Sunday, February 8, 2009

Letters From Hong Kong - Part V


Sister and Yee Gor at a family gathering at a Korean Restaurant in Mongkok.
Mongkok with Langham Hotel in the background.
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November 3, 2008

We still haven’t gotten any rain and the weather is still hanging around 85 degrees during the day. I’m ready for cooler weather. I notice that Queensbury is having some really nice comfortable weather.
We went over to Mongkok to have lunch at The Ming Court in the Langham Hotel and then to run some errands in the area. The Hotel is really nice and The Ming Court’s dim sum is excellent.

November 4th - Election Day! I know most of you will be as happy as I am that it is finally over. Now let’s see if the winner will do half of what he said he would do!

Today Jenny decided to spend the day with her sister; so that left me to my own devices. At the request of my little brother Billie and the concerns of some of you that I might be eating too much and gaining too weight, I decided to go for a little walk.

Since we have already walked to Tsuen Wan I decided to walk to Sham Tseng, little village just west of Tsuen Wan. But first I decided to explore several beaches alone the way. Well, I’m not sure I would call them beaches; the largest of the three was only about 100 hundred yards long. I would hate to see a few thousand people on one of those beaches in the summer. Now, even with the temperature around 82 degrees, there are only a few people fishing; no sunbathers! Anyway I made it to Sham Tseng in about an hour; got a snack and something to drink then came back to the hotel for a little swim.

November 5th - It looks as though our plan for a trip to the Taj Mahal is not going to happen this trip. We have been to several travel agencies and none of them have or can confirm the trip in as much as they lack the minimum number for the trip.

Big news here is the Chinese delegation visiting Taiwan for a big pow wow. This delegation is headed by the highest ranking Chinese Official ever to visit the Island. It seems the new President of Taiwan, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou, wants to improve relations with the “Motherland”. There are many on the Island who do not want this to happen and with Mr. Ma, who was born in Hong Kong, there are lots of concerns. We’ll see how this plays out over the next several days.

November 6th - Yesterday we spent the day in Tsim Sha Tsui and Jordan area; we were doing a little shopping and just a very little eating! Most of the day was just being with Sister and Yee Gor. Jenny really enjoys being with both of them and talking: they don’t stop!

I am not sure if I explained who Yee Gor is. Yee Gor means second brother, but in this case he is Jenny’s brother-in-law, husband of Jenny’s second sister who past away several years ago. Jenny is the the third sister or Sahn yee.

November 7th - After eating my way around a number of restaurants, my weight is still the same. So for you guys who are concerned about my weight (and I thank you very much), I’m still doing just fine!

Lord Patten was in town for the past few days publicizing his new book. Some of you remember Lord Patten as the last governor of the Britist Crown Colony of Hong Kong from 1992 to the turnover to China in 1997. In one of his interviews, he is chastising the local government for not allowing more free elections: this coming from a former colonial governor!

All of you know that under colonial form of government there is little or no free elections. What the governor says go! In all fairness he did try to implement some free elections, but much was too little too late and I always thought it was to P—off the Chinese Government and try to force the Chinese into faster free elections. In the end most of what was done was repealed when the Chinese took over in July 1997.

I will send more on the local form of government and when Hong Kong may be able to elect their Chief Executive and what officials are currently elected.

The high level meeting with the Chinese Official from the Mainland with the Taiwan Officials went well, if you want to see closer ties between the Island and Mainland. They agreed to have direct flights, both passenger and cargo, between the Island and the Mainland; whereas before all flights had to go thorough Hong Kong. They also agreed on postal exchange; which sounds like mail can go direct now! Most important is they are talking!

The big impact to Hong Kong will be that it will lose all of the cargo and passengers traffic that had to go thorough Hong Kong before this agreement and now will not. I’m not sure the dollar impact on Hong Kong. I think most Hong Kong people would like to see closer ties between the Mainland and Taiwan.

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