130th Anniversary of Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC)

The HKJC was founded in 1884, it is the oldest and most prestigious membership clubs in Hong Kong. However, the club introduce modern horse racing activity to Hong Kong. There are a series of activities this year, in order to celebrate the 130th anniversary of the club.

Official Website:

http://www.130.hkjc.com/en/index.aspx

Hong Kong Flower Show 2009

The Hong Kong Flower Show 2009 is being held at the Vicrotia Park during March. It is suppose a yearly show organized by the Hong Kong Government. Several kind of beautiful flowers were displaying in the park. Peoples can enjoy a good atmosphere with plant, in the season of early spring, in the center of the city.

According to the introductory of the show website: The event will showcase exquisite flowers from worldwide and a rich profusion of exotic potted plants, beautiful floral arrangements and gorgeous landscape displays by organizations from local, the Mainland and overseas. There will also be commercial stalls selling flowers and other horticultural products." "During the show period, a rich diversity of educational and recreational fringe activities will also be organized for the enjoyment of visitors of all ages. They include student drawing competition, photo competition, exhibit competition, music and cultural performances, floral art demonstrations, plant maintenance workshops, green stalls, guided visits, recreation programmes and fun games."

In 2009, the show opens from 9am to 9pm from 13rd to 22th March, a $14 fare is require for each admission, senior citizen and child can enjoy a half price. Moreover, senior citizens who aged is 65 or above can enjoy free admission in weekdays.

Official website of Hong Kong Flower Show 2009: http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/green/hkfs/2009



Transport: Exit E, Causeway Bay MTR or Exit B, Tin Hau MTR

Shatin - The Town of Olympic

The Equesrtian Events of Beijing Olympic and Paralympic will be held in Hong Kong. The mave venue of the competition is located at Shatin, one of a town in Hong Kong. Moreover, the two major hotels in this district are act as Hong Kong Olympic Village.

The participating team members and media workers are living in these two hotels during the games. Moreover, the district is decorated with different kind of Olympic atomsphere.

New Town Plaza, one of the main shopping mall in Shatin, decorate with several Olympic exhibition and shows. Shatin Town Hall and Shatin Central Park, which is beside New Town Plaza, also converting to a Olympic Culture Area and City Art Square.

Information of Equesrtian Events of Beijing Olympic and Paralympic:
http://www.equestrian2008.org/eng/front.aspx

New Town Plaza -
URL: http://www.newtownplaza.com.hk/eng/index.html

New Town Plaza, Shatin Town Hall, Shatin Central Park -
Transport: Exit A, Shatin MTR

Torch Relay in Hong Kong

The Beijing Olympic Torch Relay will be held on 2 May 2008 (Friday). Hong Kong is the first leg of China city to relay the torch. This is the second time that Hong Kong organize such activities. The last time was in 1964 (Tokyo Olympic).

There will be 120 torchbearers taking part this event. The relay activities will start from 9am to 6pm on that day. The torch will pass through several areas in the city. Besides running, the torch will also relay via dragonboat, boat, horse and wheelchair. You can enjoy this special event if you are in Hong Kong on 2 May 2008. The Golden Bauhinia Square next to Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Photo) will be the destination of the torch in Hong Kong leg.

More information will be found at http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/TorchRelay/en/index.php

The torch will transfer to Macau (Macao) on 3 May 2008.

Lunar New Year Fair 2008

The Lunar New Year Fair starts operate on last Friday (1/2-2008). Although Hong Kong is cold recently, people still enjoy visiting the New Year Fair. Here are some photos and videos taken on 3/2-2008 (Sunday).

Transport: Causeway Bay or Tin Hau MTR

Red Pockets - Chinese New Year.

Hi,

It has been two weeks since last update. The temperature in Hong Kong has been around 11 with cloudy sky and occasional showers for a week. It is my excuse for not updating the blog because I don't want to move in cold weather.


I have to say Happy Chinese New Year to all of you!!!

The cold weather just matches the the festival atmosphere of Chinese New Year. Most Chinese people think that cold weather is more like a Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year will be on 7th Feb (Thursday). Usually, there will be 3 consecutive public holidays for the first three new year days. Traditionally, Chinese people visit their relatives and friends for celebration. Childrens and unmarried youngsters are very happy because they can receive RED POCKETS from their parents, relatives and married friends.

Giving Red Pocket( is money contained inside a red pocket) is a Chinese tradition which means fortune, prosperous future and good health to the red pocket receivers in the coming year. During the holidays, we will eat traditional Chinese foods. I will talk about the foods next time.

Have a nice day.

Ocean Park Hong Kong

I have been to Ocean Park last week. It is very crowded, just like walking in Mong Kok. Since, this is a period of special event about Christmas in Ocean Park. Besides those original events such as Jelly Fish, Shark, Ocean Theatre, Giant Panda, Cable Car, the theme park also organized some other events like ice-skating show, Christmas Tree Lighting show, swinging miracle and Santa's cattage etc. However, such special events are provided until 1st Jan. :)

By the way, the theme park is providing more and more new stuff, you can see there are constructions work besides the park, there will be new facilities and hotels coming in the future.

The theme park also cooperates with Ngong Ping 360, purchasing ticket of Ocean Park with the used ticket of Ngong Ping 360 will receive a 10% discount, and vice versa.

Transport: CityBus Route 629 from Exit B, Admiralty MTR

Information:
Ocean Park - http://www.oceanpark.com.hk/
Ngong Ping 360 - http://www.np360.com.hk/

Happy New Year~~

We all wish you have a Happy New year. Have more fun in 2008! Wish you all have good time in this year. :) Hope to see you in Hong Kong. :)

Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. :)

Here is a church band singing and playing with the public at Wan Chai. They are sharing the peaceful and glory message of Christmas to everyone there.

Santa Claus is coming to Town

It is one month before Christmas, however, the city is full of joy. The Christmas decorations are ready to show in Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway bay. More and more decorations will be ready for you to enjoy in the coming couple of weeks. Come and feel the joyful in the town. See you in Hong Kong this Christmas.

Most light decorations will be closed down after midnight, except Christmas Week and New Year Week.

Fireworks

I went to Cyberport, a small business and residential area which is aimed for IT firms to host the businesses, located at the southern district of Hong Kong Island.

A small scale of firework was shown there on Friday evening, I visited during the evening and enjoyed the event there.

This event was one of the celebrations for the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). The 1st of October will be the National Day of China, there will be another firework show along the Victoria Harbour in the evening. If you are coming to Hong Kong soon, welcome to join the firework show.

A warm dinner on Mid-Autumn festival

In Hong Kong, Chinese families will gather together for dinner during traditional Chinese festivals like the Mid-Autumn festival and Lunar Chinese New Year. Some families have their dinner in restaurants while some others will prepare dinner at home. Whatever it is, it is a good opportunity for gathering and social.

I think that eating culture can reflect the uniqueness of a country's culture. And Chinese food has a wide varieties of different foods. Even one family's dishes can be very different from another because their old families may come from different provinces of China.

Last night, my family gathered to have a wonderful dinner to celebrate mid-autumn festival. My mom be the chef of coz. We had steamed fish, chicken, steamed shrimps and soup. These are the most delicious dishes in my life. I love my family. After that, we played mahjong. Tell you, though I know how to play mahjong but I am not good at it and rarely play (once or twice a year during lunar Chinese new year). To my surprise, I winned 3 times last night. I cannnot believe it, haha.

Here are my mom's Chinese dishes. :>

Fire Dragon Dance

Tai Hang, a small district in Hong Kong Island, doing a old-fashioned Chinese dance from a nearby temple located in this area. This is called "Fire Dragon Dance". It is organized by the "kai-fong" (local neighborhood) association there, with 130 years of history. They hold up the fire dragon to run the dance for 3 evenings during Mid-Autumn Festival period. The dragon is 67 meter long, consist of 31 segments. The dragon is decorated with joss sticks. The dance is originally a religion event and now become a performance for every year. The organizer needs 200 people to hold up the dragon.

Lanterns (Mid Autumn Festival)

Mid Autumn festival is coming on 25 Sep. Families in Hong Kong will get prepared to celebrate this traditional Chinese festival. We will buy mooncakes, some seasonal fruits like apples, pears (梨), peaches (桃), grapes, pomegranates (石榴) , melons, oranges and pomelos (柚子). My mother will prepare a great dinner for the family on that day. Yummy Yummy...

I remember that in my childhood, my mom took me, my sister and brother to buy lanterns every mid-autumn festival. It is quite funny that eveytime, my sister chose rabbit lantern, I chose an aeroplane lantern and my brother chose tank lantern. haha... I really miss the lanterns I played in the past.

The craftsmanship of the traditional lanterns are much better than nowaday's plastic ones. I took some pictures yesterday at Sham Shui Po where there are around 4 or 5 stores selling lanterns. The stores hang their lanterns on front of their stores to get attention from customers. The lanterns comes from different sizes, shapes, colors. They are very beautiful indeed. I found a big white and color rabbit lanterns which are the same as I played in my old days. They each cost about HK$70. Finally, I bought 3 rabbit lanterns, 2 small ones and 1 medium one. They cost about HK$60 total.

Christmas in Hong Kong

Although this is just September, but I'd like to share what the Christmas is like in Hong Kong. Maybe you may want to come to join us this year.