Alexander Grantham and the Northern Emperor

It was one of those rare days in Hong Kong; little smog or haze, blue sky and a force four breeze from the north that kept the temperature in the low 20s. We set out walking along the Eastern Promenade from Quarry Bay towards Tai Koo, a 30 minutes (very) gentle stroll.

 

The occasional jogger passed us, eyes fixed on the horizon, breathing heavily. Anglers were out in force and we paused to watch them. Their equipment was much lighter than I'm used to; slender 11-foot rods with fixed spool reels, mono-filament lines of only a few pounds breaking weight and a single tiny hook on a twelve inch snood below a round weight. Clearly they were after small fry. Indeed, we passed one angler with a plastic bag of small fish, none more than four inches in length – I'm assuming they were his catch and not his live-bait! Other anglers had simple hand lines but seemed no less successful at catching fish.

Former fireboat Alexander Grantham was housed in a small dry dock museum beside the Promenade. Built in 1952 she saw service for 43 years when she was 'one of the world's most advanced fireboats' according to the museum's description. Visitors could walk onboard and inspect most areas (except the crew's sleeping quarters and, sadly, the bridge). She undoubtedly made a huge contribution to Hong Kong, fighting fires at sea, in docks, on the waterfront where there were no fire hydrants, rescuing people from typhoons and floods etc.

Probably the two most famous incidents she was involved in were two fires that took place on successive years; the 1971 fire at the Jumbo floating restaurant (just before its official opening) that killed 34 workers; and the 1972 fire that destroyed the British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth in Victoria Harbour. The QE had recently been renamed Seawise University and was completing a major refit to equip her as a floating university before several mysterious fires broke out simultaneously and she was soon completely destroyed and capsized and sank in the harbour despite the fireboats' best efforts. 

The museum has a number of interesting displays of photographs, equipment, models, insignia etc as well as videos and is well worth a visit. During the hour that we spent there it was almost deserted, less than a handful of visitors; shame really, it should be better advertised.

In the afternoon we went to the Blue House, a 4-storey balcony-type tenement block pained blue colour, a Grade 1 listed building from the 1920s, one of nine Chinese-style pre-war buildings in Wan Chai that was recently preserved and renovated by the government. Unfortunately, little of it was open to the public – and the little that was open was not open today!

Not to waste the opportunity we walked on 100 yards and visited the Pak Tai Temple, also Grade 1 listed, the largest temple on Hong Kong Island, just over 150 years old, and with two large and impressive ficus (Chinese banyan) trees outside.

Pak Tai or the Northern (or Dark) Emperor was supposedly a prince of the Shang Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago who successfully commanded 12 heavenly legions against the Demon King. Even though the Demon King enlisted a large tortoise and a huge snake to help him, they proved no match for Pak Tai (and images of him often show him crushing a tortoise and a snake under his feet). He is still worshipped by people for his power, courage and devotion and is believed to be able to avert disasters and fight evil.

Inside, there are three halls and two of them have large images of the main deity, Pak Tai, the main hall also has giant size effigies of four of Pak Tai's soldiers, ready to do battle.

Although Pak Tai is a Taoist deity and most of the images are Taoist, Hong Kongers are not averse to a 'pick and mix' approach to their religious observances and I was not surprised to see other images, such as Kwun Yum, Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. 

 

 

New to me where the 60 'year' gods. Apparently, there is a particular god assigned for each year so the idea is that people worship the god of the current year and also the god of the year in which they were born, in the hope of enhancing the future...

As with most temples in Hong Hong, red and gold colours predominate, incredibly intricate lanterns hang from the ceiling, coils of incense burn incessantly, dozens of small lamps flicker, bamboo jars of fortune telling sticks stand ready, bells toll, supplicants bow three times holding burning joss sticks which they place in a holder before the god, attendants replace the food offerings before the shrine...and so on.