Random Hong Kong

I spent yesterday afternoon driving around Hong Kong for various meetings and errands and took random photos from the car of things that I thought were interesting.

The Beverly Hotel is a rather notorious Hong Kong 'love hotel,' in which the rooms are let by the hour. It is in Wanchai, which was once the booming red light district of Hong Kong.

I took the picture because, if you click to see it larger and look closely, there is a man working on the bamboo scaffolding just under the 比 of the hotel's Chinese name, Bi Hua Li.

This is a new building across the street. I liked the distortion of the reflection and the Beverly Hotel sign reflected there.

This is a corner in Wanchai. When we first came to Hong Kong, the boys had their hair cut in the shop on the second floor - to disastrous effect in True's case. When we questioned the barber about the style he explained, much to True's horror, that it was a 'baby cut.'

The shop on the ground floor sells all kinds of street snacks, some of which Anna and I both like.

There are curried fish balls (though I suspect they don't contain much fish) and 'cheong fen,' which means intestine noodles but are actually steamed, rolled rice flour sheets. They are called intestine noodles because the sheets are rolled into long tubes that look vaguely like pork intestines, which are also a popular snack. The vendor snips the cheong fen into bite-sized pieces and covers them with a sweet sauce. It's very good.

The boys love cheong fen when we have dim sum, where the noodles are generally filled with barbecue pork or shrimp and served with soy sauce.

Out of focus, but I like it.

I just liked the way the trees framed the scene. The black trimmed building in the center is the Immigration Tower where we go to get our I.D. cards and visas.

A dozen or so old-style girlie bars are still hanging on in Wanchai, feeding off disoriented out-of-town businessmen and the occasional port call by the U.S. Navy.

The bars had their heyday during the Vietnam War, when Hong Kong was a major R&R stop for American soldiers. They were still fairly vibrant during my early days in the territory but are mostly empty now as more mainstream nightlife has moved in around them.

I love the neon signs for the bars that remain.

Club Cavalier, as it would appear through a pair of beer goggles.

Club San Francisco, beneath the offices of a carpet and wall covering company. One of the bar girls and the mamasan are sitting out front to beckon single men. The girls are mostly from Thailand or the Philippines and come to Hong Kong on short-term visas.

Next to them is a red can in which the mamasan will burn 'Hell banknotes' in the evening to bring luck and, so I've heard, appease the gods who might otherwise look down on this line of business.

Further to the left is a street level shrine to the Earth God, Tudi Gong, who protects places and is the god of wealth.

There are joss sticks (incense) burning before the tiny altar and offerings of flowers, apples and a green pomelo (a cousin of the grapefruit).

The word joss is believed to be a corruption of 'Deus,' the Portuguese word for God. The Portuguese were the first missionaries in this part of the world and, supposedly, their admonition to the Chinese that they would go to Hell if they didn't convert to Christianity gave rise to the misunderstanding that Hell is just another word for the afterlife or heaven. Thus, joss sticks are offerings to the gods and Hell banknotes are offerings to the spirit world.

Many buildings in Hong Kong have floors cantilevered out over the sidewalk. Meanwhile, old-style florescent lighting, even in homes, is also common, like in the windows above.

The sign on the left is for the Chaozhou City Porridge and Noodle Kitchen and on the right advertises its Chaozhou City Fish Ball and Rice Noodles.

Chaozhou, sometimes spelled Chiuchow, is a city in Guangdong province, the Chinese province north of Hong Kong. Because Chaozhou is located in a mountainous, coastal area and was long separated from the rest of China, it developed a very distinct dialect, culture and cuisine. Chaozhou cuisine is famous among Chinese.

The sign over this restaurant door reads 'Authentic Chaozhou Food,' and 'Slow-Cooked Great Bone Soup Base.' Chaozhou cuisine uses pork-bone soup base for many of its stewed dishes.

I like the ad on the taxi door for Lo Wing Cho Chi Tong Medicated Oil. Lo Wing Cho is the name of the inventor and Chi Tong (zhi teng in Mandarin) means 'pain relief.'

Hong Kong pharmacies are full of such tonics and oils - some literally snake oil - part of the place's fading nineteenth century charm. It's not so charming, however, when someone rubs stuff like this onto their temples in an airplane - the smell is overpowering. Ingredients: Menthol 27%, Wintergreen 20%, Turpentine Oil 16%, Camphor 16% and Eucalyptus 8%.

A quick search shows that Mr. Lo only started selling his liniment in 1988 and has just 15 employees.

Blurry and bewildered.

The sun roof on the car was open as it was a beautiful day. I looked up and saw this bougainvillea poking out from the top of a very tall residential building.

The characters on the truck say 'Honest Country.' I assume it is the name of a company.

There are 7-Elevens all over Hong Kong - all over Asia for that matter. However, I took the picture because I liked the truck.

I've always liked these signs with an illustration of a construction worker raising his hands and bowing slightly in the Chinese posture of apology.

Many of Hong Kong's streets are lined with Alexandra Palms, which are native to Queensland, Australia. The trees were named after Princess Alexandra of Denmark, the wife of Britain's King Edward VII.

Scooters parked along Luard Road in Wanchai.

Waiting for a parking space. The restaurant on the second floor across the street, above the bus, is the Chili Club, a Thai place popular among foreigners and at which Anna and I have eaten many times.

This is a typical 'siu mei' or roast flavor restaurant, displaying sausages, a roasted chicken, a big roasted Chinese goose, a row of roasted pigeons, roasted ducks in the background and a cuttlefish. The item in the menu with the price taped over (formerly HK$360, or about $46, a bird), is for Chaolian Roast Goose - presumably the kind of goose hanging in the window. Chaolian is an island on the Xi River, or West River, which is part of the Pearl River delta and empties into the sea west of Macau.

The orange cuttlefish is braised in an herbal broth, giving it its tint. It's served sliced with a kind of soy sauce.

The road to North Point, where I used to work and where I still go for meetings at the New York Times offices there. The neighborhood was once home to a lot of newspapers, but most have been squeezed out by rising rents.

Provident Centre, partly shrouded for renovation, was built by Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing, in the 1980s. It's not much to look at, but a three-bedroom apartment, smaller than what we are living in now, costs about $2.5 million.

I liked the logo on this refrigerated truck delivering fish to the Java Street Market in North Point.

This is an intersection in North Point, near the New York Times' offices. I liked the old guy in the straw hat pushing the garbage cart and the big empty sign frame hanging over the busy street scene below.

The bluish building at the end of the street is the Ka Wah Centre, where the New York Times has offices on the 12th and 16th floors.

The Ibis hotel in North Point, where I stayed when I arrived from Paris in 2008. The room was tiny but it had a great view!

I've always liked Chinese graphics. This is the side of a truck that pulled up alongside me. The characters mean 'HK-China Rapid Transport' and 'Service Hotline.'

The Cantonese word for taxi is a meaningless transliteration that sounds sort of like 'taxi.' The characters literally mean 'of soil.'