds here, because floors are 3 times cleaner.
After a walk through the botanical and zoological gardens, we rode up the Peak Tram to HK's highest vista point: Lung Fu Shan mountain (familiarly aka: Victoria Peak). Northward toward China, sky scrapers coral the entire shoreline. Kids play basketball on netted school rooftops. Industrial barges fill the harbor--with the exception of a single, red-sailed junk preserved for tourists. The warmer southern side of the island is comparatively undeveloped, thickly green all the way down to real beaches and open ocean. During the Japanese invasion, the British internment camps were there; now it's an ex-patriot glamour-hood.
Over dim sum and this grand view, P & I talked about The Lime Tree for a long while. Such a good experience, that. P, who has known TLT since its first word, even (finally) convinced me to kill a character whose final fate has too long hung in the balance. It's odd thing to be grateful for (but I am): thankful she has convinced me to kill a beloved character and further traumatize one of my principles. But this is what we do for each other.
We hiked down from the mountain along the steep, winding Lugar Road, singing an old Girl Scout song, "Barges", to the baby. Ancient rubber trees make the jungle thick (thinned by the occasional jack hammer through the trees). Along the way, parts of the hillside have been carved out for the road and lathed over, bumps & all, with concrete--presumably so that it doesn't slide into the city below. Each of these man-made slopes sports its own registry number and plaque--a degree of thoroughness approaching quaint. I met a Brit making a mildly serious survey of one slope in consultation with a booklet: it was the Registry of Slopes.
That night we saw (another) pyrotechnic performance of "Journey to the West" in Cantonese (supra-titled in Mandarin and English) at the HK Academy of Performing Arts. If you're not familiar, these stories follow the ancient adventures of the monk Tripitaka and his disciple Monkey on their mad-cap adventures toward Buddhist enlightenment. That's the short version anyway. Evan described this particular performance as "The Wizard of Oz meets Cats."
The weather has been a pleasant mid-60sF the entire week. Very soon: heat.
With 7 million people, HK is densely packed: 50 story skyscrapers sprouting from the jungle. Apartments are small, streets narrow; mirrors play large roles in interior design. In part because of its sheer density there is a special concern for hygiene here. Hand sanitizers stand at the entrances to many buildings & restaurants. John jokes that the "3 Second Rule" of dropped food is actually 15 seconds here, because floors are 3 times cleaner.
After a walk through the botanical and zoological gardens, we rode up the Peak Tram to HK's highest vista point: Lung Fu Shan mountain (familiarly aka: Victoria Peak). Northward toward China, sky scrapers coral the entire shoreline. Kids play basketball on netted school rooftops. Industrial barges fill the harbor--with the exception of a single, red-sailed junk preserved for tourists. The warmer southern side of the island is comparatively undeveloped, thickly green all the way down to real beaches and open ocean. During the Japanese invasion, the British internment camps were there; now it's an ex-patriot glamour-hood.
Over dim sum and this grand view, P & I talked about The Lime Tree for a long while. Such a good experience, that. P, who has known TLT since its first word, even (finally) convinced me to kill a character whose final fate has too long hung in the balance. It's odd thing to be grateful for (but I am): thankful she has convinced me to kill a beloved character and further traumatize one of my principles. But this is what we do for each other.
We hiked down from the mountain along the steep, winding Lugar Road, singing an old Girl Scout song, "Barges", to the baby. Ancient rubber trees make the jungle thick (thinned by the occasional jack hammer through the trees). Along the way, parts of the hillside have been carved out for the road and lathed over, bumps & all, with concrete--presumably so that it doesn't slide into the city below. Each of these man-made slopes sports its own registry number and plaque--a degree of thoroughness approaching quaint. I met a Brit making a mildly serious survey of one slope in consultation with a booklet: it was the Registry of Slopes.
That night we saw (another) pyrotechnic performance of "Journey to the West" in Cantonese (supra-titled in Mandarin and English) at the HK Academy of Performing Arts. If you're not familiar, these stories follow the ancient adventures of the monk Tripitaka and his disciple Monkey on their mad-cap adventures toward Buddhist enlightenment. That's the short version anyway. Evan described this particular performance as "The Wizard of Oz meets Cats."
The weather has been a pleasant mid-60sF the entire week. Very soon: heat.
posted by Anne E. Campisi at 11:58 PM
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