Random city photos

Thanks to Menggarang of Moscow in my eyes who reminded me that the Temple Fair would look nice at night. I grabbed my camera, took a ride to the waterfront last night and took many photos. Here you are looking at some traditional decorative billboards which are used to announce festivals, birthdays and weddings(mostly in villages nowadays). Click here to see a daytime view and the night time view of yesterday’s photo.

We are back to Central because there’s a Temple Fair at the waterfront. Here we have a traditional worship podium side by side with a symbol of technology (the 88-storey International Finance Centre 2 also seen in photos on April 9 & 16). The Temple Fair is an event organised by the Tourism Board, and from what I saw, the locals are equally interested in it.

See a Google Earth image or more about the Temple Fair.

TST offers more than just brandname stores. There are countless outlet stores and moderately priced boutiques like this one. And they display nothing but the trendiest items that some feel obliged to get. For the ladies, click to have a look of the shoes these girls are pointing at and another store front

Our last shopping stop before we leave TST because there is something interesting going on in Central that I want to show you.

(Finally got this published very late because of a Blogger problem…)

I remember clearly what we learned at school about how the Victoria Harbor brought about the growth of HK from a fishing port to an international city. We love the harbor…and here’s just a few examples of how local people enjoy a sunny day by it…(those two guys are fishing…no license required except at the reservoirs in HK; and this part of TST waterfront is facing directly at Causeway Bay, and you can still see the mountains behind.)

Enough about shopping? It is so sunny today that I went to TST and took another round of photos. Here’s a beautiful view of the harbor and the skyline of the eastern part of the HK island. I took this photo at the section of waterfront promenade called Avenue of Stars. Can you tell who he is from the silhouette of his statue?

Tsimshatsui is like a big shopping mall with hotels and restaurants. Comparing to Causeway Bay, I guess the shops are more of luxury international labels such as Dior, Dunhill (yes, it is Jude Law in yesterday’s photo) and a. Testoni as seen in this photo taken at Peking Road. In the foreground is one of the many flower boxes put on the street by a shopping mall nearby.

(I just got back from a few days in Taipei and thanks to Nicola for posting for me in the past week; also I’m trying hard to catch up on DP blogs…)

We are outside the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and this is a very popular photo spot. The four sides of the Cultural Centre are designed with these arches and very often there are some newly-weds taking photos since there is a marraige registery nearby. We’ll go into the Cultural Center and see what’s on tomorrow…

Thanks to Nicola for sending this post.

Finally, we are approaching Tsimshatsui!! ;-). The landmark of TST’s waterfront is undoubtedly the Clock Tower and the HK Cultural Centre (the beige color curved structure, we’ll go inside later). The location of the Cultural Centre used to be a railway station and the clock tower is all that is left after its removal. You can also see the Star Ferry pier on the left, that’s where we are going to unboard.

Thanks to Nicola for sending this post.

So we are on the ferry and half way across the harbor! Like I mentioned the ferries are green and white (click here) but I saw this one-of-its-kind ferry which uses the theme of HK’s overseas promotion campaign. In the background is the waterfront of Wanchai district (of HK island), the wing-like structure is the HK Exhibition and Convention Centre. And since the ferry ride is so popular among tourists, this photo is also a very “touristy” one.

This is the way to and from the gangplank. To the adventurous, boarding and unboarding can be exciting when waters in the harbor is choppy and the gangplank is jumping up and down a lot…To me, I never noticed before that this walkway is so colorful. OK, we will actually be on the ferry and see the harbor tomorrow

Green is the signature color of this century-old ferry service and it is on the ferries as well as the clock tower yesterday. Enter from under the clock tower, walk up the stairs, pay the HK$2.2 fee (about 30 cents US) and you can board the 8-minute ferry ride to Tsimshatsui. Our trip continues tomorrow.

Someone asked yesterday whether Central is the old downtown. In fact, Central is the heart of HK plus an administrative, political, financial and business center; while other “city centers” such as Causeway Bay, Mongkok or Tsimshatsui are more the shopping and entertainment centers.