Streets of Hong Kong Premium Private Tours--Dispatch #006: CENTRAL RECLAMATION PROJECT, HONG KONG

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Central Reclamation Project-Hong Kong, February 2008 (All Rights Reserved, William Banzai7) (Camera, Leica M8)

Few visitors realize that the iconic Central Waterfront on Hong Kong Island is in its entirety sitting on landfill. In fact, when the British first took possession of Hong Kong Island in 1841, the mountain the British called Victoria Peak and the local people called Tai Ping Shan or Mountain of Peace, was characterized as a barren rock dropping precipitously into the harbor. Lord  Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary at the time, characterized the entire island as such: "All you got us is a barren rock!".

Today when you are standing by the Star Ferry Terminal in Central, there is a huge expanse of undeveloped land. That too is all landfill. Incredibly, the public has no idea what the government is planning for this site. I suspect the real estate developers already know.

In any event, I show this picture whenever anyone asks when this latest tranche of landfill occurred. The answer is it was finished sometime after I took this photograph in 2008. I remember being stunned at the size of this construction site, having spent some time working cement and demolition on holidays during law school.

This is just the segment at Central. In fact the project runs through Admiralty and Wanchai all the way down to Causeway Bay. There was a public outcry during all of this and a law was actually passed to prevent Victoria Harbor from becoming a simple river. I remember humming the melody of the jazz standard "Cry Me a River" featuring two greats, singer Julie London and the jazz guitarist Barney Kessel (check it out!).

You can view more images of the Central waterfront on my Flickr.  And yes, there is much more to this story that I have to share on tour...

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Central District, 2015 (All Rights Reserved, WilliamBanzai7) (Camera, Fuji XT-1 into 16-55 XF)

Notice anything about this photograph? Its the middle of the day and there is only a single vessel out on the water opposite Central, the approaching Lantau Ferry. This vessel free view was simply impossible back in the shipping hey day of Victoria Harbor!

See you on the Streets of Hong Kong!

WB7

End of Dispatch

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ABOUT STREETS OF HONG KONG PREMIUM WALKING TOURS

I am an American of Asian descent from NYC who has spent many years living and working throughout Asia, most recently based from a very old Chinese neighborhood called To Kwa Wan in Old Kowloon for 15 years. I am also a retired international lawyer with strong Asian roots and I have reinvented myself as a professional artist, photographer and street savvy Hong Kong premium tour guide.

I specialize in premium private walking tours with an emphasis on street culture, local history and, for those so inclined, all levels of photography. My private tours are personalized to match your unique interests. Inasmuch as I am a professional photographer, all of the points of interest covered in my repertoire have a very strong visual appeal coupled with a well informed narrative adding dimension and context to your images.

Whether you are into simple travel snapshots, social media image sharing or serious landscape, architectural or urban street photography or just enjoying the Hong Kong experience, I am in a position to maximize your time spent in Hong Kong and its surrounding locales to the fullest.      

Hence, my mission can be encapsulated as follows: To provide all of my clients with an entertaining, deeply informative and street savvy premium travel experience ultimately leading to cherished memories, a portfolio of stunning on-tour photographs, an urge for further investigation and a strong desire to navigate your way back to this wonderfully engaging city.

My premium walking tours are ideal for acclimating and orienting first time visitors to Hong Kong as well as for returning visitors eager for a new experience.

I accept engagements up to one year in advance or, subject to my availability, last minute and/or same day. Families with children are always welcome and children 16 years and under are free of charge. Special needs clients are also welcome.

You can book a tour or send me an inquiry now by going to my Contact/Booking Page.

Streets of Hong Kong Premium Tours--Dispatch #005: CROSSING THE BAR ON THE STAR FERRY

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Star Ferry, February 2018 (All Rights Reserved, William Banzai7)

CROSSING THE BAR
BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
Sunset and evening star,
      And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
      When I put out to sea,

   But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
      Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
      Turns again home.

   Twilight and evening bell,
      And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
      When I embark;

   For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
      The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
      When I have crost the bar.

---

The Star Ferry was originally founded by Parsee (an Indian of Persian descent) merchant Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala as the "Kowloon Ferry Company" in 1888. The popularity of this means of transport enabled him to increase his fleet to four vessels within 10 years: the Morning Star, Evening Star, Rising Star and Guiding Star. Each boat had a capacity of 100 passengers, and the boats averaged 147 crossings each day. He incorporated the business into the "Star Ferry Co Ltd" in 1898, prior to his retirement to India. The company name was inspired by his love of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "Crossing the Bar". --Source: Wikipedia

I know it sounds silly, but I love to recite this poem when crossing on the Star Ferry. Call me a romantic. Don't worry, you will not have to remind me!

You can view more images of the iconic Star Ferry on my Flickr.  And yes, there is much more to this story that I have to share on tour...

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SILVER STAR, June 2015 (All Rights Reserved, WilliamBanzai7)

See you on the Streets of Hong Kong!

WB7

End of Dispatch

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ABOUT STREETS OF HONG KONG PREMIUM WALKING TOURS

I am an American of Asian descent from NYC who has spent many years living and working throughout Asia, most recently based from a very old Chinese neighborhood called To Kwa Wan in Old Kowloon for 15 years. I am also a retired international lawyer with strong Asian roots and I have reinvented myself as a professional artist, photographer and street savvy Hong Kong premium tour guide.

I specialize in premium private walking tours with an emphasis on street culture, local history and, for those so inclined, all levels of photography. My private tours are personalized to match your unique interests. Inasmuch as I am a professional photographer, all of the points of interest covered in my repertoire have a very strong visual appeal coupled with a well informed narrative adding dimension and context to your images.

Whether you are into simple travel snapshots, social media image sharing or serious landscape, architectural or urban street photography or just enjoying the Hong Kong experience, I am in a position to maximize your time spent in Hong Kong and its surrounding locales to the fullest.      

Hence, my mission can be encapsulated as follows: To provide all of my clients with an entertaining, deeply informative and street savvy premium travel experience ultimately leading to cherished memories, a portfolio of stunning on-tour photographs, an urge for further investigation and a strong desire to navigate your way back to this wonderfully engaging city.

My premium walking tours are ideal for acclimating and orienting first time visitors to Hong Kong as well as for returning visitors eager for a new experience.

I accept engagements up to one year in advance or, subject to my availability, last minute and/or same day. Families with children are always welcome and children 16 years and under are free of charge. Special needs clients are also welcome.

You can book a tour or send me an inquiry now by going to my Contact/Booking Page.

Streets of Hong Kong Premium Tours--Dispatch #004: SOCIAL SAFETY NET

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Kowloon City, February 2018 (All Rights Reserved, William Banzai7)

We were in Kowloon City over Chinese New Year to have a meal at one of our favorite authentic Thai local joints when I grabbed this image on the fly.

Anyone who has perused my Hong Kong images on Flickr will recall that I have taken many images of refuse street people. To many to even catalogue. But this image strikes an emotional chord with me.

They are ubiquitous in Hong Kong. And unfortunately, the vast majority of them are elderly. The lack of a proper social safety net to cover folks of this ilk is an involved story and not the immediate subject of this post.

However, the woman in this image most certainly is. Like so many others, she has the rough weather beaten look of a long haul street person. She was with her husband who had a similarly rough appearance. When we passed them, they were both eagerly wolfing down pineapple buns (bo lo bao) and hot milk teas (yit nai cha) from a famous old local cha chaan teng restaurant in the neighborhood. I don't know whether someone bought the snack for them or they covered it on their own. But they certainly appreciated the tasty carbs! 

As is usually the case you could see the two of them had been toiling very hard all day collecting cardboard boxes for recycling.

Anyway, this woman grabbed my attention immediately. Reviewing the image afterwards I reflected on who she might be, wondering if she has family and pondering all of the changes she and her husband have witnessed over the years.

I spend plenty of time reading, talking about all of those changes. But these two folks have something I can never replicate, their memories spanning decades most likely to the 1950s. And I am sure they have seen it all!

See you on the Streets of Hong Kong!

WB7

End of Dispatch

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ABOUT STREETS OF HONG KONG PREMIUM WALKING TOURS

I am an American of Asian descent from NYC who has spent many years living and working throughout Asia, most recently based from a very old Chinese neighborhood called To Kwa Wan in Old Kowloon for 15 years. I am also a retired international lawyer with strong Asian roots and I have reinvented myself as a professional artist, photographer and street savvy Hong Kong premium tour guide.

I specialize in premium private walking tours with an emphasis on street culture, local history and, for those so inclined, all levels of photography. My private tours are personalized to match your unique interests. Inasmuch as I am a professional photographer, all of the points of interest covered in my repertoire have a very strong visual appeal coupled with a well informed narrative adding dimension and context to your images.

Whether you are into simple travel snapshots, social media image sharing or serious landscape, architectural or urban street photography or just enjoying the Hong Kong experience, I am in a position to maximize your time spent in Hong Kong and its surrounding locales to the fullest.      

Hence, my mission can be encapsulated as follows: To provide all of my clients with an entertaining, deeply informative and street savvy premium travel experience ultimately leading to cherished memories, a portfolio of stunning on-tour photographs, an urge for further investigation and a strong desire to navigate your way back to this wonderfully engaging city.

My premium walking tours are ideal for acclimating and orienting first time visitors to Hong Kong as well as for returning visitors eager for a new experience.

I accept engagements up to one year in advance or, subject to my availability, last minute and/or same day. Families with children are always welcome and children 16 years and under are free of charge. Special needs clients are also welcome.

You can book a tour or send me an inquiry now by going to my Contact/Booking Page.

Streets of Hong Kong Premium Private Tours--Dispatch #002: Hong Kong in The 1950s as Photographed by Lord Lawrence Kadoorie

Hong Kong industrialist, hotelier and philanthropist Lord Lawrence Kadoorie is known for the prominent role he played in the development of modern Hong Kong. You can read about the Kadoorie family here. In addition to CLP (to whom I eagerly pay my electric bill every three months) and the Peak Tramway,  the Kadoorie family is locally known as the well endowed proprietors of Hong Kong's famous Peninsula Hotel. A regular stop along my Premium Walking Tour of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula, the Peninsula is what I call the final bastion of majestic old colonial Hong Kong.

I recently learned Lord Kadoorie was also an avid amateur photographer and regularly carried a small minox subminiature spy camera (James Bond style) with him as he went about his daily routine.

Lord Kadoorie's Minox

To mark its 10th anniversary, the Hong Kong Heritage Project put together a collection of previously unpublished photographs showing Hong Kong life in the 50s taken by Lord Kadoorie. The exhibition, Eye on Hong Kong a Kadoorie Perspective, is located on the second floor of City Hall in Central and unfortunately ends on October 4, 2017.

However, I am including in this Dispatch two images which I found particularly interesting. The first is a picture of one of the star ferries dry docked at the old Whampoa Dock.

The old dockyard is long gone and replaced by the Whampoa Housing Estate. I regularly walk to Whampoa to catch the new MTR extension or to have excellent Japanese sushi.  To my knowledge, all of the Star Ferry vessels currently in operation were built there in the 1950s and 1960s. When you are on the upper level of the Star Ferry, you can look for the oval shaped brass commissioning plate of your particular vessel hanging on the forward wall by the entrance/exit ramp (the forward wall is always facing the bow on the Kowloon side). There you will see the exact date that your vessel was commissioned. I have looked at many old pictures of Hong Kong, but this is the first I have seen of one of the ferries sitting in the dockyard!

The next image is of the Yau Ma Tei Ferry docked in Castle Peak Bay. This is a romantic view of what the coast of the New Territories once looked like. Although there are three junks carrying tourists in Victoria Harbour, you never see them actually under sail. Two of them, Aqua Luna I and II, are replicas built by the last surviving Hong Kong master junk builder, but they are not actually rigged to sail. Sadly, we will never see a big flotilla of junks under sail as seen in this image ever again. And no, there is no longer a Yau Ma Tei Ferry.

Afterwards, I was treated to a delectable dim sum lunch at Maxim's Palace (also located in City Hall) by my very good friend and guide colleague Amy Overy. As you can see Maxim's is a high class eating establishment serving fine dim sum old school style, on tea trolleys pushed by smiling old ladies just like they used to (and still do) serve it at Nom Wah Tea Parlor on the crooked street in New York City's China Town! Amy is treated just like a female taipan by the staff of Maxim's Palace.

Thank you Amy! 

End of Dispatch

WB7

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ABOUT STREETS OF HONG KONG PREMIUM WALKING TOURS

I am an American from NYC who has spent many years living and working throughout Asia, most recently based from a very old Chinese neighborhood called To Kwa Wan in Old Kowloon for 15 years. I am also a retired international lawyer with strong Asian roots and I have reinvented myself as a professional artist, photographer and street savvy Hong Kong premium tour guide.

I specialize in premium quality private walking tours with an emphasis on street culture, local history and, for those so inclined, all levels of photography. My private tours are personalized to match your unique interests. Inasmuch as I am a professional photographer, all of the points of interest covered in my repertoire have a very strong visual appeal coupled with a well informed narrative adding dimension and context to your images.

Whether you are into simple travel snapshots, social media image sharing or serious landscape, architectural or urban street photography or just enjoying the Hong Kong experience, I am in a position to maximize your time spent in Hong Kong and its surrounding locales to the fullest.      

Hence, my mission can be encapsulated as follows: To provide all of my clients with an entertaining, deeply informative and street savvy premium travel experience ultimately leading to cherished memories, a portfolio of stunning on-tour photographs, an urge for further investigation and a strong desire to navigate your way back to this wonderfully engaging city.

My premium walking tours are ideal for acclimating and orienting first time visitors to Hong Kong as well as for returning visitors eager for a new experience.

I accept engagements up to one year in advance or, subject to my availability, last minute and/or same day. Families with children are always welcome and children 16 years and under are free of charge. Special needs clients are also welcome.

You can book a tour or send me an inquiry now by going to my Contact/Booking Page.