Old Rocks and Young Campers

It was just after nine in the morning when we arrived at the pier, about one hundred of us, Hong Kong's finest teachers and their families (plus me and G) to spend a day looking at old rocks. Our transport for the day, a blue-hulled two-deck ferry, was waiting for us at Ma Liu Shui Ferry Pier, near the Sai Kung Country Park in Hong Kong's New Territories countryside.

It was a grey morning as we motored out; grey skies with more than a hint of rain, grey seas with barely a ripple, sky and sea merging together, a heavy mist rolling down from the hills.

The silence was broken by the engine's throb and the tour guide on the loudspeaker explaining the lifebelt drill. We passed what looked like dozens of high-rise housing blocks before the engines really opened up, the speed increased and we motored out into the Tolo Channel.

 
To left and right of us were a series of low-lying humped mountains, ridge after ridge of hills fading into the distance. By now the weather was improving and several parches of blue could be seen among the lowering clouds and it was getting gradually brighter.

Our first stop was at the UNESCO Global Geopark landing at Lai Chi Chong on the north shore of the Sai Kung Peninsula where various igneous and sedimentary rocks were formed about 140 million years ago.

Not knowing what to expect, we stepped off the ferry feeling a bit like explorers...

Our first sight was a local hunter...actually a young lad fishing off the pier who hooked another squid just as we passed. In no time he was surrounded by teachers with smartphone cameras at the ready.

and the squid...

I've caught squid myself and I was happy to see that the lures used in Hong Kong are the exact same kind that we use in Brighton Marina's annual Squid Competition Day.

Then we set off, two-by-two, walking behind the guide along a concrete pathway about five feet wide. In no time we had left the pier and were passing through a mangrove area, where small shrubs and trees grow in the mud and sand in an environment that is up to 100 times saltier than normal - and survive. Here, the mangrove was at the estuary of a fresh water creek where the tides come in twice a day. 

The plants of the mangrove have developed a mechanism to survive, including torpedo-like seed pods that can burrow into the mud flats and establish themselves before the next tide comes in.

Following the path led us through dense tropical vegetation, past streams with crystal-clear water as we continued our quest, on the lookout for old, old rocks (and maybe even dinosaurs?)

but then we passed a campsite....yes, Hong Kong can mix the sublime and the not-so-sublime like no one else...

  

And then we arrived at the village. At least it looked old (in parts)!

And it also had the smallest Ancestral Hall I've ever seen. (An ancestral hall is a temple dedicated to deified ancestors of a particular clan).

Anyway, I'm happy to report that, before boarding our ferry again we managed to see some really old rocks, about 140 million years old, from the Jurassic Period (and dinosaurs walked the earth during the Late Jurassic Period - but we never saw any during our visit.) 

Back onto the boat, heading north-east up Tolo Channel, we came across a strange scene. The channel, maybe a mile or two wide, had buoys and nets moored from shore to shore with only a small gap in the centre. This was a police trap to deter smugglers from speeding past near the coasts with goods bought in Hong Kong for sale on the mainland (or vice-versa), evading taxes. 

  

And at the mid-channel end of one of the 'arms' was a floating police station, with police boats moored alongside. Suspected smugglers passing through the narrow channel would be 'invited to help the police with their inquiries.'

Our next stop was further up Tolo Channel, where we stopped close to  the north shore of the Sai Kung Peninsula and trans-shipped into a small white-hulled glass-bottomed boat to view the coral and marine life.

By now stomachs were rumbling and, passing the curiously-but-appropriately named 'coffin' rock...

...we landed at Tap Mun (Grass Island), a picturesque island with a population of about one hundred, not a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSI) like Lai Chi Chong - but very important as the site of our scheduled Restaurant For Lunch (RFL). 

It has a wonderful basic, unpretentious, old-fashioned feel to the place, and is clearly dependent upon fishing, marinculture and tourism for its livelihood (just like my own birthplace, the Island of Skye).

After a decent lunch, eight (or so) dishes, including steamed fish and prawns, we set off to explore the island. 

First stop was the 400-year-old Tin Hau temple. There are over 100 Tin Hau temples in Hong Kong, wholly or partly dedicated to the Chinese Goddess of the Seas, but few are as old as the one on Grass Island, which is a 400-year-old Grade 1 scheduled building.

The temple interior is impressive but it was the roof and interior ceramics and carvings that really caught my attention:

 Our walk round the island continued and we passed through tropical vegetation, spotting a 'false custard apple'...

past an abandoned school, a police station, then upwards until we emerged into a green pastureland at the top of the island that explained the 'Grass Island' name. The view was spectacular and, of course, there was a campsite...

In fact, as we continued our walk around the island, the views were stunning, like something from the south of France or the Californian coast.

And because this is lovely, organised, risk-averse Hong Kong...there were perfect concrete walkways everywhere, well organised campsites, litter bins, shelters and so on.

We passed the so-called Balanced Rock, about twenty feet high, a famous view.

And then it was time for our boat trip home. What a wonderful island this was! No very old rocks or dinosaurs, just spectacular views and some feral cattle that were happy to mingle with the people.

No, the crowds of tourists and campers don't bother us in the least.

On the way back, as the mists descended, we saw in the far distance a white statue of Kuan Yin (Buddhist Goddess of Mercy) that seemed to be floating in the air, something magical to sum up the wonder of the day...

Hong Kong's Lunar New Year Fair

Hong Kong's Lunar New Year Fair is an eagerly-awaited seasonal tradition that runs for several days up to New Years Day, which is on 28th January this year. The main Fair is held in Victoria Park, an oasis of green in the midst of high rise buildings, in Causeway Bay, one of the main shopping areas on the main island. This year there were almost 500 stalls.

When I first visited Hong Kong about 30 years ago the stalls mainly sold flowers and some traditional foods and delicacies. Now, many political interest groups and charities, schools and associations all take stalls to promote their interests and there are some fast-food stalls as well.

Today, the Fair was crowded with - it seemed - most of Hong Kong's population of seven million, all desperate to get a bargain, to buy an essential prop for the New Year, or just to rubber-neck.

The politicians were there, making speeches, collecting donations, selling books, t-shirts and souvenirs or just 'pressing the flesh.'

I don't know if they are a political party as such, but there was a protest group there collecting funds for the 'June 4 Museum,' a museum to be dedicated to the suppression of democracy efforts in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, on June 4th 1989.

Inside the small cramped 'museum' tent were a few photographs (in negative form) of the ill-fated attempt to introduce democracy to modern China...alas, as they were in negative form, so you had to invert colours on smartphones to capture them in the original colours - but they still reproduce as shown below...

Apparently, the reason for this process was to make people re-create the event by re-developing the truth of the event like developing a photograph, the idea being that the mainland authorities want to maintain a distorted negative version. A little confusing? Anyway, the usual t-shirts etc were on display and sale.

Probably two thirds of the almost 500 stalls were taken up with things other than the traditional flowers, and there was plenty of shouting from eager sellers - and some general silliness with lots and lots of soft animals.

And, yes, there were flowers, lots of them. But first, remember the mandarin oranges so popular at CNY time? Well, there were hundreds of them...

Remember the odd-shaped gold coloured fruit that we saw before on CNY Countdown Number 1 of 16th January, 10 days ago.  Well, one seller that we talked to did not know the name of it -'its the New Year fruit.' The seller we talked to today was more helpful, apparently it's called the 'gold fruit.' Now we know! There were plenty of them at the Fair, check out the photos below...

 And, in a rare discovery for this mythical fruit - we even found some on the vine!

If we were worried that the regular flowers might be a disappointment after the excitement of the gold fruit, we needn't have worried, they were impressive enough in their own right.

In a corner of this vast park there is a statue of Queen Victoria, a hangover from colonial days. I wonder what the old girl thought of the Lunar New Year Fair?

We are MOST AMUSED, WELL DONE!