Advertisement
Published: October 16th 2011
What a Fabulous Space
I love art galleries.October first is China's National Day and the entire first week is referred to ask "Golden Week" and most people get the entire week off. I went to Hong Kong for a few days.
The day I left Guangzhou, Hong Kong was hit with a category 8 typhoon which shut the city down. So upon my delayed arrival I discovered that the metro was half empty and there was no wait at restaurants or coffeeshops. While the storm had been downgraded to a 3, most people opted to stay home. I was happy for the ease of getting around on Thursday, but the weather changed dramatically because of the typhoon and I didn't' have warm enough clothing. Outside was really windy and rainy and inside was air conditioned like it was July.
I took advantage of the dismal weather do some nice sightseeing and visit a few museums, which I've been meaning to do for years. Playing tourist made me feel like I was truly on vacation.
On Friday, after a lovely brunch and reading time at a favorite haunt, I made it to a photography exhibit spread over a few galleries. (I had a bit of trouble
It Rained A Lot
Our little umbrella didn't cover the whole table and us, too. finding it.) The first gallery, The Blind Spot, was in Central; the sister gallery was in Aberdeen and only accessible by bus. Luckily, the manger of the first gallery was willing to draw me a map to get there. In both exhibits is the photography of one photographer, Rong Rong, a Chinese man. In the second sister gallery is the photography of Rong Rong and his Japanese wife, inri. According to the gallery manager in Central, they met at a gallery in Tokyo--they couldn't talk to each other so they communicated and fell in love through art. (I love stories like that.) They're friends with Ai Weiwei, too, so that was an interesting angle and it was interesting to talk with the gallery manager in Aberdeen about him and his work a bit, since on the mainland he and his work are taboo. She was also able to give me suggestions as to which museums I might find the most interesting and I was grateful for her helping narrowing my long list. When I left at 5pm it was sheeting rain and I was kicking myself for not having an umbrella.
That night, a fellow teacher and I decided
to get a late night snack at a local restaurant. It's right next to our apartment and the tables are outside all over the sidewalk (they only set up after all the other businesses close). We ordered some fresh clams and beer and giggled about being stared at since we were the only non-locals. Just as our clams arrived it started to pour. We tried to huddle our clams, beer, and selves under one little umbrella. With our priorities in order, we kept the clams and beer dry. We started singing "I'm singing in the Rain" at the top of our lungs and when we forgot the words the ladies at the next table yelled, "Keep singing!" We obliged and sang it again while we finished our clams.
Saturday a few of my friends came down from Shenzhen for the day. It was October first and people were everywhere. Someone said that they were expecting nearly 800,000 Chinese nationals to visit Hong Kong for the holiday. We spent the day shopping and walking around trying to avoid the crowds. We celebrated with Starbucks and lasagna. I had read in the South China Post that the fireworks were at 7pm,
Crowd of People
This was two hours before it started. We left. but at 7pm it was packed and we found out that the fireworks over Victoria Harbor weren't actually until 9pm. So we left and decided to find an Indian dinner instead followed by drinks. We were on Nathan Road and could see the fireworks from the street. That was good enough for me.
Sunday I was on my own again and I went to the Hong Kong Museum of History. It was excellent. The exhibits start with the prehistoric era and span their way up through ancient culture, the Opium Wars, the Japanese Occupation, and life after being returned to China. I was there for 3 hours and could have stayed longer. (Alas, they closed for the evening.)
Monday a friend from the university and I did some shopping in Mong Kok and ate at a curry restaurant that he and quite a few other teachers had been raving about for the past year. The food wasn't quite as good as I'd been anticipating (too much build up, perhaps?) but at 40 HKD for samosas, curry, bread, and drinks, it couldn't be beat. We then went our separate ways and I headed to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.
Fireworks!
As seen from Nathan Road, aka, The Golden Mile. It was good too, but I wasn't nearly as impressed with it as I was the Museum of History. It was smaller and a few of the exhibits were closed (perhaps because of the holiday and influx of mainland tourists?); the big exhibit that was open was about Cantonese Opera which I am not particularly interested in.
Tuesday was my last day in the city. I decided to walk around the neighborhood of the apartment and found a lovely park and large lake--next time I think I'll spend some time there. I also did a bit of grocery shopping for some items I can't find on the mainland.
My bus ride back was fairly uneventful, but as usual the "foreigner" line in customs was the longest and the slowest. All it takes is one person with paperwork out of order to hold things up indefinitely. Luckily I didnt' get left at the border, but rather they'd sent someone to wait for me and get me to the right bus. The women on my bus asked me if I'd gotten lost--I thought it was sweet of them to be concerned. Then I snuggled into my seat and napped all
the way back to Guangzhou.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.065s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 17; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0362s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
deleted_49612
deleted_49612
Featured blog
Congratulations, on your first Featured Blog on the Front Page. :)