The Hong Kong Heritage Museum is going to present the exhibition “Picasso – Masterpieces from the Musee National Picasso, Paris” from 19 May to 22 July. Each viewing session is only two hours during the weekend. For details, check out here.

Another heavyweight exhibition to be staged in Hong Kong is “A Lofty Retreat from the Red Dust: The Secret Garden of Emperor Qianlong”, from 22 June to 14 October, in Hong Kong Museum of Art. It will feature 77 sets of painting and calligraphy, furniture, mural paintings, architectural elements and religious art on loan from the Palace Museum, Beijing. The Garden was located in the northeastern corner of the Forbidden City, built by Emperor Qianlong (reigning from 1735 to 1796) for his enjoyment in retirement. For details, pls see here.

 

This hiking route is a result of serendipity. I went on a track and found that I was in the opposite direction of the planned route. Then I met a couple who are veteran hikers, and who told me that I should continue and go to Mui Tsz Lam (梅子林), one of the oldest paths in HK, and one that they enjoy so much that they come back again and again.

So this has become my route:

Ma On Shan Village (馬鞍山村), Mao Ping (茅坪), Mui Tze Lam(梅子林), Chevalier Garden (富安花園) / Tai Shui Hang (大水坑)

To arrive at Ma On Shan Village, the starting point, the easiest way is to take taxi from Ma On Shan MTR station (HK$40). Tell the driver that you want to get to the terminus of the village bus (NR84). There is a staircase next to the terminus. Follow it and then turn right. After about 20 minute walk, you will come to an intersection with a pavilion. Go the direction of Tai Shui Tseng (大水井) and Gilwell Camp(基維爾營). Soon, at your left, lies a plateau. Walk to its edge and you can have this open view: Follow the original track. At the next intersection, turn right and choose “Mui Tsz Lam” (梅子林)。If you turn left, the path will lead to Pak Kong (北港) in Sai Kung. This is actually the middle point of the old path which is at least a century old, and one of the best preserved old paths in Hong Kong. HK Government has officially named it Mui Tse Lam – Pak Kong Old Path (梅子林北港古徑), stretching between Mui Tse Lam in Ma On Shan and Pak Kong in Sai Kung.

The veteran hiking couple is right. This path is so enjoyable – green, peaceful and reminiscent of the past. Made of irregular stones, the path is preserved like a hundred years ago. Former villagers had created this path for going between Ma On Shan and Sai Kung using the stones they could find along the way, and amazingly this we can still use today. Going forward, you will pass by the abandoned Mao Ping village and come to Mui Tze Lam village.

Legacy of Mao Ping village

looking back at Mui Tze Lam village

The concrete Mui Tze Lam Road(梅子林路), next to the village, with hardly any traffic, will lead you to Chevalier Garden, a housing estate. There is a bus terminus there. Or you can continue walking to Tai Shui Hang MTR station.

The whole route is about 3 to 3.5 hours.

It must be mentioned that Mui Tsz Lam is famous for its Feng Shui Woods. Supporting 72 fung shui wood species, by far the greatest number in Hong Kong, it stands out from other Fung Shui Woods. Ancestors in Hong Kong had planted Fung Shui woods around their villages, for bringing in good Fung Shui as well as for protection of their homes from flooding, mudslides, and typhoons. These Fung Shui Woods usually have high ecological value. The Mui Tsz Lam part of the Mui Tse Lam – Pak Kong Old Path, belongs to Mui Tsz Lam Fung Shui Woods. It is why the walk there is so green and lush.

 

Tung Ping Chau is an offshore island located in the northeast corner of Hong Kong, being its most easterly point, and closer to the border with Mainland China than with the main landmass of Hong Kong. Known for strange and spectacular rock formations, it is home to some spectacular cliffs and wave-cut platforms, hardly found in the rest of Hong Kong. Unlike most other rock types in Hong Kong, Tung Ping Chau is made up of sedimentary rock and has the youngest sedimentary rock in Hong Kong.

Ping Chau has been designated one of the eight Geo-Areas of the Hong Kong National Geopark, and a Marine Park in Hong Kong, occupying a sea area of about 270 hectares enclosing the island. It is said that Tung Ping Chau is only the divable site in Hong Kong, with its rich species of coral and algae.

Historically, Tung Ping Chau was a fishing island. At its peak, there were 1500 inhabitants who had  their own local dialect call Ping Chau Language. Due to its remote location, the island is no longer inhabited.

The visit to Tung Ping Chau has got to be a day trip. There is only a ferry going to and returning from Tung Ping Chau on Saturday and Sunday : 9am departing Ma Liu Shui pier near the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and 5:15pm returning from Tung Ping Chau to the pier.

The ferry time is about 1.5 hours. Return ticket fare: HK$90. So you will have about 7 hours on the island, plenty of time to walk around. There are two restaurants on the island, to the right of the Tung Ping Chau pier. You can have lunch there.

How to get there:

a queue forms well before 9am for boarding the ferry to Tung Ping Chau at Ma Liu Shui pier

Take the exit going to Science Park at University MTR Station of the East Rail line. Follow the sign of ferry pier for going to Ma Liu Shui pier. Midway, you will need to go under and pass two tunnels before reaching the other side to arrive at the pier. Just follow the crowd. Many people go to the pier for ferry to Tung Ping Chau or other outlying islands during the weekend.

The ferry starts at 9am at Ma Liu Shui pier. The return journey is a bit tricky. The official time is 5:15pm. But when I was there last time, I was able to board the ferry at 4:45pm which started at about 4:50pm. The ferry company, it is believed, sent another smaller ferry to fetch the other people at 5:15pm.

 

Yesterday was the 3.23 civil referendum organized by Hong Kong University’s ppvote project. I first went to the referendum’s main voting site at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) during lunch time. There was a long queue there, with people from all backgrounds and all ages. So I thought I would return. When I went there again at 8pm, the queue was even longer, much longer. People milled around. I waited 20 minutes before I could vote. No complaint.

The voting place is shabby. Just a carton box surrounding a table where I voted. And then I put the vote into a white envelope and sealed it with the tape.

I actually wanted to vote online in the morning but the site was extremely slow and so I gave up. I later learnt that the site was down because of repeated hacking from mainland (within one second the site received 1 million hits). That was also why the main polling site at PolyU had a long queue – people could not vote online or through smart phones so they swarmed the polling stations. There were only three major polling stations with the PolyU one most central in location. The latter was full of people all day long. When I left the station at 8:30pm, people were still coming, after a long day.

It was both a humbling and uplifting experience. We Hong Kong people cannot have a say in our city’s future and elect our Chief Executive, so we look to this civil referendum for a say and even that, was hard. But it has stiffened people’s will to fight back. Yesterday a total of 45,000 had voted. Voting continues today due to strong demand and the fact that hacking of the polling site has stopped a fair number of people from joining this civil referendum.

Tomorrow the 1200 strong Election Committee will cast their votes for the next Chief Executive of Hong Kong. All the rest of the Hong Kong population is barred from it. This is not an election. This is brutally taking away the rights of Hong Kong people.

And who is likely to win in this fake “election”? CY Leung, a fake and tricky guy who once commented that why Deng Xiaoping was not the first Chinese to be awarded Nobel Peace Prize, and who has long been rumored to be an underground communist member. Whether he is truly an underground communist is not important. What is important is he has been behaving like a communist who is loyal to his “motherland”, supporting suppressing freedom for the “harmony” of the city and the country. (There has been strong evidence that he advocated as a member of the Executive Council, the decision making body of the Chief Executive, for cutting short a commercial station’s license period because of its fierce criticism against government.)

It is him that the Central government has given the blessings and has been canvassing for among the small circle of 1200 members of Election Committee. So if he is elected by the small circle people, what would happen? CY Leung surely would put his “country” first before Hong Kong’s interests. And he has to reward the Central government’s help of course for putting him in the Chief Executive seat. Hong Kong is set to fall into communist control.

Since Beijing giving its signal, all the pro-mainland Election Committee interest groups, as expected, have expressed their support for Leung and a Chinese newspaper was found yesterday turning an article of a commentator from supporting neither CY Leung nor Henry Tang (another establishment camp candidate) into supporting CY Leung. How daring and unscrupulous is that?!!!! Hong Kong’s nightmare has just begun.

There is a strong feeling in the city that “White Horror” age has come. Hong Kong is back to the 1997 nightmare. I have heard people talking about selling their properties and moving overseas if CY Leung wins. Even the Election Committee members are scared. Tomorrow is the secret vote. They wonder if they will be spied on and found out if they do not vote for CY Leung. I personally heard an Election Committee member telling me about his worry. So the Hong Kong Government came out yesterday saying that they will strengthen the security in the voting venue by putting a cover on the voting box and putting in more staff for monitoring the voting.

What I know is, if CY Leung is elected, I will go to the streets with thousands of Hong Kong people.

Hong Kong is cursed. I am crying for its destiny.

I hate the communist rule which does not respect individuals’ rights and freedom and am furious at the way our Hong Konger’s rights and freedom of speech have been stamped on. One country two systems is dead. long dead.

 

The first Japan-based low cost airline has started operation earlier this month. Currently it is flying domestic routes. Starting 1 July 2012, the airline will fly between Hong Kong and Osaka, with one flight per day. Hooray.

The airline called Peach will also operate international flights between Osaka and Seoul starting 8 May 2012, and between Osaka and Taipei in the second quarter.

© 2012 Journey to Hong Kong