2008
20 Apr -- Bun Festival is coming. Are you ready with the
bun tower climbing competition schedule?
17 Apr -- By coincidence two big hotel companies have opened new
hotels in HK at around the same time. Novotel Nathan Road,
which is actually in Jordan, and Courtyard by Marriott Hong Kong,
which is in Sai Ying Pun. Both of these are near-but-not-quite-in
popular areas so I guess they are for business travelers on a budget.
12 Apr -- Tin Hau's birthday falls on 28th this month. Though in
place like Cheung Chau island, they have a dragon boat regatta on 20th Apr
to celebrate her birthday. A warm up for the
Dragon boat festival
in June?
5 Mar -- Why does
Chinese
Groundhog day involved old ladies squatting on the street and
beating up a yellow paper tiger?
read on.
1 Jan -- Happy New Year! Though the Chinese New year will
fall on 7 Feb this year and it's going to be the Year of Mouse.
2007
20 May -- Preparations for the
2007 Cheung Chau Bun Festival are underway.
Here is a picture gallery of the festival.
2006
3 Jan: The new year is here -- well at least the western New Year
but the shops in Hong Kong are setting up for the real event,
The Chinese Luna New Year
which this year is a bit early being at the end of January. Decorations are
up and supermarkets are selling all the traditional foods and sweets!
This will be the Year of the Dog -- Woof!
2005
22 Dec: Just went past the construction site for the
new Star Ferry pier
and took a few pictures which are added to the page now.
10 Dec: The big WTO meeting starts in Hong Kong next week.
It's not of a lot of interest to most people here really, apart from the
traffic chaos it will create! If you are not coming because of the
meting then now is a bad time to visit! For most of the week and
weekend everywhere around the Convention and Exhibition Centre will be off
limits.
1 Dec: Just realized I stopped my commentary on Hong Kong Weather
by month before I got to winter...
So I've quickly updated my page for Hong
Kong Weather in December.
20 Nov: Just took a friend to the Po Lin Monastery in
Lantau to
see the "Big Buddha" and got
some pictures.
8 Sep: The new
Hong Kong Four Seasons Hotel opens today, it's a very attractive block
right next to IFC, above the airport express terminal in Central. Not
been inside it yet but I did call up and found that only their Chinese
restaurant is due to be open today. Bookings for rooms starting from
tonight are being taken though.
4 Aug: Everything gets earlier all the time. It isn't even
Chinese
Valentine's Day yet and already the cake shops and restaurants are
selling
Moon Cakes for Mid
Autumn Festival. Meanwhile the MTR
line to the new Disneyworld Hong Kong
has opened -- but if you take the train it won't help because the park
doesn't open till September.
4 June: Everybody get ready to eat rice dumplings because the
Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival 2005 is on June 11th. In the
Chinese tradition this marks the start of guaranteed hot weather -- people
say; don't put your warm clothes away until you have eaten
dragon boat rice
dumplings.
24 May: AsiaWorld Expo (HK's largest exhibition centre) will be
opened in December. Read more
about AsiaWorld Expo here.
7 May: Here is the official announcement about the
resumption of the bun tower climbing during
Cheung Chau Bun
Festival. NO mention of the controversy though.
Objectionable to the local people is the fact that their festival is being
"taken over" by the government who are introducing things like mountaineer
training for the climbers, time trials, and "bouncy castles". It
becomes more of a fun-fair than a traditional festival.
Also it seems that the climbers are going to be "outsiders" (not people from
Cheung Chau island) because it will be people who have climbing experience
and are from climbing clubs. Not the local fisherman as in the
traditional event.
25 Apr: All the Tin Hau worshipers are starting to participate in
events for "Tin
Hau Festival" which is officially on the 1st of May this year. To
be honest, as a non Hong Kong person you probably won't be able to tell what
this is apart from the fact that it is a Chinese festival.
Nevertheless it will be a great chance to see lots of lion dances, Chinese
operas and offerings being made to altars. The next big festival after
this will be the Cheung Chau
Bun Festival
which is probably easier to understand -- that'll be on the 15th May 2005.
There is already quite a bit of controversy about the new metal bun tower.
Will write some more detail soon but the general theme is locals not being
happy at the non-traditional aspects of the new tower and climbing rules.
15 Apr: If you are planning on visiting
The Peak note that many of the
facilities in The Peak Tower are being slowly closed down for a renovations.
The big restaurant is already closed. However you can always go across
the road to find other places to eat so the trip on the Peak Tram (cable
car) is still worth it.
19 Feb: Finally winding down after Chinese New Year -- though
there is still Turnip Cake in the fridge to eat -- this year it was just
before the Valentine's day, so a lot of people have been looking for
information
Chinese Valentine's Day but actually this is much later in the year --
in August. Though this year on the 14th Feb some bakers were selling
the special cakes for Chinese Valentine's so everything is mixed up now!
The next real major
festival in Hong Kong is Ching Ming. However the lantern festival
which is being celebrated this weekend is also called the "Chinese
Valentine's Day" by some people because it is near the western Valentine's
Day, and in ancient times in China it was a time for young people to
discretely meet one another while going out in the evening to "view the
beautiful lanterns".
2 Feb: Chinese restaurant opening ceremony I have been to many
Chinese dim sum restaurants but it's the first time I saw the
opening ceremony and all the
preparation for worshipping gods. A life
Chinese culture in Hongkong.
1 Jan: Happy New Year everybody! Of course here in Hong Kong
-- although there is a big party 1st Jan -- the real celebration will be
Chinese New Year, or the
Luna New Year, which is one of the big family celebration of the year.
2004
22 Dec:
Christmas in Hong Kong, it's nice to be in Hong Kong during Christmas
when the pretty lights are in the harbour. I've added two pictures to
the Christmas in
Hong Kong page. Merry Christmas everybody!!
22 Nov: It was announced that the
Hong Kong Disneyland is going to
be the cheapest Disneyland of any!
5 Oct: Unfortunately one thing Hong Kong is weak at is respect for
nature, particularly trees. Reported in the paper today was a plan to
cut down 500 mature trees near Stanley
Market. It's nice to see that some people are campaigning to
save
Stanley's trees though.
16 Sept: Shortly after the Moon Festival on the 28th, there will
be the National day on the 1st of Oct. Lots of people from mainland
China will visit HK during this period because they have a long holiday.
Besides the wonderful fireworks, most shops will be on sale to attract
tourists so it's a good chance to visit HK too.
2 Sept:
Mid-Autumn Festival / Moon Festival is coming. This year, it falls on 28 Sept and the
next day is holiday so you can stay up late on the festival day.
22 Aug: Tomorrow is the
Chinese
Valentine's day, followed next weekend by the
Hungry Ghosts!
5 Jul: Pictures
of Miramar Hotel Hong Kong uploaded.
28 Jun: Latest pictures of
Excelsior Hotel Hong
Kong.
10 Jun:
Dragon Boat Festival will fall on 22nd Jun this year (Tue). How
much do you know about this festival? What were the superstitious
practices?
1 Jun:
Bun Festival is finished. Read my short account this year to see
what has changed.
21 May:
Bun Festival is coming (24th - 27th May) and the procession will start
at 2pm 26th May this year. It's widely publicized this year especially the
Bun Festival organizer wants to resume the competition - people climb up the
60 feet high bun towers to collect buns but the government insists on
various safety precautions just a week before the festival which makes it
virtually impossible.
12 May: United Buddy Bear Exhibition is coming. It's an
event that introduced by our super star Jackie Chan while he was filming in
Germany. [read more
about United Buddy Bear Expo here]
10 May:
Tin
Hau birthday is on 11 May this year but Cheung Chau has it's celebration first on 6
May. [read
more]
6 May: Update on practice and history of
Ching Ming Festival.
25 Apr: While there is still a month to go before the Cheung Chau Bun
Festival, there are banners everywhere and they are recruiting children to take
part in the procession. [read
more about Bun Festival]
14 Feb: Someone asked: "While in Singapore two years ago, I purchased
a hand-sown Chinese Calligraphic Character on a piece of antique linen. The
character was "HONG". Where can I buy more of these items?" See 'Shopping
in HK' under 'Silk and Chinese embroidery'.
1 Feb: Everybody is worried about bird flu. The aviary in
Kowloon park and Botanical Garden are closed. Check with the Tourist Association if any
bird-related attractions like Bird Market is
open.
18 Jan: A laser show with sound called 'A Symphony of Lights' was
launched on 17 Jan. The special light and musical effects tells the
story of Hong Kong through showcasing the major buildings along the waterfront
of Victoria Harbour. It starts at 8pm and finishes at 8:18pm every night.
5 Jan: The first SARS case in Canton in China is confirmed.
Everybody is very cautious this time.
1 Jan: Happy New Year!
2003
26 Nov - Comparison of harbour cruise.
22 Nov - Island Hopping Pass. If you are tired of the
hectic city life of Hong Kong and want to get away from it. You may want
to consider visiting some of Hong Kong's outlying islands, including
Lantau (the
one with big Buddha statue) and Cheung Chau island (a fishing village).
More on Island Hopping Pass...
Nov - It is the first time that a crocodile was found in Hong Kong.
The government departments are not familiar with catching crocodile and they
have not much luck so far so an expert was invited from Australia.
Unfortunately, this croc is probably quite sensitive now. Together with
the fact that news reporters plus hundreds of locals (mostly on weekend)
gathered along the river hoping to see the crocodile. Hotel nearby has
even organized a tour to watch it. If you were the croc, would you come
out?
Aug - HK's tallest building
International Finance Centre (IFC) is mostly done. It's 415m tall
(88 floors) and it has one of the few double-deck elevators in the
world. Though it won't take long for IFC to become the second tallest
building in HK when Union Square finishes in 2007 with 474m and 108
floors.
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