I had so much planned this weekend, but we were grounded in our flat as the first typhoon of the season skirted Hong Kong, and brought lots of rain. Luckily, winds weren’t that strong, and no one got seriously hurt.
We had two inches of standing water on our kitchen balcony though. The rain came in almost horizontally and the drain was blocked. To prevent damage to the Korean wonder machine, I mopped up three buckets of water. So, despite of being indoors all day, I had plenty of exercise.
I also sorted through and uploaded pictures from a stroll through Mong Kok last week. Mong Kok is said to be the most densely populated area on earth. It’s a wonderful mixture of old and new, touristy and original, and - yes - it is very busy, even on a weekday afternoon. There are lots of shoppers, tourists, and people living and working in the area squeezing by along sidewalks, markets, and outdoor restaurants. I hope it will always stay as lively as it is today. I think it would be a real shame if street life gets sanitized and moved into shopping malls.
I started in Sai Yeung Choi Street South, which is a shopping street closed to traffic that runs parallel to the more famous Nathan Road.
School had just finished.
Looking for takers.
Hungry shoppers.
Entrance to Ladies’ Market, which is a bit of a misnomer. Tourist Market would be more appropriate.
Recently built apartment high-rise. One is fine, but my fear is that the whole area will look like this in a few years.
This shop is helping to fuel one of Hongkongers’ greatest passions. It’s wonderful to walk through streets and back alleys, and suddenly hear the clicky-dee-clack of Majong tiles and people chatting.
The Ladies’ Market in Tung Choi Street.
Chongsams in all sizes.
If you want to get lots of offers for “Tailored suits” and “Rolex”, wear a Stars and Stripes visor like this lady did. My strategy was to hide behind her.
They are probably not the safest buildings around, but I love how Hongkongers extend their living space by encasing roof terraces and balconies. And then, when the roof terrace looks like a proper building floor, why not build another roof terrace on top of it, and then encase it, and then build another, and another… ? Looking at this building it’s hard to see were the original building stops, and the upward extensions begin.
Bamboo scaffolding being set up. I got vertigo from just watching.
You’ve got mail!
“Toothpick” buildings are another Hong Kong way to deal with lack of space. My guess is that the building in the middle has a footprint of under 400 square feet.
I felt so lucky to have found these old market buildings on Reclamation Street. I had never been to the area before. As I rounded the corner, on the opposite side of a very busy road, there they were, row upon row of wonderful market buildings, run-down but full of charm. I did a bit of research on the internet afterwards, and learned that the buildings predate the second world war, and are still used for a wholesale fruit market.
When I was there, I assumed that the old white building was a market building as well, although I asked myself why it had received special treatment. It’s shiny white walls gleamed in the dark. It’s in fact the oldest surviving cinema building in Hong Kong. The “Yaumati Theatre” was built in 1925, but sadly had to close its doors in 1998. According to Wikipedia, there are plans to reopen it has a theater for Cantonese opera.
The wholesale fruit market.
Afternoon faded into evening, and suddenly there was a corner of golden light in front of me.
It was a store for altars and religious figurines, all carefully wrapped in plastic, which made them look like apparitions.
Once in a while, I like to get lost, stroll around and discover new things. Well ok, you have to make a real effort to get lost in Hong Kong, because there are street signs everywhere, and signposts pointing to the next subway station, but I didn’t look at them, and just walked. And then I rounded a corner and saw the stall selling vibrators, and I knew I was in tourist territory again. Then another stall followed, selling Nepalese bags and jewelry, then another, selling stickers (five sheets for HK$10 with Spiderman, Transformers, and other superheros little man loves), and so it became impossible to continue to pretend to be lost, because this was clearly Temple Street, Hong Kong’s famous night market.
I ate a big plate full of greasy noodles to celebrate the end of my adventure. Yes, that really is a roll of toilet paper on the table. I suppose it does the job of wiping people’s mouths just as well.
Little man’s Easter holidays are going to start earlier than expected this year. The flu season is upon us, and yesterday the newspapers reported that three small children had died in Hong Kong during the last few weeks, who suffered from “flu-like symptoms”. Since the SARS crisis these outbreaks are taken very seriously, and apparently it was announced on the evening news last night that all primary schools and kindergartens would close a few days earlier for the Easter holidays, starting from today.
I had heard about the deaths, but hadn’t seen the news last night, so little man and I made our way to the school bus stop completely unaware this morning. Upon our arrival another little boy was saying to his mom “Maybe we don’t have to go school today”. I thought he said it because the bus was running a little late, and responded ” I think the bus is just a little late”. Then the mom informed me that she had just gotten a call from another mom, that there was announcement that all primary schools would close early for the Easter holidays.
Little man’s eyes lit up with anticipation of having an unexpected day of leisure and play. A woman came by, and seeing us stand with kids in school uniforms at the bus stop also told us about the announcement. Little man grabbed my hand, ready to go home. In my mind, I was already worrying about how to get the urgent work for Cosima Inc. done with little man around.
That’s when the school bus arrived with all teachers but a few less kids than usual inside. I told little man that he has to go to school, at the same time another mom announced that her boy wouldn’t go and that she would take him back home. Little man started to cry, and I felt terrible. After lots of promises about the fun things we would do this afternoon, and consoling by his teacher, little man’s tears stopped and he went inside the bus.
I am not worried that little man will get sick. He goes to a small school with open surroundings, and there has been no unusual increase of sick children in his class. Still, I think it’s a good decision to let the holidays begin a little earlier. Normal public schools in Hong Kong can be very crowded places with fifty children in one class, and it’s certainly wise to close them when a new strain of flu goes around.
I am usually not prone to panic. I don’t know if that’s wise or stupid. I believe in keeping a clear head and making your own decisions, on the other hand if something really bad happens we may be the last to attempt to leave the sinking ship, so to speak. Better safe than sorry? I also respect the other mom’s decision to take her son back home.
I was in Hong Kong during the SARS outbreak. It was a little eerie to see so many people in surgical masks on the streets, and people stocking up at the supermarket. The firm I was working at closed their offices for several weeks, and we were all working from home (which by the way worked out rather well). But the real outbreak seemed very distant. Most of the people who died lived in the same high-rise apartment block, which had inadequate ventilation on the back-side of the building. Windows there faced a deep, narrow U-shaped recess, through which used air from the flats below was pushed upwards to other flats.
I don’t think that politicians in Hong Kong have really learned that much from the SARS outbreak. The papers still report how inadequately Hong Kong’s public hospitals are equipped for major flu outbreaks (and this in a city that had budget surpluses for the last couple of years). And ventilation in high-rise buildings does not seem to be a major concern either. New high-rise apartment buildings are build even closer to each other than before.
Hong Kong really has only two seasons. In summer it is hot and humid and in winter it is cold and dry. This winter was an exception though, for a few weeks the weather played havoc in China- you may have heard it in the news - and we had lots of rain, wind, and lower than usual temperatures in Hong Kong.
Since a few days though, the weather has turned balmy and it feels a bit like springtime /early summer in the northern hemisphere. It’s an in-between season and can last anywhere from a couple of days to a whole month. And it’s during these in-between seasons that Hongkong’s male bird population is out in full force, calling loudly for potential mates. They are all pretty loud, but one species stands out.
Its call sounds roughly like “how-you?… how-youuu?… how-youuuuu?”, can go on for several minutes, and gets increasingly louder and more urgent. One of these desperate Casanovas sits on a tall tree in front of my house, and makes sure we are up very early. I call him Larry, and Larry is damn lucky that there is tight gun control in Hong Kong.
Larry: How-you? (How are you this morning?)
Cosima: tired groan
Larry: How-youuu? (Helloooo! Anybody out there?)
Cosima: Shut up!
Larry: How-youuuuuu! (You are not my type anyway!)
Larry: How-youuuuuuuuuuuu! (Hello feathered ladies, my name is Larry and I am a strong, viril, and beautiful bird in his best years. I can offer you protection and a newly built nest with jacuzzi nearby.)
Cosima: Larry you sound like an online dating ad… desperate. The only thing that’s missing is…
Larry: How-youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! (…. my net worth is 1 millon Dollars!)
Cosima: Don’t forget to mention the credit card debt.
Larry: How-youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu?
Then, mercifully, Larry stops. But it’s too late, I am awake and can’t fall asleep again.
I did a bit of ornithological research on the net, and found out that Larry is an Asian Koel and belongs to the cuckoo family. He looks like this and sounds like this… only much louder.
… but I don’t blame you, if you thought it were. Here are my bad excuses for not posting in a long while in no particular order:
- Little man had a week of school holidays over Chinese New Year.
- My parents are here for a visit.
- So we were out and about a lot, despite the…
- really awful weather. It was wet, cold, and windy, and just staying dry and warm took enormous effort. Thankfully, the weather has been much nicer the last couple of days.
- I have started my tax accounting for Cosima Inc for the entire last year. In retrospect, it would have been much better to do it at the end of every month, but I had thought that for such a small business I could do it quickly in one go.
- My bank thinks it is sufficient to put “Withdrawal”, “Deposit”, and weird number combinations as descriptions in 80% of the transactions in Cosima Inc’s bank statements, which makes reconciling accounting entries a real slog.
- The year of the rat has just begun, and I am still pondering whether it’s good or bad that I was born 36 years ago and it’s going to be my year. Yes, I confess I am a rat, known in the Western world as the bringer of disease and pestilence.
There seems to be a definite hierarchy among the twelve Chinese zodiac animals. Little man was born in the year of the horse, and I still remember the newspaper articles about Chinese women having Cesareans at the end of the lunar year, in order to birth a horse instead of a sheep.
I don’t think being a rat has as much prestige as being a horse, dragon, or tiger, but the rat is the first animal of the twelve year zodiac cycle, which has to account for something… right?
The rat was given the task of inviting the animals to report to the Jade Emperor for a banquet to be selected for the zodiac signs. The cat was a good friend of the rat, but the rat tricked him into believing that the banquet was the next day. The cat slept through the banquet, thinking that it was the next day. When he found out, the cat vowed to be the rat’s natural enemy for ages to come.
Did you know that Mickey Mouse is in fact a rat? He is on Chinese New Year decorations all over town.
… Behind the smiles and charm, rats can be terribly obstinate and controlling, insisting on having things their way no matter what the cost. These people tend to have immense control of their emotions, which they may use as a tool to manipulate and exploit others, both emotionally and mentally. Rats are masters of mind games and can be very dangerous, calculative and downright cruel if the need arises …
574 spam messages. That’s what you get when you feel a little under the water and haven’t been looking at your blog much. Fortunately, I have this nifty spam filter that only missed 4 spam comments out of 574.
What else is going on? I am in Hong Kong and trying to get ahead of all the pressing things I have to do for Cosima Inc, which accumulated during our extended stay in Berlin. It’s all the more pressing because the Chinese New Year celebrations start soon. That’s when roughly 1.3 billion people stop working, board crowded trains to their birth place, and celebrate with their families. In short… Christmas x 10. As my suppliers tell me, it’s also the time when quite a lot of workers decide that their last place of work pays not well enough, and they leave for greener pastures.
China’s economy is booming, and who wants to work in manufacturing when the service sector promises lighter work and better pay? What kills me is that Western media still thinks that China will take over the world by manufacturing everything cheaper, and start World War III. Here is the inside scoop: they are much too busy eating abalone, and carrying Chanel bags.
To wind down, I have been watching LA Ink. Please tell me why she wants to get a boob job. I don’t understand the world anymore.
Yesterday, I went to see a doctor who practices traditional Chinese medicine. There were several reasons for the visit. The most important one being that I have been snot-nosed and coughing my throat out for more than a week. I have tried to cure my cold with aspirin, tea, and menthol rub, but the little bugs inside of me laughed at that, and choose to drown me in more phlegm, which made it very hard to breathe. A few days ago, I was standing in line at the supermarket and couldn’t get air into my lungs for a few moments, because my nose and throat were blocked completely.
I didn’t want to go to a Western-style doctor, because he probably would have given me a round of antibiotics, which I think should only be a last resort. I also admit, that I was very curious. I have never been to a doctor practicing traditional medicine before. Pharmacies selling natural Chinese medicine are widespread in Hong Kong, and for me they hold a strange allure. It’s a mixture of respect for the ancient knowledge and philosophy behind it, and also wonderment about all the slightly exotic ingredients.
So I went into my neighborhood’s Chinese pharmacy, which looks very different from your typical Western one. The shop is lined with shelves and drawers filled with various dried roots, leaves, and animal parts, and the shop smells … medicinal.
Naively I assumed that I could just go in there, say that I have a very bad cold, and be given a ready-made tea mixture. The shop assistant was an elderly lady, who could speak as much English as I speak Cantonese, which made communication very difficult. But she pulled out her mobile phone, smiled at me, and said “doctor”. She spoke to the doctor and told me to come back (pointing first at me than at the ground in front of her) on “tomorrow tomorrow” (two fingers up) “six o’clock” (six fingers up).
When I turned up at the appointed time, I was led to the back of the shop, to the doctor’s consultation room. Fortunately, he spoke better English than I do. He asked me to describe my illness, asked me a few questions, took my pulse, asked me to stuck my tongue out, and then said that I have a viral infection. He told me that my medicine would be ready tomorrow lunch-time. He charged me US$ 30 for the consultation, which included the medicine. For a Western-style consultation the fee would have been at least three times as much, which is probably part of the answer why traditional Chinese medicine is so popular.
Today, I went back to the shop to get my medicine from the lady. It was a paper cup filled with dark brown tea and two salted plums. The tea smelt ok, but tasted extremely bitter. I am sure it would have been best to drink it hot, but I just couldn’t bring myself to drink it quickly. I needed the whole day to drink the whole cup, and every gulp required great effort… brrrrrrrrrr
I do wonder what was in there. The shop lady told me to call the doctor. I could ask him… but do I really want to know? I am guessing roots and plants with antiviral and astringent properties. But why in hell, do the have to taste so bitter? I asked a Chinese friend, and she told me with a smile that medicine has to taste bitter, otherwise it’s not good.
So, if bitterness is directly related to effectiveness, my cold will be over in no time.
Little man has school holidays at the moment, and we have been exploring the city during the last few days. He likes to shop, so I thought we go to Wanchai market, before the place meets the fate of Paper Lane…
…which is was located right next to it. Paper Lane, from beginning to end, had printers for personalized greeting cards, table decoration, business cards, calendars, and lai see packages. If you had anything to print, you knew were to go.
My guess is that the whole area will look like this in a few years…
… the old renovated building looks nice (the only one in the area), but the real “urban renewal” reason is the high-rise apartment block next to it… money, money, money.
First we went to pay hommage to the God of plates, bowls and cutlery in Queen’s Road East. He was watching over a dizzying array of household items on two levels, and I finally found what I was always looking for.
In Wanchai market proper you can get anything. There are hundred of stalls and little shops, and, yes, you can stock up on undies as well. Just duck behind a stall when trying a bra ;).
Tiffany has a stall as well…
We, however, continued the household theme…
But you can only buy so many household items with a five year old in tow. “Mama, where are the toy shops?”
Here…
…there are half a dozen toy shops next to each other. Above is the entrance to one. There are like toy caverns. Relatively small, but shock a block full of toys, on walls, on tables, in boxes, and even hanging from the ceiling. One of them has a very special treasure chest, a glass vitrine packed with old-style metal toys that move when you wind them. Little man became the proud owner of a walking robot and a chain of UFOs… mommy UFO with three little children UFOs in tow. We also bought a doctor’s suitcase. I have been getting immunization shots ever since.
On the way home, we watched a bit of football…
… and were mighty glad that we didn’t have to take the same bus as the people lining up in front of our restaurant window…
I had some errands to run in Central and took my camera along for the ride. The first part shows some of Central’s pedestrian walkways, which connect almost every building in the business district. Have you ever seen the futuristic drawing from the 1920’s in which a city is shown where cars drive on ground level and pedestrians walk on bridges? Unfortunately I have forgotten the painter’s name. In Central Hong Kong that’s pretty much a reality.
In Hong Kong, your business is not really in existence without a “chop”. I am not talking pork chops here, I am talking about an official company stamp. It’s used to sign off invoices, acknowledge deliveries, or any other official company documents. A chop under a document is as legally binding as a signature, but for good measure really important documents are signed as well.
Until a few days ago, I didn’t have a chop. I thought that I didn’t need one. I thought that the signature of the business owner was good enough. Not for PCCW, a local telephone company. I went to one of their shops to transfer my personal mobile phone account to my business. After the clerk had filled out three forms…
“And now please put your chop here, here, and here… and sign there.”
“I don’t have a chop. I just sign it.”
Astonished glance from the clerk.
“Sorry Madam, we also need the chop.”
“But I don’t have one.”
“OK… I will check with my manager. Please wait.”
A call followed to the manager, who apparently confirmed that mobile accounts can’t be transfered to businesses without chops.
So, I left in search for a chop maker and found one a few blocks further down the road. A deal was quickly made. On the next day, I got a round chop with my company’s name in exchange for HK$60 (US$8).
Afterwards, I went to the phone company, and chopped three forms here, here, and there, and also the three sets of duplicates… here, here, and there. And I was beginning to appreciate the convenience of chops. From now on I will chop whenever I can.
The following pictures are from a little lane between the skyscrapers of Central, Hong Kong’s business district, where several essential services are located: a chop maker, a key maker, a shoe shiner, several shoe repair stalls, and also a jade seal carver. However, my chop maker is located somewhere else, in Wanchai, and I would have loved to take a picture of his tiny hole-in-the-wall shop, but a large truck was parked in front of it, eclipsing it completely.
Hong Kong’s remaining street markets are under constant threat to become the next victims of “urban renewal”. Yesterday, I had some errands to run in Central, Hong Kong’s business district, and afterwards did my bit to save one of them.
The Central Street Market is located on Graham Street, which runs between Queen’s Road, one of the city’s busiest shopping streets, and Hollywood Road, which hosts a lot of art galleries and antique shops.
I bought cucumber and tomatoes…
… delicious pomegranates…
and very fresh shrimps…
Even drive-by shopping is possible ;)…
If you live in Hong Kong, or even if you are just a potential tourist, who thinks that street markets are an essential part of local flair, go here and sign the petition… please :).
Yesterday, I went to see a doctor who practices traditional Chinese medicine. There were several reasons for the visit. The most important one being that I have been snot-nosed and coughing my throat out for more than a week. I have tried to cure my cold with aspirin, tea, and menthol rub, but the little bugs inside of me laughed at that, and choose to drown me in more phlegm, which made it very hard to breathe. A few days ago, I was standing in line at the supermarket and couldn’t get air into my lungs for a few moments, because my nose and throat were blocked completely.
