Zhuhai Adventures

We are up early and calling a Didi to take us to the port- we have return ferry tickets to Hong Kong. There has been a typhoon warning coming in on our phones Gov 1000 ‘Warning Typhoon…. (whatever she is called) is arriving from….’, we are quietly optimistic that typhoon (whatever she is called ), may not be too strong because as we drive along the coast we can see almost the entire length of the bridge to Hong Kong and the sea below looks like a mill pond, still and serene, it’ll be fine! However, we are soon stepping into a second Didi, the ferries are all cancelled. Undeterred, we are heading to the HMZ Port a little further on to catch a bus, I keep looking out of the window as we speed over the bridge – the sea and sky all look so calm, what is the problem?
We arrive at our hotel at exactly the same time as we would have, had we caught the ferry, we are very self-congratulatory. The hotel is wonderful, we have treated ourselves – a gold windowed block of three enormous towers and our room on the 9th floor has a harbour view. The location couldn’t be better, we walk down Canton Road to the Tsim Sha Sui Star Ferry Port and for less than 50p we buy a ticket for this historic and beautiful old ferry line. Built in 1888 for passengers to cross from the peninsular to Hong Kong island it now carries 70,000 passengers a day, many for work but many more visitors. There are train and road bridges and even the metro spans the water, but this is the best and cheapest way to enjoy the harbour. We leave the docks and have a fantastic view of both sides of Hong Kong, we have never seen so many high-rise buildings, there are the glamorous skyscrapers of the corporate world but in the background, there are hundreds more apartments for the inhabitants of the City living in the sky!
In 10 minutes, we arrive on the island and hail a taxi to take us up to start of the Peak Tram funicular railway, this tram-ride has been on my bucket list for a long time. The guide book says that we will experience the strange phenomenon of the skyscrapers either side of the rail looking like they are falling onto the tram…we didn’t particularly notice this, but it is a strange feeling to be at such a precipitous angle, and we didn’t expect there to be other stations on the way up where we stop momentarily.
At the top, we exit, not through the gift shop, but through an entire shopping mall- this is a theme here in Hong Kong, even our hotel is built on top of a massive shopping mall.
Outside, on the open plaza we stop for a quick snack and then wander over to the edge to look over the far side of Hong Kong island. So, we are on one of the peaks of Hong Kong island looking over to the opposite side from the city- almost directly south. We cannot believe our eyes as we see the most beautiful panorama of countless islands in the distance melting into the South China sea meeting a sky made picturesque by a multitude of colourful and wonderfully shaped clouds. We stand in awe for a long time…and then take a lot of photos like everyone else there. Where is this typhoon? Nowhere to be seen!
We have booked tickets for the ‘Tea House Experience. A 90- minute selection of Cantonese opera excerpts, songs and instrumental music complete with traditional tea and dim sum. Performed by the Tea House Rising Stars Troupe.’ We accidentally booked a hotel right next to the Xiqu Centre, a Cantonese Opera venue where we spotted this ‘taster’ performance, not only convenient, but when we inquired about tickets, found that we could have 50% discount for being old enough. We sip our tea and eat our dim sum and thoroughly enjoy the whole performance. The instrumental music is beautiful and the small orchestra playing traditional Chinese instruments are very engaging as they lose themselves in the melody and look toward one another to keep time and pace. The solo vocalists are so very different to anything that we have heard before, some very harmonious and lyrical but others quite discordant, with tonal variations that make for quite a different sound to western music, we are loving it. The two excerpts from traditional opera are particularly enjoyable, the performers are dressed in costume and have full makeup which is extraordinarily beautiful, one is a tragic piece and the other comic so a really good contrast. Both performances have the traditional combination of song, expression and physicality that is combined to effect the Cantonese Opera style. After each extract the MC a young woman who performs a solo herself at one point, steps up to the stage and explains what we are about to hear and see in Chinese with English subtitles. It’s a great introduction to the style and we are thankful that we have stumbled upon it. As we leave the Centre we spot a great viewing place for the harbour, the lights across on Hong Kong island are wonderful and although we have missed the official harbour light show, these lights are very entertaining, multi coloured neon characters flashing and flickering over the huge skyscrapers. We go to bed very happy. Typhoon…what typhoon?
We wake up to the typhoon, we cannot even see across the harbour anymore and a fierce gale is blowing veils of heavy rain at the windows of our room. We have done so much yesterday we are not too disappointed. Between the hotel towers there is a coffee shop and unsuccessfully trying to jump massive puddles we head there and plan our day over coffee and croissants. One of the unexpected bonuses about being in Hong Kong is the lack of media restriction; in China we have been experiencing a powerful firewall, and now we can access all the things that have been so difficult, we can Google and Whatsapp and Facebook and Instagram and watch and listen to any BBC channel – which is actually quite a treat.
Therefore, using Google, we find out that there is a cultural centre just around the corner that has a modern Art Gallery, a Museum and naturally, a massive Shopping Mall. In the Mall there is a cinema and it’s showing British films. Now we have an indoor Hong Kong plan.
Strangely, even though the West Kowloon Cultural Park should only be a 10 minute walk away it seems they are in the process of building the walkway and we have to take a taxi along busy main roads. In the Mall which is called Elements we find our way to ‘Fire’ through ‘Earth’ and ‘Water’ etc (see what they did there?) to the cinema and book tickets for that evening to see Olivia Coleman and Benedict Cumberbatch in The Roses’ – it is a novelty to be going to the cinema as there are no English films being shown anywhere close to us in mainland China.
We can access M+ the contemporary Art Gallery over a walkway from the Mall thereby avoiding the typhoon conditions outside. The Gallery building itself is striking, an up to date, prize winning architectural masterpiece designed and built just 4 years ago. The first exhibition we visit is ‘Dream Rooms: Environments by woman artists 1950’s- Now’. We wander through rooms filled with feathers, neon lit ‘tunnels’ of female shaped forms and find many more exciting spaces to experience. Further on, there are 4 massive galleries filled with exhibitions concerning human society and environment- these are vast and diverse. We see a room full of grimacing clones mimicking the terracotta warriors, a Nakagin capsule apartment from Japan, sculptures and paintings of natural forms… and everything in between.
Later that night we return to the Elements Mall and both enjoy some window shopping before the film, there are many more western style shops here than in China. We also stop and watch the ice skating for quite a while as the rink is right in the centre of the mall. We both admit to having enjoyed the act of going to the cinema more than the actual film, but as usual we have as much fun critiquing the film as watching it.
The next day the typhoon is beginning to relent a little, the wind has dropped to a safe level and the rain is coming in bouts rather than continuous, so we can venture out in between; there is good news, it has been considered safe to run the ferries again.
We have one last visit to make before heading home to China, walking back down Canton Road, we are heading for the Avenue of Stars where there is a decking right along the harbourside with film star hand impressions, we want to find Wong Kar Wei and Michelle Yeoh. Rob has been determined to watch Wong Kar Wei’s iconic film ‘In the mood for Love’ and Michelle Yeoh is our claim to fame – she was at University with us.
We have just taken a selfie with Michelle’s handprints when the rain comes down again- it is very fierce. There is another shopping mall here K11 Musea we head in to escape the rain and find ourselves in the swankiest shopping precinct with only luxury brand shops – it is beautifully designed and decorated, we also discover that if we head down stairs which apparently has a Legoland in the basement somewhere, we can walk almost to the bottom of Canton Road. As the rain finally eases, we emerge and head up to collect our bags and take the ferry home. The ferry port is located in our hotel Mall which is most convenient it is a very smooth ride home and we pass Lantau island which we can see from our Chinese hometown. On the top of Lantau is a giant golden Buddha that tourists ride up to visit in a cable car, just as the clouds part I spot him. Goodbye Hong Kong.