Vignettes of the World
Before arriving in Buhkara, we would also be making a stop at the town of Nurota to see some ancient ruins. This part of the journey was simple. We went up to the Nur Fortress to see what was supposedly a military installation built at …
We would be going to Bukhara on a private car in a five-hour drive from the Syyod Camp. We bid farewell to the staff at the camp and headed over to see the two wonders of Uzbekistan: the Kyzylkum Desert and Lake Aydarkul. Its sheer …
Hung Lau, meaning “Red House,” is a lesser-known historic building tucked away in the hinterland of Tuen Mun. It has a special place in the history of Hong Kong. Although its significance is not widely known, it bears a critical remembrance as a home base to some of Dr. Sun Yatsen’s planning for the 1911 Revolution.
A Grade 1 historic building, Hung Lau was built perhaps about a hundred years ago. In around 1901, the area was a farm known as Castle Peak Farm owned by Li Ki Tong, the son of a Hong Kong businessman. He met Dr. Sun Yatsen on a ship to Japan. He then joined the Revive China Society, which was the revolutionary organization that garnered the international support for the revolution. Since then, Li Ki Tong has provided Hung Lau for Dr. Sun Yatsen’s revolutionary cause. Dr. Sun Yatsen and his supporters met here to discuss their plans. In fact, the revolutionaries might have stored weapons and practiced their warring skills here too.
Perhaps worth mentioning is that there is another 1911 Revolution heritage in Ha Pak Nai. Together with that structure, the Castle Peak Farm and Hung Lau served as secure and then unknown bases for the 1911 Revolution in northwestern Hong Kong. See introduction of the fortified structure at Ha Pak Nai here.
It is a two-story building built in red bricks, the hue of which gave the building its name. Hung Lau and its surrounding land is now owned by a mainland Chinese businessman. Even before the private ownership, the building had been left in ruins. When the building came into private hands, however, the news got out that there were plans to demolish it. In fact, small house next to the main building was already taken down.
For a brief period of time in 2017, the building became a proposed monument in order to delay its demolition by the private owner. However, the government eventually decided in late 2017 that there was not enough concrete evidence proving the building’s significance in the 1911 Revolution to give it a Declared Monument status.
There was a long time when Taiwan supporters gathered here to celebrate the Double Ten Festival. That, of course, is no longer seen today. The building has come under the ownership of a mainland Chinese businessman since 2018. Also due to the operation of the National Security Law, supporters of Taiwan no longer hold events here. One can easily imagine Hung Lau and its significance to be buried by the tides of history and descend into oblivion in the near future.
I drove and it was probably a good idea. For drivers, the way of entry is via the Tuen Mun Riding School nextdoor. Tell the guard that you are seeing Hung Lau and they will let you in. Once inside the equestrian school, make a right and arrive at the gate. Someone will open the gate for you when you get there. Once out of the gate, you will arrive at the outskirts of the Zhongshan Park. The Hung Lau will be on your left. Note that you must not enter the grounds of the building itself as it is now privately owned property. At the most you may just take a few photographs at the gate.
The Zhongshan park is a small park next to the heritage, with a nice pagoda and some green park space. There was quite a community there, as people gathered to set up their own karaoke booths. It was anything but restful, so I just took two photographs of the building and left.
CACHe, The Conservancy Association Centre for Heritage on Hung Lau, Castle Peak, Tuen Mun.
The Wikipedia on Zhongshan Park in Tuen Mun (Chin).
The netizens of Hong Kong are very familiar with Hung Heung Lo Fung, a vantage point that is perfect for viewing and taking photographs of Hong Kong’s famous harbor skyline. At an altitude of 228 meters, the small peak provides unobstructed views on the west …
We spent a day and a half hiking with Mr. S and he shared quite a bit about his thoughts on the world as an Uzbek. I had this incredible privilege to learn about some current affairs in this region, which is not widely known …
The hiking trail of the day would take us through three hills in Yuen Long, namely Ho Hok Shan, Cheung Ngau Shan and Tseng Hang Shan. The trail took us three hours because of the slightly hot weather (still, in November), and the traverse of the rugged terrain on three sets of ascent and descent.
There is perhaps not much to say about these relatively unknown hills in Yuen Long. But Cheung Ngau Shan, meaning “guiding the cow,” was actually a location where people grazed their herds of cattle.
The trail goes like this. From ground up, you will first climb 149 meters in a combination of stairs and slopes to reach the first peak at Ho Hok Shan. Then you will make a descent to 60 meters or so and climb the second peak of Cheung Ngau Shan at 200 meters. This section should be the most strenuous, although it is mostly a climb on a slope. Then you will again descent to about 80 meters and climb up again on a slope to Tseng Hang Shan at 220 meters.
This is the entrance to the trail on Castle Peak Road, Yuen Long Section.
Go up, and head up these stairs.
You will see a spot where someone made a big opening out of the wired fence. Do NOT go through the fence.
Just keep on walking up the trail along the left side of the wire fence.
Although the paths are not paved on this trail, it is clear throughout. This is the view at the peak of Ho Hok Shan. You should reach this point in half an hour.
Follow the clear paths all along. You will see the terrain that you will climb right ahead of you.
Once you are up at 220 meters on Tseng Hang Shan, take the trail on your left. This is where the descent to Kam Tin begins. This section is on a clear path first and eventually a 1km-long set of paved stairs down.
First of all, because the paths are not paved and they are mostly narrow mountainous walkways, you must wear long pants for this hike. The vegetation will scratch your exposed body parts. I also suggest wearing hiking gloves, as well as bringing a hiking cane with you to assist with the descents on the hilly terrain in particular.
Although experienced hikers will be able to complete this trail in a little over two hours, allow for a generous leeway in terms of time. Start in the early afternoon, so that you will not have to do the final section after it gets dark.
We did meet hikers that have done so, but I do not suggest starting this trail from Kam Tin. The initial climb is an ascent of 220 meters from the ground up on a set of stairs continuously for 1km. By the time one makes it to the top of Tseng Hang Shan, even the experienced hikers would feel exhaustion. And then you would have to go on a descent and climb up and down until you reach Ho Hok Shan for a final descent.
Photo: Looking onto Tseng Hang Shan from Cheung Ngau Shan. You can see the path going up on the left.
The views are quite consistent throughout the three peaks. You see Kai Kung Leng afar with all of Kam Tin beneath. Looking still further, the skyline of Shenzhen sits proudly in the very far horizon. This will be the view you get throughout the hike.
I think that this trail is great for both the physical and will power exercise that it gives you. We sweated quite a bit on a November afternoon.
From Yuen Long’s Yoho Mall I, Bus Routes 76K, 77K and 64K will drop you off at the Tung Shing Lei bus stop. This is the bus stop right after the Pok Oi Hospital stop. Once you are off the bus, take the overpass that lies right at the bus stop, cross Castle Peak Road Yuen Long Section, then go toward the direction of the TWGHs C Y Ma Memorial College. Pass the college and you will see the Tung Shing Lei bus stop on this side of Castle Peak Road. Keep on going for about less than one minute, and you will see the entrance to the trail leading upward on your right.
We rose early. The hike of the day will be a full 7-hour hike onto the peak of the Nuratau Mountains Range. The ascent is between 900 meters to 1690 meters, almost 700 meters of altitude to climb. At 1690-Meter Altitude Unlike hiking in Hong …
Early in the morning we bid farewell to Samarkand. We would be heading to the Nuratau Mountains for a significant change of scenery from the ancient sites of Uzbekistan, and stepping into a wonderful embrace of its wilderness instead. A driver from the Syyod Camp …
Midnight in Peking, a book by Paul French
Midnight in Peking has all the captivating elements that make it an amazing work of historical fiction. Based on a true crime that occurred in a time long past in the last century, it fuses history, diplomatic hypocrisies, cultural critiques (even-handedly as against all involved) and a thread of Chinese mythology, interwoven in a masterful prose.
The story opens with a Chinese myth about the fox spirits. In Chinese folkloric imagination, the fox spirits are demons that symbolise lies, betrayal, seduction and death. The fox spirits feed on human lives to sustain their own immortality. Pamela Werner’s killers murdered her brutally, mutilated her remains, removed her organs, then abandoned her in the depths of the night, exposed and near unrecognizable, at the foot of the Fox Tower in Peking. The folks of old Beijing believed that the fox spirits haunted this tower. It was also the only tower that had no guard post in Beijing at the time.
In any type of society, a murder like this would cause a sensation. The investigation into Pamela’s death unfolds amidst an exceptionally unnerving time in history. The official invasion of Beijing by the Japanese was imminent. The murder happened on January 7, 1937. Japanese forces were already hovering in the vicinity of the former capital of China then. As such, residents of Beijing, be they locals or foreigners, were ridden with the idiosyncrasies that typified a population certain to be besieged at the cusp of World War II. The murder set the rumor mill into full throttle. Beijingers and foreigners alike made frenzied speculations into the circumstances of Pamela’s death. Meanwhile, the underworld profited enormously from the sentiment that “there is no tomorrow.”
In his dramatic exposé, author Paul French lays bare the dark strands of human nature that kept the true circumstances of Pamela Werner’s brutal murder under wraps for almost a century. Every party that was even remotely involved in the investigation of the murder was, perhaps not surprisingly, driven by self-interest. The webs of lies, conniving fraternity, scandalous lead-ups to the murder, the hush-ups of blackmailed witnesses, and political pressures on all levels presented a case impossible to solve even by the best-intentioned and seasoned detective.
When it became clear that justice would run cold for his daughter, E.T.C. Werner, a former British Consul himself and a well-known scholar of sinology, took matters into his own hands. He exhausted his resources to find out who killed his daughter. With tenacity, he pulled all the strings he could as a former diplomat. He unearthed the leads that were buried in the memories of the drug addicts and prostitutes of the underworld. He managed to piece together the events that led to Pamela’s killing on the night of the murder and the people that were guilty and complicit in the murder. Most importantly, he learned the motivation for killing and then mutilating Pamela.
In writing this riveting account of Pamela Werner’s death, Paul French culled through the historical archives in the United Kingdom. In this process he happened upon an uncatalogued box of documents, containing the original communications of E.T.C. Werner in his pleas for justice to British authorities to re-open the case for his daughter. The author’s intentions are clear—it is to give Pamela Werner justice, albeit only as a matter of history, and coming a century late. His work displays a keen sensitivity to the unique historical and political contexts that rendered the murder a cold case, which remains officially so now.
This is the second book by Paul French that I have read. I have previously reviewed his book North Korea, A State of Paranoia, which is a scholarly study of North Korea.
I have plans to venture out to all the walkable islands lying in Sai Kung’s eastern waters. Since the weather turned somewhat cooler, I have visited the Sharp Island twice, once to hike and another time to visit its Kiu Tau Islet at low tide. …