Hong Kong Night Market
It’s difficult to describe Hong Kong, solely because Hong Kong is no one thing. It’s so many things. It’s a bustling metropolis, crashed side by side with traditional culture. The result of this is that there are huge signs hung on scaffolding in the middle of the street (not always in proportion to the size of the stores they represent), butting up against Chinese lions flanking store entrances. Truly, it’s a bit surreal, in the best possible sense.
They call New York the “city that never sleeps” and perhaps the big apple has earned that name, having never been there I can’t stand for the authenticity of the label – but Hong Kong, takes the concept of a city that comes to life when the sun goes down to a whole other level. In fact, before 10am, the streets are as close to empty as you’re ever likely to find them. None of the stores, no matter the size or the brand name, open before ten in the morning, and none of them close before 11pm at night.
At 8 o’clock each evening, the beautiful Hong Kong skyline lights up with the Symphony of Lights festival – not the typical loud and thunderous display that many of us have come to expect from a laser light show, from the upper deck of the ship you can’t hear any music they play on shore, so there’s only the stirring warmth of the evening air and the flashing twinkling lights reflecting in the harbor. For a few moments, it seems like the city has stepped out of time, and become somewhere else.
Hong Kong Light Show
By night, the city comes alive. The famous ‘night market’, sprawls over several blocks, with everything you could imagine for sale, from rings to dresses to wallets and leather-bound journal and hardwood portable mahjongg sets. Marketeers’s voices fill the air like so many squawking birds, and you’re a very hard sell if you don’t walk away with something (for myself, I finally located the long sought after blue oriental dress that I’ve been wanting) The prices are insane, in the best possible way, a silk dress will cost you $10US, jewelry costs you $5US, you can pick out an entire outfit plus accessories for probably less than $50
On the fringes of the market, we even stumbled across a street that was lined solely with tarot readers and palmists, an odd and surreal experience as in the nice safe boundaries of my little home town, you only see such things at so-called “physic fairs” in the comfortable cleanliness of the local mall. Here, in the dim light of flickering street lamps, with the faint haze of rain pattering down on broken paving stones, the whole thing takes on another aura. One that even I, who has seen a great many things in her short life, was slightly surprised by.
But to really appreciate Hong Kong, you have to leave the hustle and bustle of the city far behind you.
For myself, I chose to do that with a visit to the monastary at Lantau Island, and the famous Tian Tan Buddha. If there is only one thing in Hong Kong that you have the chance to do, this is my number one recommendation. It’s a long way out of the city, and at first I was slightly worried about taking public transportation, but as it turned out, my time in London served me well, and I slipped into navigating the local metro system as easily as I once navigated the Piccadilly line. On the way there I even had time to snap a quick picture of the Disneyland Resort’s private train, with its Mickey mouse shaped windows.
But I digress
The actual site is reached via a stunning cable car ride that runs 25 minutes up a mountain side. $169HK gets you round trip in one of the glass bottomed “Crystal Cabins”, which means that as you soar miles above the treetops you can see everything below you, including the footpath that also leads to the temple site. This would be the path you take if you wish to make the actual pilgrimage, it apparently takes at least two days to walk, and even from the air, it doesn’t look like easy going:
At first you see nothing, and then suddenly, rising out of the mist and greenery, you see this:
First view of Tian Tan Buddha
Pardon the blur, the cable car was swinging around a corner at the time.
When you arrive at the village, you can see the Buddha from everywhere you stand. He dominates the skyline, but he does so peacefully, in fact, save when I’m up to my knees in seawater, I’ve seldom felt so serene as I did when bathed in the gaze of that enormous bronze deity. It’s very odd, to feel safe and overwhelmed at the same time, but such a thing is indeed possible….
The statue itself takes 260 or so steps to reach, and they’re quite steep, so if you decide to go, be warned that the full experience does require some climbing. The view when you reach the top however, is well worth the strain on your muscles. It is said that the word “awful” was once two seperate words…and had quite a different meaning. If anything can be said to be Awe Full…this most definitely qualifies..
Namaste,
Shaughnessy