Happy new year everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. We had a great visit back home and enjoyed our time with family and friends. The jet lag was pretty rough and we had some strange sleep patterns most of the time we were home. Totally worth it though!! Coming back to HK was hard but we are now in the home stretch and will be home for good before you know it.
On the plane ride back here, Zack and I made a list of things we want to do and restaurants we want to try before we go home. Now we are working through that list...
Our first stop is Nan Lian Garden and Chi Lin Nunnery in Kowloon. This was about a 20 minute ride on the MTR and then easily found following the signs. Hong Kong does a really good job with providing signs so you don't get lost. Nan Lian Garden is a beautiful park that was built in the classical style of the Tang Dynasty. It includes hills, ornamental rocks, water features, and sculptured bushes and trees. There was an extensive list of rules you had to be advised of before you entered:
Now that we know how to behave, let's explore the park!
This is a photo of the Chinese Timber Architecture Gallery. Inside were reproductions of pagodas and temples made using ancient construction techniques. Photos were not allowed to be taken inside so alas, I cannot share what was in there. You will just have to go there yourself if you want to see them!
The garden also included a building called the Rockery that had a topiary garden in the entrance.
We saw an exhibition on Chinese embroidery in this building.
You couldn't take pictures of the embroidery either (darn rules!) but here is an example I lifted from google images. The work was amazing and it's hard to believe it's embroidery when you see it up close. It looks like a painting until you get up close and see the intricate needlework.
Here are a few more random shots before we move on to the Nunnery.
Across the road from the Garden is the Chi Lin Buddhist Nunnery. The Nunnery was founded in 1931 to provide religious, cultural, educational and elderly care services to the Hong Kong Kong Community. The buildings were re-designed in the 1990's in the style of Tang Dynasty Monastic architecture. Amazingly, no nails were used in the structures. They used a system of wooden dowlings and brackets. The Nunnery was a beautiful, peaceful place. There is a large courtyard filled with lotus ponds.
The building surrounding the courtyard had several places for worship each representing a different Buddhas. These were amazing to see but alas, photos were not allowed here either. These pictures are stolen from google images. I don't know if you can really get the scale here but they were enormous.
Our next stop was Kowloon Walled City Park. Since this park was not close to an MTR stop, we decided to take our chances, test our Kowloon navigation skills and walk there. It was quite a hike but we were incentivized by the fact that there is a Thai enclave near the park and many highly recommended Thai restaurants. We only made one wrong turn at which point, a tired, hungry, verging on "hangry" Carla came close to shutting down but Zack righted our course, I got it together and we made it there successfully.
This park has a really interesting history. It was originally a Chinese military fort. Following the British occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841, Kowloon Walled City was extremely important to China's maritime defense. British troops took over the Walled City in 1899 and expelled the soldiers. Ever since, the Walled City was without laws or administration and it turned into a semi-lawless squatter slum. Things got even worse after the Japanese occupation between 1941 and 1945. The population swelled, buildings were built without government supervision and the Walled City sunk into a hotbed of vice activities. The city was controlled by Triads and had high rates of prostitution, gambling and drug use.
This is what Kowloon Walled City looked like before they demolished it. Approximately 30,000 people were living in here. All of the exhibits are short on information regarding what happened to all those people. I have asked people in my office what happened and they just say they were "relocated" mainly to public housing. Some people had to be forcibly removed.
This is a picture of a typical alley.
As there wasn't much open space, the rooftops became the place where people spent time. At the exhibit, they showed children playing on the rooftops by day, and residents doing drugs up there at night. There were also many unlicensed dentists in the city. This picture below is an example of that.
What a story, right? I've been fascinated with this history since I read about it in the tourist guides. Well, they tore it all down and built this lovely park. Since I've already packed this blog with pictures I will try to stick to the highlights.
The picture below is of the former Old South Gate which was declared a monument.
They have a Garden of Chinese Zodiac where there are sculptures of each of the signs. I am the rabbit and Zack is the pig.
This was a long day of sightseeing but well worth the effort. It's amazing to see these places. We were ultimately rewarded with an excellent Thai meal. Our favorite thing was the dessert - Mango with sticky rice and coconut milk. I want to go back for more!
I will leave you with one final picture. As we wandered around the Thai neighborhood after dinner, we heard some dogs yapping like mad. There was a cat sitting outside the door of a pet grooming place. The little dogs inside were going crazy wanting to get at the cat. The cat just sat there and barely acknowledged the dogs were there.
Now we go back to the list and figure out where to go next. Stay tuned...
Carla
On the plane ride back here, Zack and I made a list of things we want to do and restaurants we want to try before we go home. Now we are working through that list...
Our first stop is Nan Lian Garden and Chi Lin Nunnery in Kowloon. This was about a 20 minute ride on the MTR and then easily found following the signs. Hong Kong does a really good job with providing signs so you don't get lost. Nan Lian Garden is a beautiful park that was built in the classical style of the Tang Dynasty. It includes hills, ornamental rocks, water features, and sculptured bushes and trees. There was an extensive list of rules you had to be advised of before you entered:
Now that we know how to behave, let's explore the park!
This is a photo of the Chinese Timber Architecture Gallery. Inside were reproductions of pagodas and temples made using ancient construction techniques. Photos were not allowed to be taken inside so alas, I cannot share what was in there. You will just have to go there yourself if you want to see them!
The garden also included a building called the Rockery that had a topiary garden in the entrance.
We saw an exhibition on Chinese embroidery in this building.
You couldn't take pictures of the embroidery either (darn rules!) but here is an example I lifted from google images. The work was amazing and it's hard to believe it's embroidery when you see it up close. It looks like a painting until you get up close and see the intricate needlework.
Here are a few more random shots before we move on to the Nunnery.
Across the road from the Garden is the Chi Lin Buddhist Nunnery. The Nunnery was founded in 1931 to provide religious, cultural, educational and elderly care services to the Hong Kong Kong Community. The buildings were re-designed in the 1990's in the style of Tang Dynasty Monastic architecture. Amazingly, no nails were used in the structures. They used a system of wooden dowlings and brackets. The Nunnery was a beautiful, peaceful place. There is a large courtyard filled with lotus ponds.
The building surrounding the courtyard had several places for worship each representing a different Buddhas. These were amazing to see but alas, photos were not allowed here either. These pictures are stolen from google images. I don't know if you can really get the scale here but they were enormous.
Our next stop was Kowloon Walled City Park. Since this park was not close to an MTR stop, we decided to take our chances, test our Kowloon navigation skills and walk there. It was quite a hike but we were incentivized by the fact that there is a Thai enclave near the park and many highly recommended Thai restaurants. We only made one wrong turn at which point, a tired, hungry, verging on "hangry" Carla came close to shutting down but Zack righted our course, I got it together and we made it there successfully.
This park has a really interesting history. It was originally a Chinese military fort. Following the British occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841, Kowloon Walled City was extremely important to China's maritime defense. British troops took over the Walled City in 1899 and expelled the soldiers. Ever since, the Walled City was without laws or administration and it turned into a semi-lawless squatter slum. Things got even worse after the Japanese occupation between 1941 and 1945. The population swelled, buildings were built without government supervision and the Walled City sunk into a hotbed of vice activities. The city was controlled by Triads and had high rates of prostitution, gambling and drug use.
This is what Kowloon Walled City looked like before they demolished it. Approximately 30,000 people were living in here. All of the exhibits are short on information regarding what happened to all those people. I have asked people in my office what happened and they just say they were "relocated" mainly to public housing. Some people had to be forcibly removed.
This is a picture of a typical alley.
As there wasn't much open space, the rooftops became the place where people spent time. At the exhibit, they showed children playing on the rooftops by day, and residents doing drugs up there at night. There were also many unlicensed dentists in the city. This picture below is an example of that.
What a story, right? I've been fascinated with this history since I read about it in the tourist guides. Well, they tore it all down and built this lovely park. Since I've already packed this blog with pictures I will try to stick to the highlights.
 |
| This is a sculpture of the former Walled City |
The picture below is of the former Old South Gate which was declared a monument.
They have a Garden of Chinese Zodiac where there are sculptures of each of the signs. I am the rabbit and Zack is the pig.
This was a long day of sightseeing but well worth the effort. It's amazing to see these places. We were ultimately rewarded with an excellent Thai meal. Our favorite thing was the dessert - Mango with sticky rice and coconut milk. I want to go back for more!
 |
| Yum!! |
Carla
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