London Daily Photo is one of the elders of DP blogs and today is its first anniversary. Congratulations Ham, aka lord of the (DP web) ring and the blogger who shares his knowledge of “How to photo blog“. Being soooooo British an Asian city, HK doesn’t really have any restaurants or establishments specifically London-relate here (or maybe there is, any HKer has suggestions?) So here’s to you Ham! (don’t drink and drive ;-)), 365 beautiful photos and more to come!
p.s. I’m sure this is the “freshest” photo ever posted here, it was taken in a supermarket about 30 minutes ago!
p.p.s. for the occasion, Ham has made a screensaver with London photos for everybody to download and enjoy!
City life
I wonder where they are now after the Central Star Ferry pier has moved (see related post). I read Golden Boy: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood
(<--see link) a few months ago in which the writer described that in the 1950s, rickshaw was a major means of transport. For years, they are part of the pier; and just before it moved, there were still a few rickshaws and rickshaw men making their living there by posing for photos with tourists. Maybe I should go to the new pier and see if how they are now.
Central Street scene
I took this photo of Wanchai from a bus, and though it’s not really sharp it’s not bad for a night shot on a bus with running engine. Look closer at the other bus in the opposite lane and you’ll have an idea of where I was - the front of the top deck. Actually even before I started this blog, I’ve always like to sit in the front of the top deck to enjoy the view. Btw, the shop in the left street corner is a big herbal tea shop and the other neon signs are mostly of restaurants.
It’s sunny and nice in HK today and I hope you’ll have a nice Sunday too! There’s a poll about the thumbnails underneath, so have a look!
Street scene Wanchai
What do you think the owner of this trawler was thinking fishing near a power plant? Or was he collecting samples of fish tainted with chemical wastes?
Just a bit of current issue to go with this photo…HK is a city with very limited natural resources and to feed the 7 million people here, foods are imported. One of the major suppliers is (you don’t even have to be imaginative to figure out) Mainland China. From time to time, there are reports of chemically tainted foods from the Mainland (I’m being politically correct here not to say “China”). There are frequent reports of cancer-causing chemicals found in various kinds of fish, vegetables and most recently, eggs (see today’s news here). Sadly, the rapid modernizatioin of a predominantly agricultural nation has put dangerous chemicals into the hands of unethical farmers. Now, will this post put this blog back behind the Great (fire)Wall of China? 
City life Islands
In my recent quest to master a new blogging platform, Denton of Greenville DP has been giving me a lot of advices and tips. And in his email on thanksgiving, Denton wrote: My children and their loved ones are coming to town. The weather is great. Life is good, reminding me that I should be thankful for the simple things in life.I really like the purple interior of the buses of this company, and the floor has little silver speckles which reflects in sunlight and is quite beautiful (see this photo). It is also very clean and comfortable. I used to drive in HK and Vancouver, but really think I can do without the stress with such good service and the convenience of the public transport system here.
City life Uncategorized
Of course Hong Kong is not all about colorful night life, flowers, sunsets and beautiful things. Recently, Eric of Paris Daily Photo posted a photo of a “homeless” person and fueled a heated debate on how we choose between showing our cities honestly and respecting the privacy of people on the streets. I too, had hesitated taking photos of the less fortunate ones on the streets, then I saw this scene, it seems so terribly cold that everybody seems to be turning his back to the poor one…
site updates:
– the comments page is acting funny on my computer: when I post comment, it doesn’t show it rightway but shows a blue box saying: this post is xxxblah blah, but then the comment actually posts OK…I’m trying to find out what does that
– a new “contact” page has been added
– in the “about me” underneath, does the photo load from your side, it doesn’t on my other computer
– have a look of the poll underneath
Street scene Wanchai
This is me, the beesy bee…very busy
This is a photo I took in Lamma Island and it’s not very often that I can do closeup without shaking (unless I put my camera on something)!
You will see a bit of changes in the sidebars underneath…I’m not sure what to keep and what to get rid of, so for the time being, you may see different things every time you come here. But if you see a whole bunch of codes and wacky stuff, that means I have screwed up my site and you can just sigh and pray for me, lol! Well, can’t say I’m not having fun at the same time so enjoy yourself anywaz.
p.s. there’s a poll underneath, have a look!
A bit of nature Islands
So here it is, the new home!
There are still lots of things to do…it’s very much like unpacking stuff after a move — it can take a few months and I’m new with this blogging platform so it’s like losing sense of direction in a new house sometimes.
From the old site…I have imported all the posts here so you may still browse the archive, but mind you, some of the photos may not load properly as yet, so bear with me.
It will be a long and slow process for me to fix everything the way I like…for example, for the recent posts section underneath, I would like to have photo thumbnails to show up as well! (if any web design or wordpress experts out there know how, please let me know)…
For the time being, the comment form is acting funny on my FireFox WinXP environment but the comment will still post. If you run into problem browsing and commenting please let me know (email: hongkongdailyphoto”at”gmail.com).
Enjoy and please let me have your suggestions!
Islands
Hissing cat quoting Lewis Carroll: You must be mad……or you wouldn’t have come here. The truth behind all these HK photos — not all of us are friendly! LOL. Regarding cats, I think people can be referred to in these groups and quotations:
Cat lover: The idea of calm exists in a sitting cat. — Jules Renard (yeah, like this one?)
Cat hater: Your cat’s missing? Have you checked my bumper? — anonymous for obvious reason (LOL)
Neutral:I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. — Winston Churchill (isn’t Sir Winston an interesting figure? A man of wisdom.)
Whichever group you’re in, have a good week!
These are some shots I took on Thursday night around 11 pm from a bus when it drove past the streets near Lan Kwai Fong ( in this photo, but I think I would like a little bit of both :-)…how about you?
Link: an extra photo here
I took this image on a Jaguar…not Jaguar the animal but Jaguar the car; and not me on the Jaguar, but the image is :p. A distorted reflection of a street in Wanchai — I took this photo last week on a brilliant sunny day. There are lots of luxury cars in HK so maybe I can do a series, “On a Mercedes”, “On a BMW”, Audi, Lexus, Cadillac, Infiniti…Just my rambling on a lazy afternoon :-), have a good weekend everybody!
I bet it looks bizarre to you…LOL! This is a 3D advertisement built onto a bus stop in Wanchai, and the product is obviously, crab. To be more specific, it is Shanghai crab, a famous delicacy from Shanghai and its vicinity which is in season during autumn. Like all yummy food, this kind of fresh water crab has a dark side — it comes with a lot of cholesterol and is kind of expensive. But still, it has a lot of fans in HK (me included ;p).
p.s. since Dawn asked — a real Shanghai crab is actually about the size of a lady’s fist.
Wanchai
Is this considered retro style now? The Hong Kong City Hall was built in the 60s and is made up of two parts, the high block and the low block. The 12-storey high block is possibly one of the most photographed spots in the city as there’s a marriage registry in the building. I have seen many beautiful night photos of the exterior of the high block and here’s my best attempt. Can you see “w” there? I remember playing this game when I was small — use your imagination and you can actually find quite a few alphabets in the right side of this photo
Link: a day time photo of this building, official page of the Hong Kong City Hall
Building Central
Heaven left the sprinklers on all day and the city has become grey and a bit paler with the drizzle. I took these photos in different parts of Central this afternoon; and since I can’t (again) decide which one to post we have another collage. It is a grey day but hey, it’s Wednesday afternoon now and we are a bit closer to weekend now
Central Street scene
The last time I posted a song with a photo(<-- link) it seemed to work pretty well so here's another romantic scene and song for you. The photo was taken at a beach at Lamma Island on a beautiful day last week. The song is "Chances are", I believe it's an older song (anybody knows?) but I first heard it in "Ally McBeal" by Vonda Shepard and Robert Downey Jr <-- I like him :p...Chances are you'll like it and I'll be really glad?? Link: the lyrics
Do you have a building or road, park, arch, association, library, Chinese school named Yat Sen, Chung Shan or Zhongshan in your city? Dr Sun Yat Sen must be the most “named after” Chinese in the world. He is a giant, the only figure who held a supreme position in the heart of Chinese and respected by both the conflicting political parties in Mainland China and Taiwan — he is one of the very few beliefs that they share.
Dr Sun Yat Sen led China to break through from 4,000 years of autocratic monarchy in 1911 and guided the country to a baby’s first step towards democracy. In this time and era, we know no hero is flawless and people have discussed Dr Sun’s several decisions in relation to today’s divided China. But he remains the courageous hero who took up a job no Chinese had even dreamt of in those days and set the scene for modern China, his 140th birthday was honored by many Chinese communities yesterday.
This photo was taken at the University of Hong Kong where Dr Sun studied medicine and the quote on the banner is from a speech he made at the university in 1923.
Links: a close-up of the sculpture, wiki page on Dr Sun, a HKU pdf document with historical photos.
Location University
This photo was taken on Nov 11 just before midnight, when about 1,500 people gathered at the (now “old”) Star Ferry Pier in Central, some to protest, and some to bid farewell to the clock tower and the pier. It is a place of many HK people’s daily life, where we met our dates and friends; attended weddings and shows nearby, traveled to school or work, shopped and dined in Central or Tsimshatsui. It’s a place with tons of collective memory of HK people, and now it is giving way to yet another valuable real estate development plan. The bells of the clock tower had marked every quarter-hour since 1957. It rang for the last time at midnight Nov 11th 2006, and I’ve recorded it for the memory:
Links:
A collage of scenes last night and previous posts about the Star Ferry Central Pier here:
Star Ferry,
Perfect Match,
Boarding the ferry,
Clock tower
Building Central
QUIZ WINNERS ANNOUNCED, SEE FOOTPRINTS!The answer is here!
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Here’s another quiz and I hope everyone would win…unlimited postcards, one each to those who guess what this is/what these are?
I cropped the photo and pushed the contrast. More hints? I could go around this subject to take photos and we’ve been to this place before (
A little abstract Wanchai
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