The Police Museum
Given the turn of events since last year, the Police Museum is probably not a kind of place that I would like to visit. Who wants to make the effort just to receive more propaganda, as if what we have been getting is not enough? …
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From Hong Mui Kuk to Amah Rock
The Chinese name of Amah Rock means the “husband-yearning rock.” “Why do you always go to these haunted places?” A good friend said when I told her that I would like to visit the Amah rock. Like so many places in Hong Kong that come …
Murmurs of the Hollow at Mount Davis
I visited the Mount Davis Battery twice. On the first visit, I went on a sunny day and saw the Mount Davis Battery at mid-hill. I stopped short at seeing the command center on the hilltop. The steep incline was daunting. On my second visit, I went on a rainy day. The visit at the Mount Davis Command Center on the hilltop was the most eerie adventure of all the places I have visited in Hong Kong.
Views of Hong Kong on the West
We saw beautiful sea views on western Hong Kong on the Mount Davis Path. The trail is a gradual incline from the ground level for thirty to forty-five minutes up to the top. On a sunny summer day it can be a bit strenuous. There is a shortcut, but the steps are quite rigorous, so on both times we avoided the steps and only took on the paved road.
Strategic Defense of Hong Kong
In the early 1900s when it was built, the Mount Davis Battery was envisioned to be a major defense for western Hong Kong. The entry into Victoria Harbour from the west is as wide as 3,600 yard. As compared to the entry on the East via Lei Yue Mun, which is only 500 yards, the wide entry point on the west clearly presented the need for significant fortifications.
As such, the Mount Davis Battery has, at one point, had the capability of hosting five cannons. Out of these five, four could aim at all strategic points on the sea entry on the west. The gun emplacements completed in 1912. The hilltop fortification served as the command center for the defense of western Hong Kong Island, consisting of gun emplacements, the Western Fire Command, ammunition storage, barracks and concealed structures.
By the mid-1930s, thinking on defense strategy changed. Two of the five 9.2-inch canons at Mount Davis were moved to the Stanley battery in order to reinforce defense at southern Hong Kong Island. Indeed, Stanley would become the “last man standing” in Hong Kong’s anti-Japanese war.
Photos above and below: a Gun Emplacement Mid-Hill at Mount Davis
Beginning on December 11th, 1941, the Japanese imperial army launched aerial attacks on the Mount Davis Battery. On December 16th, the Japanese intensified its attacks by calling in its air force in the Philippines and its naval fleets. A total of 62 air bombers focused on the battle at Mount Davis. This has effectively destroyed the command center at Mount Davis. Before the final surrender, the British forces destroyed most of the fortification on site. Since then, the Mount Davis Battery has remained a historic relic.
A Lingering Eeriness
“I am not going in there, too many mosquitoes already,” my friend stopped at the entrance of the command center. With that I went into the fortifications on my own.
The eeriness was apparent. Odd sounds seemed to be coming at me everywhere. I swear that each step I took triggered echoes. It felt as if the spirits murmured through the silent passing of time, from deep inside the hollows of the chambers. It is believed that there are mass graves there.
After a brief walk-around, I went further uphill and found even more structures in ruins. There was a sign at one site barring tourists from going further. Due to the rain, puddles of water has formed. I would not have been able to pass through anyway. The further I went around, the more eerie it was. Overgrown trees hovered over me, their branches seemed to bear the memory of the only war that Hong Kong has seen in its short history.
I usually do not believe in ghosts, but I do think that the Mount Davis Battery is haunted — perhaps by the horrors of war.
Sources:
The introduction on site at the Mount Davis Battery
A Guide to Hong Kong’s War Zones, Ko Tim Keung (Chin. 1995) at 73-78, 93-94.
From the Pineapple Dam to Shing Mun Reservoir Walk
We aimed to do a short 1.5 hour walk from Pineapple Dam, but we asked for the wrong directions and ended up on the Shing Mun Reservoir Walk for three hours instead. But there were many pleasant surprises on the way. As usual, we began …
The Bride’s Pool Nature Trail
Legend has it that a bride was carried through the pool in a wedding sedan chair on a rainy day. One of the carriers slipped and fell. The whole sedan chair fell into the pool. As a result the bride drowned. To remember this ill-fated …
Mei Ho House – Food, Views and Heritage
Heritage, history, hiking, and happy dining – we did an all-in-one trip at Mei Ho House in Shek Kip Mei on a sunny afternoon.
Trail at the Back
The original intention of the day was to do a simple walk up the stairs behind Mei Ho House for a panoramic view of western Kowloon. We entered the trail right behind Mei Ho House, and climbed up on a set of long stairs. There were around 300 steps. The open view of urban Kowloon was amazing. We watched the busy world go by its business as we clocked in the little exercise we had to do in order to see this view.
Mei Ho Café
When we passed by the back of Mei Ho House, we had a glimpse of its backyard seating area. Although we walked through the neighborhood’s generous offering of food options, we still preferred the ambiance at Mei Ho House. So we sat down at the Mei Ho Café for a humbly-priced but very satisfying lunch.
It being the attached dining unit to a youth hostel, the Mei Ho Café is clean and hip. Its décor is somewhat Avant Garde, with different chambers showing distinctive colors, themes and furnishings. It certainly was the work of young designers, we thought. The whole dining experience was self-served, from picking up the food after ordering to busing the table after. I am glad to see that my friend did not feel that she was too old for youth hostel life.
The Great Fire of Shek Kip Mei, 1953
The Mei Ho House was once a public housing estate. In this area of Shek Kip Mei, the early residents lived in the wooden huts of a shanty town during the 1950s, a time when poverty was the norm and survival was the only aspiration. Many of those living in this area were refugees from China’s civil war.
The Christmas day of 1953 brought to the residents of the squatter area an enormous disaster. At around 9:30pm in one home a fire started by an accidental drop of a kerosene lamp. It became uncontrollable within ten minutes. The fire continued and destroyed most of the settlement area well into midnight. More than 53,000 people were on the streets within the short span of a few hours. In 1954, the Colonial Government built Mei Ho House to give home to the tens of thousands of whom the fire rendered homeless.
The Mei Ho House was the resettlement housing that the Hong Kong Government built on the original site of the settlement area. The original resettlement consisted of eight six-storey resettlement blocks (A-H). They were H-shaped structures, which would become the prototype of the earlier public housing projects in Hong Kong. Indeed, the Shek Kip Mei Fire and the resultant government accommodation of residents marked the beginning of the Colonial Government’s general housing policies in Hong Kong. The first projects were public housing estates.
In 2012, Mei Ho House’s Block H stands as the only building that remains on its original site. The Government had plans to revitalize this part of Shek Kip Mei, and Mei Ho House Block H was preserved. It now shines also as the only remaining Mark 1 H-shaped resettlement block in Hong Kong. The Youth Hostels Association now manages the building, providing room and board to visitors as a city hostel. Most importantly, the YHA also oversees the cultural mandate of the revitalized Mei Ho House.
Heritage of Mei Ho House Museum
The petite museum in Mei Ho House creates an unusual cultural space that celebrates the heritage of Shek Kip Mei. The exhibits on the ground level shows the experience of the residents of Mei Ho House. As a collection of their memories, the exhibition shows the spirit of perseverance, resilience and community as residents picked up hope again after a disaster. Perhaps the best known person who lived through this period in Shek Kip Mei is John Woo, the famous movie director. He shot his first experimental film in and appeared on stage for the first time in here. Even when he directed his first commercial production The Young Dragons at the age of 26, he was still living in Mei Ho House, Shek Kip Mei.
The exhibits upstairs consist of restored scenes of the public housing estate during those times. Rooms showed cramped living spaces. The goods of humble neighborhood grocers brought forth a nostalgia for both me and my friend. “Yeah, I remember these scenes.” And then we marveled at Hong Kong’s stellar rise to prosperity in the following few decades. It sits with a vague sense of discomfort that the life we once knew is now part of a proper exhibition in a museum. “Are we really that old?”
Gentle Reminder
The many available curbside spaces in the area would be very tempting for private car drivers but we did get a ticket. When I do go the next time, I certainly will park at the paid garage.
Sources:
The Heritage of Mei Ho House Museum.
The Youth Hostels Association Website(YHA).
The Big Cross of Tao Fong Shan
You may have noticed a big white cross on top of the mountain as you drive through Tai Wai into Shatin. The cross is part of the Tao Fong Shan Christian Center on Tao Fong Shan. History In its name, Tao Fong Shan may sound …
The Tail of Kowloon Reservoir (Wilson Trail Section 6)
On this sunny and hot day I headed out to the Kam Shan Country Park area. The plan was to visit Wilson Trail Section 6 off of the Kam Shan Family Walk. The trail exits at Tai Po Road. This area is known to hikers …
Old-Time Vietnam – First Impressions of Hue
I do try, to the extent I can, to learn some Vietnamese. And I can only learn it by associating it with English, Cantonese and Mandarin. As the Vietnamese pronounce it, “Hue” is the English pronunciation of “hwei” the tone is a combination of the second and third tone in Mandarin.
A mid-aged man approached me outside the train station. He dressed well and quoted a reasonable price. I then realized that I was getting into a very nice new SUV for this trip. That was a really good first impression, although the price turned out to be 4 times higher than if I did a grab bike. The journey to the hostel was short.
I was amazed as he drove through a neat, well-lit road. Le Loi Street was brimming with a festive air. This was the week before Tet (the Lunar New Year), and clearly the City of Hue filled itself with anticipation.
Very soon I arrived at the Melody Hostel. The scene reminded me a lot of my childhood in Hong Kong. Back in the 1980s or so, many merchants in Hong Kong lived in the back of their stores, particularly those who ran a family business. As such, it was a common scene where the family gathered for evening TV at the store. The owner of the hostel welcomed me, and I passed through the living room as everybody glued to the TV.
Melody, as a hostel, was a budget accommodation. It offered both dormitories and private rooms. I had a nice spacious room with private bath to myself. The room had a very high ceiling. It was sure to keep the room cool. The setup was simple. Clearly passed its days of glory, Melody was itself an establishment of the 1980s. A bit aged, a bit outdated, yet with an air of assurance: it has served its purpose for decades. I sat down in the sedan chair, and admired this clean, tidy and functional room, of which I would call home for the next five days.
I picked the Melody Hostel for its convenient location, but only upon arriving did I realize that it was actually in the middle of the tourist area. There was no lack of food choices, and I welcomed that. But the party music played loudly well into the night. It felt surreal. I seemed to have traveled through time into the 1980s, and yet the party music was so new that I could no longer name the artist.
I had a light meal at the party restaurant next door. People gathered at the bar to watch soccer games. My hot lemon grass tea came with a slice of lime. It made my day.
Old-time Vietnam, Hue it is.
The Delight of the Hok Tau Country Trail
The Hok Tau Country Trail is delightful. There are two distinct sections of the trail, the latter part of which takes hikers through the villages and farms of Hok Tau. It is an easy trail of about 1.5 hours with some climbing, at a level …