The Countryside

Hong Kong is generally known as a highly-developed city. However, we still have our beautiful nature scene. In Sai Kung, the so called "back courtyard" of Hong Kong, cover most countryside area of Hong Kong, with mountain, sea shores, beaches, villages, small town and some outlying islands (The is known as "Country Park" in Hong Kong). Hiking trails are located almost everywhere of this area. This is a good place for Hong Kong people to enjoy for leisure during weekends and holidays. People enjoy the works of God here, breathing fresh air, talking with friends, jogging, cycling, and enjoy water sports.

Da Pai Dang (sidewalk food stall, 大排檔)

Da Pai Dang is a Cantonese word, which means the dining booth located at the street-side, outdoor and open-air. People sitting at the street side, having delicious of Chinese style food. Various types of food are provided by Da Pai Dang, say, dishes are fried by wok, a Chinese type of cooking pan, with shape of V; steaming of fresh sea-food; won-ton noodle; Chinese style congee or rice etc.

Nowadays, some of the Da Pai Dang are moving to indoor, with air-conditioning, however, the street-side eating culture can represent Hong Kong style, so Da Pai Dang are still be found in some area of the city.

These booths located in Chai Wan, an indoor wet market, without air-condition, therefore, they still keeping the traditional culture: "seems to be dirty".

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.

Fruity Yogurt Drink

People in Hong Kong like to discover new tastes. Yogurt drink is quite popular. Yakult - a famous brand name of yogurt drink. It is originally from a Japan name, however, Hong Kong people love to drink.

Some resturants are shaking Yakult with various types of fruits, to produce different kinds of fruit-yogurt drinks. This is widely accepted by the youngsters in the new generation.

A lychee flavor yakult drink ordered from a restaurant in Causeway Bay ($22).