Kowloon City is where the old airport stood. It is an interesting area because some old shops still operate there despite the rapid pace of change in Hong Kong. It is also a known food area where thai restaurants, big and small, dominate.
A paper shop with a worker working at paper sacrifice.
Does this shop selling Chinese sausage look like a shop in Spain selling ham?
A stall that sells fish and meat balls.
Before Christmas, I went to Park N Shop, HK’s major supermarket chain, and saw this: an advertisement on personal health products in simplified Chinese.
This is the first time that I have seen advertisement/poster in simplified Chinese in a Hong Kong chain supermarket. Not a character in traditional Chinese, the written form long used in the city. The supermarket obviously was eyeing the mainlanders who flocked to Hong Kong for shopping during the festive season. In other words, a supermarket that is supposed to serve Hong Kongers, has turned a blind eye to those it should serve and beckons instead to the cash-strapped mainland tourists.
Along the same line, the Mongkok area is beaming with jewelers and luxury watch shops which are mainly frequented by mainlanders. The area no longer feels to me part of Hong Kong that I am familiar with.
And this cannot be more symbolic. The first baby born in Hong Kong in 2012 is to mainland parents. For giving their children permanent right of abode in Hong Kong, mainland mums have been very aggressive, trying all sorts of ways, legal and illegal, to come to HK to give birth, including forcing their way to the emergency ward in the public hospital at the last minute, without prior bookings of deliveries, not only risking the lives of their to be born babies, but also putting extra stress on Hong Kong’s already stretched public health services. The local mums complain that they find it very hard to book delivery because of mainland mums.
Politically, mainland’s presence and influence is even more worrying. A scholar’s recent survey showing a record high proportion of locals identifying themselves as Hong Kongers and a record low proportion of locals identifying themselves as Chinese, has drawn criticism from a Hong Kong based Beijing government official. He told the media right after the survey result was out that, the survey is “unscientific” and “illogical” by citing Hong Kongers and Chinese in parallel. The same scholar was later met with a barrage of criticism and personal attack from mainland-backed newspapers, because he proposed the launch of an online poll of Hong Kongers regarding the “small circle” election of the Chief Executive of HK SAR Government later this year – the top man will be chosen by a 1000-strong election committee only. The blatant interference in academic freedom and the political propaganda orchestrated towards “dissident voices” are simply frightening, evocative of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four.
No wonder a saying in a local drama has caught on, i.e. this city is dying.
Route: from Ma On Shan Village (馬鞍山村)to Shui Long Wo(水浪窩)
Length: 8 km
The number of hours taken: 4
Date: 24 December, 2011
I was mesmerized by this hiking trail which offers breathtaking mountain view and enchanting and unique landscape of Hong Kong.
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).
The bus village only operates three times in the morning (8am, 9am, and 10:30am) between the village and Sunshine City Bus Terminal (新港城巴士站)，near the Ma On Shan MTR station. Bus fare is HK$5.
the intersection
There is a staircase next to the village bus terminus. Follow it and start your trekking. After about 20 minutes, you will come to an intersection with a pavilion, the start of the MacLehose Trail. Go the direction of Kei Ling Ha (企嶺下). This also marks the start of the MacLehose Trail’s fourth section. MacLehose Trail is a hiking trail that crosses much of New Territories, named after the longest serving Hong Kong governor Crawford Murray MacLehose.
You will soon start the ascent of a hill after leaving the intersection. The ascent is not steep, not a difficult climb.
the path after leaving the intersection
When you come to the top, you see Pyramid Hill (536m) at your right and Wan Cook Shan (Winding Hill, 592m) at your left. What a view here! The hills further from the Winding Hill are Ma On Shan (Saddle Hill,702M ).
Overlooking Ma On Shan town
Looking back at Pyramid Hill
On Winding Hill, towards Ma An Shan
The weeds at the foothill of Ma On Shan
Winding Hill with Ma On Shan at the edge
At the foothill of Ma On Shan, there is a sign pointing to Shui Long Wo. Follow it or you will have to ascend Ma On Shan. From here it is all downhill.
A glimpse of Sai Kung on the way going downhill
You will walk a tree lined path before you come to a concrete road which is the area of Wong Chuk Yueng (黃竹洋). Turn right and carry on.Then a television antenna tower appears. In its shadow lies the Chuk Yueng Road (竹洋路）.Follow Chuk Yueng Road to go downhill. At the first intersection, turn left to the “Kei Ling Ha Forest Track”. There is a barricade at the start of the track to prevent vehicles from entering. So it is easy to recognize.
the Forest Track leading to Sai Sha Road
It takes about 20-30 minutes before you finally reach Sai Sha Road (西沙路) after passing by a camping site and a bbq site. At Sai Sha road, you can take No. 99 or No. 299 bus to Shatin, or Wu Kai Sha MTR station (all in one direction, with the bus stop at the side of your exit from the MacLehose Trail) or to Sai Kung, the opposite direction.
If you are looking for some light food and dessert of local speciality, you may come to Parkes Street (白加士街) in Jordan, Kowloon. The street has gathered some of the best noodle and dessert shops in town.
If you take MTR, get off at Jordan Station. Take exit C2 (Bowring Street). Once you are on the street level, you can see the sign of the street about one block away: 
Walk to the intersection between Parkes Street and Bowring Street. At your right, you will first see this dessert restaurant (Mega Eight Dessert,大良八記). 
You can check out its offering at its website. The shop offers both traditional and fusion dessert.
But obviously, this dessert restaurant (Australian Diary, 澳洲牛奶公司) , just a couple of shops away, is more popular. The day I was there, there was a long queue at the restaurant. In fact, it is so popular that a queue is commonplace.
Its signature dessert piece is steamed milk.
Nearby, you can see this noodle shop – Mak Man Kee(麥文記麵家). 
Its signature piece is no doubt Wonton Noodle, reputedly among the best in town. A friend of mine often comes here. She loves the shop’s pork knuckle noodle as well.
Next door is Mak’s Noodle, whose owner is a cousin of the owner of Man Man Kee. 
Mak’s family, known for making superb wonton noodle, has branched out to open different noodle shops in town, including Mak Man Kee, Mak’s Noodle and this one I blogged previously. It looks like that Mak Man Kee, frequented by more customers, is better reputed and more popular than Mak’s Noodle next door.
The much delayed high-speed train service between Guangzhou and Shenzhen finally came into operation on 26 December 2011. The 102km journey can be completed in just 35 minutes. The normal duration needed for a bus journey between the two cities is about 2 hours. The high-speed train obviously is a much quicker solution for passengers.
The high-speed rail was scheduled for operation in August but was delayed because of a high-speed train accident in Wenzhou, Zhenjiang Province, killing 40 people.
A one-way first-class ticket costs 100 yuan, and a second-class ticket 75 yuan.
The slower train still runs between Guangzhou East Railway Sation and Luohu Station and the price is 80 yuan for a second-class ticket, even more expensive than a high-speed train’s ticket.
The terminus for the high-speed train is Shenzhen Railway North Station and Guangzhou South Railway Station, both of which are also metro stations. Passengers arriving at Guangzhou South can transfer directly to Zhuhai through an inter-city line, or to Wuhan and Changsha, the capital cities of Hubei Province and Hunan Province, through high-speed trains.
The Hong Kong-Shenzhen section of the high-speed rail is scheduled to open in 2015. But the construction of such a rail link has fueled protests from affected villagers and raised questions about the need for such an expensive rail link (amounting to HK$60 billion) in Hong Kong.
How to get to Shenzhen Railway North Station to take the high-speech train from HK:
Take the train to Lok Ma Chau (HK MTR East Rail Line). From Lok Ma Chau, take Shenzhen metro No.4 line – it will be 9 stops before you reach Shenzhen Railway North Station. Time: 20 minutes. Cost: 4 yuan.
You can also take the train to Lo Wu (HK MTR East Rail Line). From there take Shenzhen metro No. 1 line; change to No. 4 line after 7 stops, and reach Shenzhen Railway North Station after another 7 stops. Time: about 30 minutes. Cost: 5 yuan.
| © 2012 Journey to Hong Kong |
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