The Nan Lian Buddhist Gardens; Diamond Hill, Kowloon.
______________________________________________
December 15, 2008
Auto sales in China have slipped recently to just over 520,000 units a month from a high of about 700,000 units earlier this year. Yeah, I know this is small compared to US auto sales which have dropped precipitously this year to about 700,000 units; however, if you had visited China in the early ‘80’s you would be amazed. The only cars on the road then were those driven by government officers.
Bird flu has raised its ugly head again! The other day the local government detected three chickens with bird flu so there is a ban on live chickens imported into Hong Kong for three weeks. The officers claim no contaminated chickens have been sold; they also killed over 90,000 chickens located on a farm in Yuen Long in the New Territories. Let hope they are correct!
The countdown continues! We are trying to get all of the last minutes things we want to accomplish before leaving Hong Kong for LA. Today Jenny wants to go over to Walt Disney Theme Park to check it out and also go to Discovery Bay: both are on Lantau Island.
December 16th - The quest continues: yesterday we went to Discovery Bay on Lantau Island for lunch outside on the patio of one of the restaurants to enjoy the scenery of the Bay and mountains in the background. Jenny loves mussels, so she really put down a few. I’m not going to tell you how many!
Discovery Bay is the residential community that I told you about earlier; it was the first community developed in the mid ‘70’s on Lantau Island and for a long time few people moved there because Lantau was basically a farming and fishing community with few people living there.
Today with the airport completed and with the entire infrastructure I told you about earlier, many people are moving there; in fact today there are close 20,000 people living in Discovery Bay. As I told you it is a self-contained community with schools, shops and about anything you want. Also, for some reason there is a large contingency of expatriates living there. Maybe it is because of the high cost to rent or buy a place there. Example: a 2300 sq. ft place with beautiful views would rent for about HK$62,000/month. Yes, I said per month!
We went to Discovery Bay via Tong Chung on the sub-way/train and return to Central on the Ferry; the ferry trip takes only thirty minutes to Central.
December 18th - Yesterday, I took a little walk down memory lane after visiting the Nan Lian Buddhist Garden in Diamond Hill, which is close to the location of the old Kai Tak Airport, and incidentally where the GE factory was located when I worked here; more about this later, but first the Garden.
The Nan Lian Buddhist Garden is just a beautiful place in the heart of a very busy residential and manufacturing area. The gardens are in immaculate conditions; the gardens are maintained mostly by volunteers who are constantly trimming and cleaning the garden. Just beautiful!
After visiting the garden, I took a quick trip over to 23 Luk Hop Street, the address of the factory where GE built small electronic products for re-sale in the States. Of course the building has long since been replaced by a huge manufacturing trading company, which probably sources all of its products from China, Indonesia, Viet Nam and Cambodia; then re-exports to Europe and the States.
The Christmas lights in Hong Kong are unbelievable. I hope I will get the chance to walk around and take some night shots before we leave. I had hoped to get back to the harbor and take some more night pictures there, but the weather has just not been cooperating: too foggy, misty or maybe I should say too much pollution but Jenny might get upset with me!
Auto sales in China have slipped recently to just over 520,000 units a month from a high of about 700,000 units earlier this year. Yeah, I know this is small compared to US auto sales which have dropped precipitously this year to about 700,000 units; however, if you had visited China in the early ‘80’s you would be amazed. The only cars on the road then were those driven by government officers.
Bird flu has raised its ugly head again! The other day the local government detected three chickens with bird flu so there is a ban on live chickens imported into Hong Kong for three weeks. The officers claim no contaminated chickens have been sold; they also killed over 90,000 chickens located on a farm in Yuen Long in the New Territories. Let hope they are correct!
The countdown continues! We are trying to get all of the last minutes things we want to accomplish before leaving Hong Kong for LA. Today Jenny wants to go over to Walt Disney Theme Park to check it out and also go to Discovery Bay: both are on Lantau Island.
December 16th - The quest continues: yesterday we went to Discovery Bay on Lantau Island for lunch outside on the patio of one of the restaurants to enjoy the scenery of the Bay and mountains in the background. Jenny loves mussels, so she really put down a few. I’m not going to tell you how many!
Discovery Bay is the residential community that I told you about earlier; it was the first community developed in the mid ‘70’s on Lantau Island and for a long time few people moved there because Lantau was basically a farming and fishing community with few people living there.
Today with the airport completed and with the entire infrastructure I told you about earlier, many people are moving there; in fact today there are close 20,000 people living in Discovery Bay. As I told you it is a self-contained community with schools, shops and about anything you want. Also, for some reason there is a large contingency of expatriates living there. Maybe it is because of the high cost to rent or buy a place there. Example: a 2300 sq. ft place with beautiful views would rent for about HK$62,000/month. Yes, I said per month!
We went to Discovery Bay via Tong Chung on the sub-way/train and return to Central on the Ferry; the ferry trip takes only thirty minutes to Central.
December 18th - Yesterday, I took a little walk down memory lane after visiting the Nan Lian Buddhist Garden in Diamond Hill, which is close to the location of the old Kai Tak Airport, and incidentally where the GE factory was located when I worked here; more about this later, but first the Garden.
The Nan Lian Buddhist Garden is just a beautiful place in the heart of a very busy residential and manufacturing area. The gardens are in immaculate conditions; the gardens are maintained mostly by volunteers who are constantly trimming and cleaning the garden. Just beautiful!
After visiting the garden, I took a quick trip over to 23 Luk Hop Street, the address of the factory where GE built small electronic products for re-sale in the States. Of course the building has long since been replaced by a huge manufacturing trading company, which probably sources all of its products from China, Indonesia, Viet Nam and Cambodia; then re-exports to Europe and the States.
The Christmas lights in Hong Kong are unbelievable. I hope I will get the chance to walk around and take some night shots before we leave. I had hoped to get back to the harbor and take some more night pictures there, but the weather has just not been cooperating: too foggy, misty or maybe I should say too much pollution but Jenny might get upset with me!
No comments:
Post a Comment