Saturday – 17-Feb-01

I had been scheduled to leave the Regal and go to the Sheriton but after seeing the neighborhoods around each and learning that the Sheriton would cost my employer about $60USD more per night, I decided to stay where I was. Sherition has a free shuttle, but Regal is closer to the KCR station.

Went to the Hong Kong history museum, just near the Regal, HK has more history than I realized.  And Animals like a tiny barking deer and wild pig in the NT.

Went to the Museum of Coastal Defense between the Shau Kei Wan and Heng Fa Chuen (free shuttle bus) stops on the MTR at the east end of the Island, overlooking Lei Yu Men (Carp Gate). Straights there can’t be much over a few hundred yards wide and since the 1800’s artillery has been there, now the site is a museum, (there is a similar site near LA). Museum is worth it, info from Ming to handover. A percussion musket was mismarked “Qing Wheellock”!!! There was a Japanese Type 11, the machine gun that uses 5-shot strippers of type 38 rifle ammo stacked up to 6 in a bin on the left of the receiver. Also some type 99’s some pistols and a Sten and Bren. Artillery pieces and other stuff.

I walked past a building that look like a large dumpy U-store-it or bank of garages, and they were on the water and marked “Shipyards” and sure enuf they had workshops in the garages building ships!

I also found a tiny tiny museum called Law Uk Folk house, In a  house built over 200 years ago and renovated, now the area is 40 story apartments, but the same Hakka family occupied it until the 70’s! Chai Wan MTR station terminates in a mall beneath an apartment building and its in the park adjacent. (Dang I could have used a compass on this trip. That forest of buildings masks direction.)

Walked a lot. Victoria park on Saturdays has an interesting social make up. Dozens of small groups of younger Indonesian appearing women in little clusters of 2 to 8 on makeshift picnic blankets just hanging out. A smaller quantity of males. Some impromtu soccer or other sports games going on.

More SE asian men playing sports at Southorn Playground, soccer and basketball mostly. A lot of these looked like Filipinos.

Somewhere I found a Japanese-like restaurant with some nice looking shish-kabob things on the picture menu. It did not taste anywhere near as nice as it looked.

hk023 Tanks & armored cars in front of Museum of coastal defense
hk024 viewing across Lei Yu Man from coastal defense site on HK Island
hk025 viewing across Lei Yu Man from coastal defense site on HK Island
hk026 Tree growing out of ruined building at ex-coastal defense site.
hk027 viewing across Lei Yu Man from coastal defense site on HK Island
hk028 viewing across Lei Yu Man from coastal defense site on HK Island
hk028a close up of working fishing junk
hk029 "Shipyards" just west of Coastal defense
hk030 viewing across Lei Yu Man from coastal defense site on HK Island
hk031 Law Uk house, Hakka museum
hk032 High Rise apartments
hk033 High Rise apartments
hk034 Victoria Park on a Saturday Afternoon, foreign domestics picnicing
 
 
 
 

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