Hong Kong Railway Museum

A patch of irregular shaped blue sky finally appeared after having a long week of gray clouds.  Po, Yan and I first decided we would go to Shek Tong Tsui, the old district, but we ended up going to the Railway Museum.

I made a detour to Kowloon Bay as I really wanted a Holga camera.  Beautiful Holga!  Unfortunately, the shop was closed owing to the public holiday.  Geez, I will get it tomorrow!

Po, her sister, Jill, Yan and I met in Kowloon Tong railway station and headed to Tai Po Market, where was… damn, cloudy.

 

The museum was farther than we thought it was, thanks to the road signs we found our way easily.  There were already many people when we arrived, families with kids, professional photographers with their models (and of course with super pro cameras too), students and idlers like us :)

Those were controls for the trains.  The museum was located right next to the railway, it was cool to see the new trains passing by every once in a while.

 

The “old” tickets (they are older than I am, haha) were interesting to look at because, first, they are so small (I think I’ve even used those when I was younger… but where?) and second, there were only 4 main train stations, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon Tong, Tai Po (served as a temporary train station) and Luo Wu (near Shen Zhen).  Sometimes I wish I had collected those funny little things.  Well, I’ve been collecting postcards :)  You’re welcome to write me postcards, just ask for my address!

A bit of the used Railway.  When I was very young, in China, I lived near a train station, from time to time, my friends and I wandered there and we walked on the tracks, aimlessly.  Now the train station is closed but I don’t think it’s allowed to walk on the railway anymore.

It was a trolley for the workers to check on the trains.  I love tracks, they are not rusty though, surprisingly!  Do you love walking on the tracks too?

 

The very beautiful training “Sir Alexander” (it was the first train named after a person - Sir Alexander Grantham, one of the Governors in Hong Kong) and it’s heart.

Look at the parts of the train, I was totally captivated!  The trip to the museum was definitely worth it.  I thought it was small and plain, you know, nothing much to see, but hell no, it was so interesting and the trains were incredible!

Here comes the full picture of the “Sir Alexander”!  It looks like a toy train in my opinion :p

Here is another train… haha I think you know why i took this picture.  It looked just like the cartoon train :p  HAHA so cute!!!!

Er, no need to explain what those are, yeah?

  

Another train which was not as lucky as “Sir Alexander”, this one didn’t have a name.  The logo for KCR Railway was worth noting.  The logo consist of 2 Chinese number “9” (九).  It was very traditional.  Now it’s just KCR, very boring and predictable (if you google KCRC you’ll see).

Checking out the old trains was another nice experience.

These were the first class seats.  The seats were really comfortable :p  The use of blue and orange colours were really smart.  There was an ad stuck on the wall too, damn capitalism!

Let’s take a look at those beautifully coloured signs… the left one was written from right to left - very traditional; the right one… haha was so wrong!  Not only the Chinese writing was wrong!!!!!

 

An aisle and the luggage compartment separated the first class from the second.  Again, it was orange and blue (alluring and neat)!

Hah! Blue (jeans) and orange (seats)!  The fans on the ceiling were so “elegant” - I am not so sure if it’s the right word to describe them.  I pulled down a glass window, it really was heavy - I couldn’t pull it up, sorry!

The stain was old!

This museum really was lovely despite its size!

Saw this salon on our way to the train station, aw, it was so classic! You don’t see such a thing exist in the city anymore!

del.icio.us Tags: Hong Kong Railway Museum,cloudy,engines,trains,salon,seats,fans,blue,orange,luggage,compartment,tracks,trolley,train tickets,sign,signpost

Wanchai Livelihood Place

Po, Yan and I spent a day strolling around Wanchai and Admiralty.   Our government is actually demolishing to the older part of Wanchai in order to build some “modern” buildings… this Wanchai Livelihood Place is where we can get a bit of old Wanchai, and to reminisce the “good old days”.  it’s sad to see how our government not doing anything to protect our cultural heritage, but to destroy it.

 

The place is actually very small, not many people were there when we arrived.  Funny thing was, we bumped into a group of students, they were LSS students!  Mrs Chan was there and we talked to her.  She was my Maths teacher while I was in school, funny how she is not as tall as I remembered her, I’m all grown-up now you know!

 

The ceiling is what the government ordered to keep.

 

Some relatively “old” things, but looking cute and nice.

 

Different cabinets.  There were some leaflets in the left cabinet and some souvenirs in the right cabinets.  All those things seemed to be really “old” to me, we don’t use those anymore.

 

 

Chinese typewriter and English typewriter.  I’ve never seen a REAL Chinese typewriter before. 

 

Real “Blue House” vs the 3D picture :)

 

New vs Old.

 

Blue, Yellow and Pink houses. HAHAHA!

 

Also went to 北帝廟, an old temple….

 

Plus the old old old Post Office.

 

Saw something interesting along the way and later on…

 

Went shopping in Pacific Place!  HAHAHAHAH!

 

 

del.icio.us Tags: Wanchai Livelihood Place,cabinet,typewriter,ceiling,souvenir,Blue House,Post Office,temple,shopping,bag,wedding

Kitty :)

My mum always complains why didn’t we take pictures of our cat.  Ay, it’s just not so easy!

Anyway, here is one picture that I really like…

 

My current MSN display picture :)

Zhengzhou - Day 6 (25 Dec 08)

On Christmas day, Cindy’s boyfriend took me to another bus station to go to Dengfeng.  HOLY CRAP!  The bus driver spent more than half an hour driving round and round to get more customers.  It was really irritating.  Later on I learned that they were bending the rules, if they get caught, they will be fined.

 

It was freezing cold, with constant wind blowing my head off.  The sun brought no warmth, but still, the weather was really nice.  I arrived Dengfeng, asked around and took a bus to the study 嵩陽書院.  As you can see from the picture, there was hardly anyone around….

 

These beautiful flowers are called 臘梅.  They only blossom in Winter.  They smell really nicely.  I could almost smell the sweet, pure smell by looking at this picture….

 

 

So this was the right place.  How come they charge everything?  Crazy.

 

Confucius was once teaching here… so that’s what this study is famous for… well, may be plus 2 really old cypress trees - believe it or not - more than 4,000 years old.

There were 3 originally, but one of them died…. how sad. 

 

This monument is so old… it’s from Tang Dynasty, my favourite dynasty of all time.  I felt young standing right in front of it :p  There were Chinese carved all over, though it wasn’t all readable anymore.  China is so historical, I wish Chinese government had done a better job at protecting the monuments.  They are part of our culture and history.

 

In the middle of the picture.. well, a bit to the left, did you see a temple?  That was where I wanted to go… seriously :)  I asked a kid who was walking towards me, how long would it take to get there, he gave me a painful and surprised expression and said it was impossible, haha, well, he was the local but I decided to walk and see what I could get.

 

THAT COW, please pay close attention to that cow!

After talking to several people on the streets, I learned Fa Wang Temple (法王寺) was not too far away (actually it was quite far!), so I took my time and strolled there.  On my way, clearly, I saw that farmer and the beautiful cow.  I’ve never seen this type of cow before, with horns.   The farmer saw me taking pictures of the cow, he yelled at me “come down and get the pictures done”.  Alright, I had time, therefore I went.

 

It gave me that look.  After I crawled all my way down to get the pictures.  Those plants got thorns, damn it!  I got scared when it got closer and closer…. OK, I admit I ran a bit… In my mind I pictured myself chased by this cow, just like in a corrida….  After I crawled back to the road, I realised I lost my lens cap.  :((((((  It was Christmas and I had lost the lens cap.  I crawled back down again to search it among those really tall thorned grasses…. of course it was nowhere to be seen.

 

 

It really did upset me, plus all those negative feelings I had the day before, I had to call my family.  I talked to my family, my mum told me my dad had asked me to go home if I found this trip too unbearable, I didn’t dare tell her I lost my lens cap but to lie I had a great time.  Then I called Yan, my best friend, and I almost cried.  Aw, it felt so good to hear her voice!  She told me she was going to a party.  I missed Hongkong terribly much, oh, I was such a baby!

 

I walked and walked but still couldn’t see the temple…. the sun was hiding behind the mist.

 

There I was!

 

The left picture I asked the only one I saw in the temple… who was a rather old lady (you could see her in the right picture climbing the stairs), haha, she told me she didn’t know how to take a picture, so I asked her to just press the botton… and that’s what I got on the left.  It made me laugh!  A minute later, I saw this young monk, so he helped me take another picture, look, he did a really good job, thus the picture on the right!  (Hehehe.. I was super bulky!)

 

This temple was even better than Shaolin.  Well, I didn’t really see so much in Shaolin Temple, did I?  On the contrary, this Fa Wang temple was really huge, quiet and in there I was so calm.  I forgot all about my sorrows and worries.  And I had to think about Kyle and Shane… how they missed such a great place!

 

The picture on the left is the Sharmon tree, legend goes like this… in the middle of the night (there isn’t any ghost, OK?), the tree will produce the “monk chanting” sound… I think that’s pretty scary :p

 

I particularly liked the picture on the left :)  It’s just so beautiful!  And the paintings on the wall on the right…

 

An overview of the temple :)  I will go back one day!

 

Those 2 pagodas are really old.  The right one is also from Tang Dynasty, the left one is the “Fa Wang Si Pagoda”.  Extraordinary!

 

That was my Christmas day… Nothing special… I went back to Zhengzhou quite late that night, feeling sad and lonely (again), thinking about my lens cap and all.  Cindy and her boyfriend really worried so much about me … I’m sorry.  Sometimes I just couldn’t control my hot temper, sometimes I thought they were annoying because they called every 10 mins to check where I was…. I know, I know.  I will be patient the next time!  Though, please, do have faith in me, I’m not so young and innocent as I look, I can take care of myself.

 

del.icio.us Tags: misty,quiet,padogas,monuments,stone,Fa Wang Temple,Sharmon tree,cow

Zhengzhou - Day 5 (24 Dec 08)

It was very silly of me to call the hostel and told the receptionist that I’d like to talk to those 2 laowai right after 11pm.  The receptionist wouldn’t let me though, haha, she insist they were sleeping already.  So in the end I left a message with my Chinese mobile number to Kyle and Shane.  Did they ever get it I never asked.  May be they did, may be they didn’t, but it isn’t something I care anymore.

 

Anyway, Shaolin here I come!

 

It wasn’t all that difficult to get to Shaolin Temple.  I went to the main bus station at around 9 and bought a ticket to Dengfeng (I didn’t know Shaolin was in Dengfeng then :p  had to ask around a bit!) I almost missed my bus because I was waiting in the Waiting Area rather then going out to look for my bus (I was too naive and too innocent of course); funny thing was, I was the first one to get on the bus, no one else was there, so suddenly I wasn’t sure if I got on the right bus.  There, back then, was a young guy on the bus and crazily I asked him if I was on the bus to Dengfeng, he was dumbstruck by my question.  HAHAHAHA!

 

It was such a harmonious place, this Shaolin Temple, though I still can’t believe I had to pay 100 kuai to get inside.  Student card is of no use!  The landscape was breathtaking.  I felt like I was in the Utopia…

Wait, wait, wait, stop right there, I lied.

 

This is not something you would see in Utopia, or…?  Did you even see those clothes?!  How could those monks use the Martial School as clothing lines to dry their clothes?!  No matter how sunny it was, that was crazy!

 

Seriously I really liked this place, but…. what is that?  I even went uphill to check this place out, as RED was my colour last year (it also is my colour this year :p).  Nothing was inside….. Hm.

 

I started to really miss Kyle and Shane.  I missed having companions to travel with; I missed my family; I missed my cousin; I missed my best friends; it was Christmas Eve but I was all alone, in a beautiful place without knowing anyone; and I was missing… someone.  I felt like shit.  And there weren’t many monks to be seen!  THIS WAS SHAOLIN, DAMN IT!

 

Excuse me but I’ll skip the part when I felt like shit and jump to the part when I felt alright again.  I sought solace in the Talin (塔林), wah, that was how sad I was. 

I saw there were 2 monks playing Chinese chess in Talin, hahaha!  Monks just don’t care about the rules of this earthly world anymore, do they?  I didn’t play, I didn’t even say anything, I just watched and shot.

 

Ay.  I can’t remember how upset and lonely I felt back then, but I paid the car driver, he took me to see this small waterfall.  It was really funny because you could hear the sound of the waterfall though the surface of the stream was frozen.  There was no one, absolutely no one around.  Could you even imagine how I have felt?  Then I called my friend.  He was sick but even so he asked me to enjoy everything.  ENJOY EVERYTHING!

 

So in the end I didn’t see Kyle and Shane again.

 

I liked this place, it was so undisturbed (weren’t many tourists) and quiet, my mind was rather peaceful in the end, but my limps numbed.  I think I will come back one day, only the next time I won’t be there alone.

 

This was not a really good shot but that was how I remembered Dengfeng.  Very beautiful.  I left at around 5pm and got on the last bus back to Zhengzhou, and guess what, I bumped into this young guy who I met this morning.  Haha, he told me he was totally shocked to hear me asked him THE question :p  We talked and talked (he had to type all he wanted to say on his mobile because he has super strong Zhengzhou accent and I totally couldn’t understand him!!!) till we got off.  I lied about where I was from though… let’s just say I don’t really trust people in China.  He told me where to go in Dengfeng, and with the desire to meet Kyle and Shane again, I decided to come back tomorrow.

 

del.icio.us Tags: Shaolin Temple,evening,monks,peaceful,martial arts,waterfall,Chinese chess,hostel,Dengfeng