Random city photos

Yesterday was a public holiday so this couple pretty much had the whole Lok Yew Hall (of the University of HK) to themselves. The weather was nice and sunny so I bet they had got some really nice photos. Actually, so did I.

Just for a bit of entertainment I searched online and found these quotations to go with this post. No, they do not necessarily represent my views

“The roses, the lovely notes, the dining and dancing are all welcome and splendid. But when the Godiva is gone, the gift of real love is having someone who’ll go the distance with you. Someone who, when the wedding day limo breaks down, is willing to share a seat on the bus.” Oprah Winfrey

The music at a wedding procession always reminds me of the music of soldiers going into battle. Heinrich Heine

WEDDING, n. A ceremony at which two persons undertake to become one, one undertakes to become nothing, and nothing undertakes to become supportable. Ambrose Bierce

There are three rings involved with marriage. The engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the suffering. Woody Allen

Also see this interesting post by Kris of Szentes DP!

Tags: University of Hong Kong|Pokfulam|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Scene from my life: sunday breakfast at a quiet fast food restaurant. The food is so-so but I have to credit this chain group for being one of the first smoke-free eateries in HK — way ahead of government legislation. But from January 1, 2007, smoking will be banned in most indoor public areas including restaurants, offices, bars and karaokes. By then, HK smokers will join their comrades in other big cities in standing and puffing on the streets outside restaurants and offices.

Tags: Central|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Beauty and the beast? Dream and reality? Old world meeting the new? This is part of the roof decoration of the Man Mo Temple and of course the temple is not for lease. If I have not mistaken, this beauty is holding a flute sitting on a phoenix, totally at ease next to fishdraganaconda (ok, I made up that name). The Chinese characters say: Guangxu 19th year, referring to the rule of Emperor Guangxu, ie, the second last Emperor! That would make the year 1894! Click here to see the whole temple and the roof to figure out where our beauty sits.
Link: a quicktime 360 degree movie of the surrounding area of Man Mo Temple, Emperor Guangxu on Wiki

Tags: Man Mo Temple|Sheung Wan|Hong Kong|photos

Ladder Street (Man Mo Temple. See the previous post and use the green tree as reference point to figure out how long it is. And it doesn’t end here! Lucky me to have captured two guys taking the challenge and the senior couple resting on their way down. So how does Ladder Street compare to Montmartre in Paris? I think this is the tougher climb. Any similar place in your city?

Tags: Sheung Wan|Ladder Street|Man Mo Temple|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

If I succeeded in yesterday’s photo then I have to show you a failure today :-). My mental composition was to capture a man and a woman, hopefully a couple passing in front of this advertisement because it says “Love.Live”. Well, first I couldn’t get the exposure right to show the words, then that couple never came along, then there was too much traffic, then I couldn’t position myself where I wouldn’t be reflected…
Anywaz, it’s Friday afternoon here, let’s go out and have fun…or take some photos

Tags: Central|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Pilgrims in front of Cathedral de Chanel. Cheongsam? What cheongsam? The lady in the left has already declared her loyalty with the shopping bag I took this photo on Tuesday, the same day I took the cheongsam photos in the same area, ie, Central; imagine the cultural shock! LOL.Recommendation: In HKDP you see photo of canned olives in supermarket, but in Real Daily Photo by Wilf James you get to see a lovely photo of olives on trees today. Looking at the photo I can imagine his joy of picking olives from his own place, taking them to an olive mill and returning home with a few litres of “homemade” extra virgin olive oil! Wilf is a professional photographer living in south of France (near Spain if I understand correctly) and his blog has lots of beautiful photos of people and nature plus links to his other sites.

Tags: Central|street scene|Chanel|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Timeless is the style and artistry, but not the popularity of cheongsam. For my mom’s generation, most women owned a few cheongsams for daily wear. For our generation, I don’t think I know anybody having cheongsam in her wardrobe, except maybe the one for their weddings. Beautiful these cheongsams are, but not many people in the busy street of Central stop by to look at them. See yesterday’s photo for close-up.
Ed, it’s really Maggie Cheung wearing the red one here.

I got this photo today in Central while I walked past this shop again

(linkTags: Central|street scene|cheongsam|Hong Kong|photos

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No, this building is not exactly going to collapse but it really does look quite fragile even with those supporting beams. I wandered in the Mid-Levels and found this building right next to an old mosque. What really attracted me are the three doorways, particularly the one with curtain, it looks quite mysterious and yet attractive. Nobody was around and I suspected myself to be trespassing so didn’t get to find out much, but they don’t look like Chinese households to me. To see the whole building click here.

Tags: Mosque|old building|Mid-Levels|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Browsing the florist shop I took this photo and slightly adjusted the color. Some visitors have asked whether I’m using a digital SLR, well, it’s actually a Panasonic FZ10 digital camera, 3 year old, 4 megapixel, but it’s good enough for me. Apart from that and a little about aperture and exposure, I’m ignorant about all photography technicalities, ask me more about the lense specifications or anything involving math my head will ache.
Have a good sunday everyone!

Tags: orchid|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Ladder Street is a quiet little street linking Mid-Levels and Central/Sheung Wan; function-wise pretty much like the Central/Mid-levels escalators as seen in this earlier post (
Say you are a DP blogger, an overseas visitor tells you that a certain street is his “favorite in the world”, and that place is only 5 minutes away on foot, what do you do? W, I hope you’ll enjoy this photo.

Tags: Ladder Street|Sheung Wan|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

About staying young at heart: while I bothered the ants with my camera (see this photo), my dad played with my nephews. The kids (or little rascals) had been begging him the whole afternoon so finally my dad agreed to help them make a fire with some pine cones they had gathered :-). Well, they used the barbeque pit but we really didn’t need that fire. Sshhhh, don’t tell them about this post…Have a good weekend!

This photo is for Lavender Lady who’s enjoying her grandma stage in Sequim and Meg in Nelson who can never be too old to stay young at heart!!

Tags: Plover Cove Country Park|New Territories|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

I have always loved this passage which was widely circulated through emails a few years ago:

**RESIGNATION**
I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult. I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an 8 year-old again.

I want to go to McDonald’s and think that it’s a four star restaurant. I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make a sidewalk with rocks. I want to think M&Ms are better than money because you can eat them. I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer’s day.

I want to return to a time when life was simple; When all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn’t bother you, because you didn’t know what you didn’t know and you didn’t care. All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.

I want to think the world is fair. That everyone is honest and good. I want to believe that anything is possible. I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again.

I want to live simple again. I don’t want my day to consist of computer crashes,mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones. I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow.

So . . . here’s my checkbook and my car-keys, my credit card bills and my RRSP statements. I am officially resigning from adulthood. And if you want to discuss this further, you’ll have to catch me first, cause…….. ……”Tag! You’re it.”

Remember the Simple things in Life.

Link: a collage of our little charmer dancing with bubbles

Tags: Central|Botanical Garden|street scene|Hong Kong|photos|daily life

Kids in the park…my camera was following the boy chasing bubbles and then he ran into these girls with their nannies. The baby girl standing and looking right into the camera is just so adorable. I loaded this photo in a wrong folder and just rediscovered it today, it was actually shot a few months ago and these little girls should have graduated from “diapers” now.

I took this photo while taking a walk in my friend’s neighborhoold. This is Wah Fu Estate, a government-built public housing estate in the Southern district. These households are not likely to be decorated with chandeliers but I think collectively, their lights form a kind of chandelier-like glamor against the clear sky of the evening. You can also see Wah Fu Estate in this previous post.
Link: don’t miss this photo story by BBC on Wah Fu with very good photos (thanks Anonymous!)

(Last one from Cat Street)
Amongst stacks and piles of second hand toys and collectibles (or junks?) outside this Cat Street shop are our old friends, Mickey and Minnie, waiting optimistically for someone to take them home. While I took this photo I imagined how funny it would be if I could get a photo of Mickey and Minnie standing guard for the Mao Zedong figurines (see earlier post), I couldn’t help but chuckled to myself ;-). Have a good week everyone!

Tags: Cat Street|Upper Lascar Row|street scene|Hong Kong|photos

These are some of the interesting stuff I found in Cat Street. I guess these colorful bowls would have certain appeal to my foreigner friends, while I would consider some of the ceramics in this photo (Tags: Cat Street|Upper Lascar Row|Sheung Wan|ceramics|street scene|Hong Kong|photos

I’m not sure why but the most noticeable figure in Cat Street seems to be Mao Zedong, his figurines are dominating several corners of the sidewalk. Mao was never a really popular figure in HK but maybe he has become a cultural icon, pretty much like people wearing Che Guevara T-shirt without knowing who he was? There are also quite a lot of Cultural Revolution related items on sale in the shops. (for more about Cat Street, see yesterday’s post)
Link: wiki page on Mao Zedong

Tags: Sheung Wan|Cat Street|Upper Lascar Row|antiques|street scene|Hong Kong|photos

I don’t know how it is now, but “Cat Street” (an alley in Sheung Wan near Hollywood Road) used to have a reputation as a tourist trap mainly because of the antiques shops. It is still a popular tourist destination so maybe the vendors are “nicer” now? I would say it’s worth a visit as I too, saw some interesting stuff, but be very smart if you want to make a purchase ;p, eg, I don’t think those are antiques in this photo, so, you know what I mean (wink wink)!

Cat Street’s official name is Upper Lascar Row, and here’s the background of the names: “Lascars” were seamen from the East Indies who frequented the area, giving it a reputation for lawlessness and criminal behaviour. In the past it was a common joke that, if you had