An old photo from August 2009. I had the opportunity and honor to attend the christening and baptism of a very good friend’s newborn.
Jun 232010
Jun 212010
Playing around with some photos from Christmas 2009 and decided to try some black and white conversions. Here’s Henry being lazy and take some time out.
May 052010
Explore the Victoria Peak Giga Image like never before, check out the virutal tour using GigaPan technology;
In the distance stands the almost complete International Commerce Center;
The International Commerce Centre (traditional Chinese: 環球貿易廣場) (abbr. ICC Tower) is a 118 floor, 484 m (1,588 ft) skyscraper under construction in West Kowloon, Hong Kong; as part of the Union Square project built on top of Kowloon Station. The development is owned and jointly developed by MTR Corporation Limited and Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hong Kong’s metro operator and largest property developer respectively.
Its formal development name is Union Square Phase 7 and the name International Commerce Centre was officially announced in 2005. International Commerce Centre will be completed in phases: from 2007 to 2010. Upon completion by 2010, the skyscraper will become Hong Kong’s tallest building and will have the third highest roof in the world, after Burj Khalifa and the Shanghai World Financial Center.
Prints and our photo book are now available. For those that have been asking how to get the prints or a book like last time, here are the available print sizes and items which I’m doing- any of the items that have been posted on the blog are available in the following sizes;
8 x 12 $45 /print including frame and mount
12 x 18 $65/print including frame and mount
Victoria Peak 2009 Panorama – 72″ x 24″ panorama rolled and plastic tube container, ready for mounting. $250, 3-4 weeks delivery.
I have the printing proofs available if you’d like to have a look in person.
For something that a number of the readers have requested, here’s a preview of the photobook produced chronicling the trips to Hong Kong. It’s a 120 page full color hardcover filled with the images from the trips as well as information on the sites we visited. The photobook can be ordered directly from BLURB Publications with different binding options to best suit your collection.
Ocean Park Hong Kong
A pair of Giant Pandas, a male named An An (安安) and a female called Jia Jia (佳佳), were given to Ocean Park by the central government in 1999. To mark the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty, two more pandas were given to Hong Kong. The pair of two year-old bears, a male called Le Le (樂樂) and a female named Ying Ying (盈盈), arrived at Ocean Park from the China Conservation and Research Center in Wolong in Sichuan province on 1 May 2007.
Feb 112010
Occupying an area of 3.5 hectares, “Nan Lian Garden” is built in the Tang Dynasty style. Besides adorned with characteristic timber structures, the garden is studded with clusters of bizarre rocks and planted with lots of old and valuable trees. In the garden there are a souvenir shop, vegetarian food restaurant, Chinese tea house and multi-purpose function room to cater for the various needs of visitors.
We spent today exploring the streets of Hong Kong on foot to see what treasures we might come across. The first stop we made was a district referred to as SOHO (south of Hollywood Road). A district full of restaurants and bars from every corner of the world. Amidst the smells of the grille, clinking of glasses and the boisterous toasts coming from every patio, we found the Mid-levels escalators. It is the longest outdoor escalator system in the world. It begins in downtown Hong Kong and extends over the surface roads and 800m up the hills, snaking through malls, the eateries of Soho and up into the residential towers nestled onto the hill.
From Wikipedia;
The escalators are 800 metres (2,600 ft) long with a vertical climb of 135 metres (440 ft). The total travel time is twenty minutes, but most people walk while the escalators moves to shorten their trip. Due to the geographical situation, the same distance is equivalent to several miles of zigzagging roads if traveling by car. It consists of twenty escalators and three moving sidewalks. According to Guinness World Records, these escalators together form the longest outdoor covered escalator system.
As the day progressed, we wandered through shops, markets and malls, taking in this wonderful city on foot. The books are useless at this point, having exhausted the main tourist destinations over the last 2 years, but we were still finding new areas to explore. It was a good day to relax and live as a local, without the shelter of a train or tour bus window to keep us from trodding down any number of random streets.
Evening brought us a new experience. Hong Kong Rush Hour. We’ve seen it’s effect on the MTR (train system), the Star Ferry boat for getting across the harbor, but today was our first opportunity to experience it in downtown. Well, all I can say is everyone that drives here, whether bus or private transport, is either really lucky, really aware of their surroundings or, just completely bat shit crazy.
Now, I’m not a saint when it comes to the road, but, I do have a self preservation instinct that kicks in rather early. Last year, we saw the gong show of wanna-be racecar bus drivers. This year, we had the (mis?)pleasure of riding in a cab in rush hour. Asking to go to the highest point on the island. As fast as one can go. Rush hour for me means stop and go. Rush hour for these guys is stop and die, go, go go and only go. I guess you could say they have balls. The bus previously took almost 40 minutes to get us to our destination on Victoria Peak, the cab driver, well, he did it in 10 minutes. 10 minutes as in passing an Aston Martin 10 minutes. As in passing a heavily modified Skyline GT-R and finally getting into a drag race with another cab because the two lanes worked down to 1 and someone had to budge. I guess you can say they have balls.
Once we got to the top, we had a chance to relax from the traffic ordeal and were treated to an excellent view of the city below us. Really not a bad way to spend the evening winding down.
Oct 142009
October 14 2009.
Today, we embarked on another pilgrimage to Tian Tan today to pay our respects to Buddha and visit the monks at Po Lin Monastery.
The Ngong Ping Skyrail is still one of the most breathtaking journeys available. Stretching 25Km over the ocean, mountainous terrain and finally descending to the Buddha site, it’s a wonderful way to experience both the futuristic metropolis that is Hong Kong as well as appreciate the city’s ability to retain green spaces and recreational areas while finally demonstrating that in the middle of such a large urban area, there exists a place of worship and spirituality like no other. Strangely enough, both Maegan and I felt really peaceful and there was a calming presence in the Monastery which offered a nice tranquility away from the city.
We then took in another Hong Kong site – the House of Ten Thousand Buddas. Situated farther out in the New Territories, it’s a 45 minute journey over 3 train lines and certainly far away from the cultural influence of British Hong Kong. Certainly not a standard tourist destination.
From National Geographic;
High in the hills just northwest Sha Tin sits the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery founded in the 1950s. It’s a steep approach with over 400 steps to reach the upper pavilion via a snaking stone pathway. This large complex actually contains more than 13000 representations of Buddha with each one set in a different position to demonstrate the many facets of emotion. Dozens of golden statues also line the steep incline leading to the complex.
We finished our day by visiting the Kowloon Walled City Park. Now a peaceful oasis in the middle of the city, the park is built in a traditional design and sits on the grounds of a notorious and mythladen complex that sat unpoliced for almost 40 years as neither the British nor Chinese wanted the plot of land. Read about it here.
