Hong Kong: Top to Bottom

Having done a lot of hiking in the hills around Hong Kong, we decided that a great hike would be to simply start at one end of the Hong Kong island and walk as far as we could to the other end, on streets. It would give us a good chance to talk to a few people and get a flavor of various neighborhoods. So we spent one P-day doing this:

Fresh off the subway at Chai Wan (far eastern town on Hong Kong Island), getting ready to start walking. 

A lot of construction projects to maneuver around. Hong Kong is always being built, re-built, re-claimed, or re-modeled. 

Our paths led through Shau Kei Wan and this little market. 

Somewhere closing in on North Point

Met this sweet woman who said she was 71 years old. The Filipina next to her said, "no, she's actually 91." She has 8 children, and many are in the U.S., but she doesn't get to see them very often, as she has a heart problem and can't travel. It was fun, and so great to be able to speak to people in their own language. It is also this kind of experience that helps us know just how important our P-days are, and time away from the office. As much as we are doing the Lord's work in public affairs, we have opportunities to do missionary work but usually only during our times away from the office.

Saw this building. Typical of Hong Kong--various businesses and organizations share the same building. I must confess, I'm not sure if the "we serve" refers to McDonald's or to the church. 

Private school boys playing basketball. It's amazing what they do in their white shirts and ties. 

Time to go back to class and to our writing assignment? Nah . . . I like playing basketball better. 

Queen Victoria statue at Victoria Park

Victoria Park. We actually walked a bit further than this. We walked a good 3.5 - 4 hours, stopping occasionally. It was a great January day.

Nan Lian Gardens and Chi Lin Nunnery

The Nan Lian Garden (南蓮園池) is a classical Chinese garden in Diamond Hill, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The garden has an area of 3.5 hectares. It is designed in the Tang Dynasty style with hills, water features, trees, rocks and wooden structures.

The garden was a joint project of the Chi Lin Nunnery and the Hong Kong Government. It opened to the public on November 14, 2006. Elder Kim and Sister Linda Orton (Asia Area medical missionaries), joined us and it was absolutely gorgeous. This garden is not very far from where we live. We enjoyed great January weather. 

A Rare Tuesday

On December 29th, a Tuesday, we realized we had not taken a P-day (normally on Saturdays) in about 6 weeks. To maintain our sanity, we planned a day off. What do you do to maintain balance when you're mentally and emotionally exhausted? We thought a day of physical exercise would do nicely. As you'll see later, that decision might have come from some pretty frazzled brain cells.

Via MTR (subway), we spent an hour getting to Lantau Island. We then used our passes to take a 20 minute gondola ride up and over some gorgeous scenery to the "Big Buddha." From there, we hiked the "Lantau Peak Trail." Strangely enough, even with a name like that we didn't realize that it was actually a hike to the "peak." With our depleted brain cells, we looked at a map and because it was flat on the map, we decided it would be a good walk.

What we discovered, however, was a steep climb to a 3,064 ft. peak. The "Trail" was actually a long staircase made of stones arranged on top of each other. But these stones were not placed like a normal staircase--the step up from one stone to the next was almost knee-high for Laraine. It turned out to be a grueling, yet exhilarating climb up and a brutal descent down. For days afterward, we have been unable to walk like normal human beings, especially up/down stairs.

Here are pictures of our day:

Scene from part-way up

"Big Buddha" seated in the distance. He looks so small . . 

Taking a breather

An 80-year-old man coming down the path behind us as we went up. He does the hike once each week. Our HERO!

More scenery on the way up.

A view of the peak as we got to the top ridge line.

At top of the ridge, discovered some tiny men had climbed on top of my head to hitch a ride. 

Sister Chamberlain on top of the ridge

 . . . and we thought we were done.  Not quite . . . 

The ridge line was longer than we thought . . . more climbing

Sister Chamberlain coming up the final few minutes to the peak.

Guess what? This STILL isn't the top!  There's another rise. 

Still more climbing . . . 

A view of the Big Buddha from higher up (towards the left)

The peak is in sight.

Made it!!

Made it too!

View of Tung Chung city from the peak

Looking back the way we came

More views from the top. This is a reservoir next to the ocean. There is a prison at the base of the dam, on the beach.

Are we having fun yet? 

Congratulations are in order . . .

What?? We have to go DOWN? But we're going to go down the other side, which is actually an UP/DOWN---UP/DOWN affair. 

That's the peak and trail down from it on the other side.

Sitting on a rock, waiting for motivation

4 hours later, we met this cow at the bottom of the trail. Lantau has many wild cattle.