Sunrise in Sai Kung

This picture deserved its own post, I thought. Anyways, if you have a free day on your Hong Kong trip and would like to get away from the city...I'm not sure if there's a better place to go than Sai Kung.

Sai Kung

Camping here was amazing. I didn't take a whole lot of photos but some of my friends did. So check them out on my profile...they were posted around mid-November. We were camping on the long beach with our own little tent city just off of the sand.

Gambling Addiction

I've not learned a lot about Chinese culture, but there are a few things that I am certain that the Chinese love. They are: the color red, fireworks, and betting on card games.

The photo to the right was taken at the German-Swiss International School winter bazaar...an annual fundraiser that brought out hundreds of people. Even at this function, the affinity for gambling is expressed in a fundraiser casino. I pulled up to the table with 20 HKD and had to fold pre-flop on the first hand. Next hand, I went all in and the 10 year old with glasses beat my two pair on the kicker. As my friend Lyon said, "it's amazing how sophisticated kids are these days." He bought in for 70 HKD.

East Asian Games Ceremony

Earlier tonight I joined some friends on the terrace at Sevva, a restaurant in Prince's Building. Sevva is on the 25th floor and affords one of the best views of Victoria Harbor from Central.

The fireworks were excellent. My favorite part of a good show is the sound. Prince's Building is right in front of the broad and tall HSBC building which acts as a giant wall for an echo.

The shots of the fireworks didn't come out that well so I decided to post the picture Tsim Tsa Tsui lit up and with a row of Chinese Junk Boats illuminated and in line after cruising out for the show.

Lamma Island

It seems like most websites and guidebooks about Hong Kong will not let you pass through the city on a weeklong tour without hitting up Lamma Island for a day. I don't know if it's a must-see destination, but it's definitely a cheap and easy getaway from the city that will provide some quality fresh air and more relaxed pace.

The photo on the right is the herbal tea menu at the organic herb garden. That was my favorite part of the trip...a hot cup of catnip tea and some shade in a super-relaxed garden with butterflies, rabbits, and every kind of herb under the sun. I know this all sounds a bit crunchy, but one week of Hong Kong hustle will make anyone appreciate this setting.

I took a walk on Lamma's 'Family Trail,' a through the woods, up and down rollercoaster of a walking path that takes 1.5 hours at a shirt-drenching clip to complete. The trail connects the two port villages of Lamma and there are definitely some scenic rest stops between the two. Note: the 1.5 hours was, I think, the time posted as an estimate. I appreciate that 1.5 hours is actually a difficult target to make in contrast to my experience in the US and Europe where estimated walking times are usually designed for the slovenliest to stop to pant at the middle and top of every hill and pick up a McFlurry on the way.

I have been thinking about going back and I would do a few things differently if I do. First, I would check the ferry schedules and time it so as to wait as little as possible. It's not a long ride, but it's a long wait, especially if you roll into town only to hear the horn sound when you're a few steps too far from the boat to sprint your way on deck. Second, I'd dress in clothes that would let me jog then swim. The trail would be a great run, the air quality is great, and a very clean beach make for ideal conditions to combine activities.

Sok Kwu Wan from the family trail

From the above photo, you can probably guess that the trail takes you around the edge of the water and then cuts back to the village pictured. As you continue down the hill from the vantage point of this photo but before you cut back towards the village, there are several caves with one very interesting sign about World War II history. The sign said that those caves were used by the Japanese to store boats packed with explosives that were destined to perform the same mission as a Kamikaze plane but towards Allied ships. Although I'm not sure about the strategic position of Hong Kong during the war, this was an interesting historical fact to learn, which thankfully did not come to fruition.

Gwalo Law Student Boat Trip

Junk boat trips are always a fun way to spend half of one's weekend in Hong Kong. Although they're really only about 8-10 hour adventures, they have on both occasions exhausted me well into the afternoon of the following day.

This Saturday was the birthday of two American U. law students, so all of the US law students except for the Rogue took to the water on a 50' Chinese pleasure junk. (Not sure if I explained this here before but junk is the name of a traditional type of boat here.)

Despite several setbacks, everyone had fun and we even snuck in a cake and happy birthday song ceremony on the ride back - an overwhelming success. Joe and Alison were thrilled. In case you're curious, the setbacks were (1) the coldest, grayest weather in Hong Kong since I've arrived and (2) a red tide that prevented those hearty few who were on the verge of jumping in despite the air temperature from swimming.

About 2.5 hours in, we improvised and persuaded our captain to take us to Cheung Chau, a small island that houses a fishing village and some beaches. This worked out well. We'd gotten a bit bored with our first destination and the conversation had turned to Joe explaining the Minnesota traditions of ice fishing and ice spearing. In turn, most of the passengers were consuming alcohol almost as fast as ice fisherman.

When we got to Cheung Chau, we dawdled getting off the boat at the public pier for about 10 minutes, causing a passenger ferry captain waiting behind us to get pissed off enough to open up his loudest horn on us. We took a look at a map and decided to head to the North Point Lookout. With only 1.5 hours on the island, we had to move quick so we rented bikes at the low rate of 10 hkd per hour!! A few of us even made up to the top...where the view of town was not only phenomenal, but also afforded me a glimpse of one of the best beaches that I've seen here in HK. At the bottom of the hill, the group linked up again and we went back to town, got on the boat, and headed to port. The cake ceremony was on this leg of the journey.

PS: sorry for the gray in the first photo but the weather was terrible.

New Apartment

I've been in a new apartment for about two weeks now. Same neighborhood, same street, a few blocks down, but a huge improvement. It looks pretty small in this photo, which it is, but there is a lot more space where it counts. The kitchen and the bathroom are much larger and much more welcoming. Plus, no dust-> no asthma.

Shenzhen

Shenzhen, one of China's largest cities, sits right across the border from Hong Kong. It takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to get there by train from my apartment.

It's an interesting place and there's a lot to tell, even after a short day-trip like I took. I'm just posting this photo for now because it was the first time that I'd seen live poultry and game in the same cage waiting for their respective destinies inside the restaurant. It's normal in Hong Kong for restaurants to keep boxes and aquariums outside full of all sorts of sea life, but chicken and rabbits? No.

Thai Boxing

I went to a Thai boxing event a couple of weeks ago. This shot is the opening ceremony where the fighters lined up behind their respective flags. The fighters were mostly Hong Kongers, mainland Chinese, Thai, and Australians. I think there was also one or two Japanese and a British guy thrown in the mix, but I don't even think the British guy got to participate in the opening lineup.

Some of the fights were pretty good, but I left after I had seen eight. There were still three left and I heard from a friend that I missed two knockouts in the last two fights, but I am a little bit skeptical since there were only a couple of knockdowns in the first eight and not one single fight-ending knockout.

Smallest weight class was 54 kg and the largest was 78 kg...so no heavyweights were in the ring, although the guys in the 78 kg class were kind of monstrous. During that fight, the British guy caught an Australian so cleanly with an uppercut to the mouth that the Aussie walked around punch-drunk for about 10 seconds at the end of round two trying to find his corner. Surprisingly the Aussie came back and wailed on the Brit all throughout the last three rounds and won the decision. Never give up.

NEW APARTMENT!!!!!!

Finally....I moved. Sad to say goodbye to my old roomie, but I had to get out of there. I didn't want to use my blog as a forum to complain, but I was having problems with my old place. List of negative aspects:

1. Big red fire hose mounted on the wall: this was not a negative in itself, but the fact that it couldn't be taken down and used just made it feel like an unsightly, dusty, heap of garbage.

2. Dust: vacuuming three times per week was not enough to beat it; the dust earned me an asthma diagnosis - something I hadn't had to deal with since I was about 7.

3. Phantom Karaoke Bar: like the fire hose, I wouldn't hate it so much if I could engage with it. There was a karaoke bar that only seemed to be open on Sunday during the afternoon and early evening. I don't know if it was in my building or in a nearby building, but the noise traveled cleanly through my walls, making the aftermath of Saturday night all the more hellish. Worst of all, it's not uncommon for karaoke enthusiasts to believe that they can sing Whitney Houston songs. It is very uncommon to hear a singer who can perform a Whitney Houston song.

4. Wing Lok Street's bizarre animal product vendors: although I still live on Wing Lok street, I'm not bombarded with dried sea creatures and their odors as soon as I hit the street. There's some pretty funky stuff on my new block too, but it doesn't match the Wing Lok-Cleverly intersection's cramped, chaotic, dried goods market.

5. Lack of a view: in my new apartment, I can look in the space between two aircon units and get a glimpse of the sky. Impossible in the old apartment. Also, the window was streetside on a very hectic street.

6. Toilet and shower in the same place: I will never understand this.

7. Mirror at belly-button level: on second thought, it was a really good workout to hold a 5-minute squat and shave.

Oh well...I'll miss the old Wing Lok apartment even though there were so many reasons to hate it.

And They're Off!

Happy Valley is the place to be on Wednesday nights for expats in Hong Kong. Everyone is there at the Hong Kong Jockey Club for the races.

This week was my first week and I arrived late and missed the first four races, but I don't think I missed much. The grounds are pretty nice...about the same standards as a newish professional ballpark in the US and entry fee is only $10 hkd (barely a buck).

I think that I picked a good week to try it out since the Hong Kong Jockey Club celebrates Oktoberfest for a couple of weeks in October. This means that you can get a solid attempt at German food and swill it down with pretty good beer. Food and drink were relatively inexpensive, in fact. Another bonus was the on-stage drinking contest between the 6th and the 7th. The winner took home 5000 hkd and even the last place contestant got a grand.

It's pretty exciting even if you don't have money on the line!!

Junk Trip

Not drugs and not garbage, junk means a junk boat...which means a 20-40 person pleasure craft that people rent out to spend an afternoon enjoying the sun and water.

I went on a trip last Saturday. We left around noon and got back eight hours later. In the meantime, we cruised out west from the Central Piers on Hong Kong Island to a pretty large cove between Repulse Bay and the backside of Stanley.

The weather and the water were great. Warm day, hot sun, and water temperature was, as the French kept saying, very fresh. The organizer, Phoenix Chang, was super-prepared and overstocked. Phoenix bought a catered-lunch package from Cafe de Coral, which had curry, bolognaise, and a bunch of Chinese snacks that I'd never tried before.

Hopefully the weather stays warm enough for another trip later on, but I've yet to see signs of the Indian summer that is rumored to take Hong Kong back to July-level temperatures.

*I only took one picture on the trip (photo of Ocean Park from the boat) because everyone else had cameras. I'll post some as they get 'published' on facebook.

"Yo Blair"

Former British P.M. Tony Blair on China in the WSJ...stunning statistics.

Sidewalk Safety

Riding the MTR, you will hear announcements about preventing the spread of bacteria by not touching your mouth, eyes, or nose. A speaker installed over the escalators and signs constantly remind you that you should stand still with your hand on the railing while riding. Out on the street, jaywalking is sometimes ticketed...many people will not walk across the street against the signal.

This assiduos society harbors one dangerous environment that refuses to yield to better rules. That environment is the Hong Kong sidewalk.

The photo at right is a platform on scaffolding. Two things are unusual about it: (1) its bottom is about 6'3" above the concrete and (2) the ends of the po

les are, in some cases, angled & pointy. Because I am not quite that tall, I narrowly dodged inadvertently scalping myself on this man-made hazard one Saturday afternoon on Queens Road Central.

Take a look at the next photo. There is a sign 'hanging' from the side of a building whose weight appears to rest on a ladder. Wait, a ladder that has a bucket on top of it. Don't worry though. There's a cone on one side of it so that no one accidentally knocks the ladder loose, causing a tumble.

I should note that these are both obviously private works and not public works. In fact, public works projects usually look pretty well managed. Although the gates and barricades separating work space from safe space provide a much smaller buffer zone than I'm used to, I understand the necessity in a city where every inch of the pavement is used...even in ideal conditions.

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UPDATE: had to include this shot of stacked plywood that was being hauled up and over a pedestrian street in the middle of the day. Dangerous!!

Ads

Don't be alarmed but I commercialized my blog. Haha. Well, actually it's just sort of an experiment because I doubt that much money will come from the ad revenue that the 8 people who read the blog will generate. I'll keep track of how much I make and probably just use it as a 'beer fund' to share with my friends when I get back the US anyways.

PRC Turns 60 - Part III

I meant to sneak this in to one of the other posts, but just wanted to sound off a little bit more on the topic of China turning 60 from an American's perspective.

All of the papers wrote about the event. I even had the chance to watch some of the coverage on television and I was very impressed by the spectacle. One interesting, if a little paranoid, article came from the Wall Street Journal regarding the display of arms in the Beijing parade. In particular they discussed an anti-ship missile that the author suggested was designed for the purpose of keeping outsider naval forces (the US) from defending against a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Another notable perspective on the anniversary was the South China Morning Post's article about the exclusivity of the parade. The New York Times informed me of the difficulty of training and selection of participants in the parade, which was ultimately an astonishing display of choreography and organization. NYT also wrote about the many disappointed tourists who were instructed to stay in their hotel rooms because police were barricading off many of Beijing's streets. SCMP went into deeper detail about the brutal facts of the party's policy regarding the parade. SCMP's headline basically said that the celebration was only for a select few. Elite members of Chinese politics were invited, but the average person was excluded and even barricaded from getting near the parade. SCMP quoted a 14-year old Chinese boy who wanted to become a photographer and take photos of the event, but could not see anything from the place where he could stand as an uninvited spectator.

SCMP also reported on the use of iodine pellets scattered throughout the atmosphere above Beijing before the parade because of looming rain clouds. On the ground, someone launches a missile that carries the pellets. At the proper location, an explosion occurs, spreading out the iodine pellets and they clear up clouds to prevent rain. They were used before the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics.

Another SCMP article discussed the Mao-suit that Chinese leader Hu Jintao wore. At previous National Day celebrations and military parades, Hu Jintao's predecessors had worn suits like the one that Chairman Mao always appeared in. SCMP interpreted the ritual as showing fidelity to founding values. Maybe it's not a bad idea for the highest politicians of the US to dress up as a Founding Father on Independence Day, although it is difficult to think of possible matches.

Reading and watching the events, one cannot help but be intimidated by China's power. Although I would not self-describe as a fan of American hegemony, the WSJ article especially reminds us that this moment in time witnesses the world order changing. Most of all, China is intimidating because it creates an era of uncertainty. Perhaps something better will come out of it, but at this point, no one knows.

Slideshow: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/10/01/world/20091001-CHINA_index.html

PRC Turns 60 - Part II

MOONCAKES!! Part II is the story of my humble celebration. Although I enjoyed the fireworks, reflecting on China's sixtieth birthday was not really as joyous an occasion for me as I'm sure it was for the Chinese. Nevertheless, I decided to partake in the autumnal custom of eating a mooncake. If you haven't clicked on the link already, do it and you'll get a lot of information that seems correct as far as I can tell.

Mooncake adverts are postered all over the MTR stations now, featuring quasi-western looking Chinese models and diagrams of anatomy of a mooncake. I read in a foodie column in a local magazine that each one of these little bombs packs 800 calories...quite a lot for something about half the size of a donut.

On my way back from the fireworks, I purchased two two-packs. They were cold and the vendor packed them in an insulated bag for the trip home. When I got home, I eagerly teared it open and dug into it. It was pretty delicious, but I thought that it reminded me of raw cookie dough. I became suspicious and later learned that mooncakes should be baked before consumption. Although I felt kind of dumb for doing this, I also learned that most foreigners who introduce themselves to mooncakes do the same thing...and that they mostly think that eating them raw is actually the proper way until instructed otherwise.

I was lucky because the one that I ate was filled with strawberry jam. The vendor helped me pick out two packs and I think she purposefully steered me towards the sweet, jelly desserts rather than the savory flavors that might have shocked me on the first bite.

Don't they look great in that picture though?

PRC Turns 60

October 1 is National Day in China. This was covered by every major newspaper and from many different angles.

The photo to the right is a picture of the fireworks over Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. One of the faculty members commented the next day that he was left unimpressed by the spectacle. South China Morning Post reported that Hong Kong spent $400,000 USD on the show.

Truthfully, I wasn't very impressed by the fireworks either, but this might be due to my vantage point and expectations. Because I don't have class on Thursdays, the national holiday didn't really open up any extra time in my schedule and I spent the day like a normal Thursday, cleaning up whatever assignment I didn't read for my classes earlier in the week and getting ready for Friday's class. So, I left home a few minutes before the show started and simply walked out to the harbor between Sheung Wan and Central. I soon learned that the fireworks were to originate in Wan Chai, maybe 1.5 miles away. As you can see from the photo, the fireworks just barely cleared the treetops visible in the foreground. The distance was even more obvious from the sound. I think that the sound is equally important for the effect of a good show but the distance created a lag that lessened the power of the fireworks. I'm sure that it was great if you were right underneath.

Considering China to be the land of fireworks, I thought that this would be an absolute blowout fireworks show, making anything that I had ever seen on the Fourth of July seem like child's play. The show was a steady stream of shots with a slightly ramped up tempo for the grand finale. However, I was definitely impressed during the grand finale when fireworks were being sent that spelled out "China" and "sixty" in Chinese. I recognized one Chinese characters, but a local told me what the others meant.

Official Documents

Anyone want to guess where this is located? Or, what it is? Stop reading, write it down on, then continue on with this post to find out if you were correct.

If you guess that this is an electronic immigration official of Hong Kong S.A.R. then you are correct. At this machine, qualified applicants can file requests for different types of visas and other documents related to immigration status.

The machine is located in the Hong Kong Immagration Services building in Wan Chai. I saw it while riding an escalator to the eighth floor where I was soon after denied the right to a Hong Kong ID card. I can't get one because my stay is less than 180 days, but I had wanted one for two reasons: (1) access to book-lending at the Hong Kong Central Library and (2) access to "members-only" clubs in Hong Kong, which actually often let in non-members upon proof of Hong Kong residency. I'm not sure why it works that way with those clubs, but it seems like a scheme that only serves to keep out tourists.

*Wan Chai seen from the China Resources Building; view from Lockhart Road is much more interesting.

Bank of China Tower - amazing from any angle

Two Forms of Weather

One of feature of Hong Kong that is quite unique is that you experience natural weather as well as man-made weather. In Hong Kong, perhaps also in other Asian cities, it seems like you are always getting dripped on. The streets are narrower, the sidewalks even narrower.

The photo to the right shows an air conditioner that malfunctioned resulting in a massive downpour on the sidewalk. This was especially problematic given the fact that the air conditioner shown is located about 30 feet overhead of one side of an MTR entrance. Such downpours are infrequent but walking down the block, especially after a rain storm can lead to three or four droplets collecting on your shirt and head.

It used to gross me out but then I realized that it's either condensation from the air conditioners or rainwater. If it is in fact something else, feel free to keep that information to yourself. I'm fine with the way things are.

Light Show

This video was taken from the southern tip of the Kowloon peninsula on Sunday September 23, 2009. I read that there are four themes of the light show, but I'm not sure which was running that night. The light show lasts for about thirty minutes.

It is a pretty spectacular sight and shouldn't be missed by visitors. Locals and expats were surprised that I had not been to see the light show after almost three weeks. That being said, I found myself getting bored near the end.

Hong Kong University vs. Chinese University of Hong Kong

What would life be without rankings? Probably our lives would be pretty much the same except for people would make choices about which schools to go to based on their own qualitative criteria instead of US News and World Report. But, they are a fact of life and living in a student in Hong Kong, university status is a pressure point that people love to touch.

The University of Hong Kong, colloquially referred to as HKU or Hong Kong University (by its own URL even), has the hands-down best rep of any school for thousands of miles. In nine out of ten introductions, people ask after learning that I'm a student here, "are you at HKU?" Here's what I found from my research into why people had such uniform questions:

http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/worlds-best-colleges/2009/06/18/worlds-best-colleges-top-400.html

http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/worlds-best-colleges/2009/06/18/worlds-best-colleges-asian-and-middle-eastern-universities.html

http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/asianuniversityrankings/asian_university_rankings_top_200_universities/

http://i.cs.hku.hk/~tse/topten.html

As I suspected, CUHK is playing second fiddle in the public opinion. To CUHK, HKU is Boston U.'s Harvard, NYU's Columbia, and Capella U.'s University of Phoenix. It still scores remarkably high on the global rankings. And though its neighbor is still a few points north, there are plenty of reasons to be proud to be a CUHK student. Two of my professors' names come up very frequently in Westlaw searches for articles about Chinese Corporate Law and Finance in Asia. My International Financial and Banking Law prof's name rings bells in anyone familiar with Hong Kong commercial litigation and another professor is notorious to the Chinese government for defending against expropriation. CUHK also is not very shy about boasting its 3 Nobel Prize winners and Fields Medalist.

By the way, I checked out HKU when I was looking at programs to study abroad but their law faculty only accepts students from universities with which they have a partnership agreement. For better or worse, CUHK doesn't maintain such a policy. For law students who read this blog and still have time to study abroad, this barrier will come up at a lot of institutions that you check out...especially if you are a law student at UM which, to my knowledge, has no direct relationships with foreign universities. To circumvent it, you can find an American law school besides your own that has such a relationship and apply through their program.

Bar George, Saturday Night in Lan Kwai Fong

That's Ryushi from Japan on the right. He wouldn't let go of the Olmeca until the westerners agreed that Tequila was produced in Japan. Only Fernando, who is actually Mexican, hesitated to agree to such nonsense...national pride, I guess.

Even though LKF is pretty much the most crowded spot on any given night in Hong Kong (and absolute chaos on the weekends), bottles are surprisingly cheap in comparison to drink prices. Whereas a paltry well drink will run upwards of $10, a bottle in the same establishment will only cost about $120-130. The math worked out perfectly for a group of seven plus some random interlopers. Bonus when the wait staff immediately escorted us from our booth to a big corner sofa next to the dance floor upon ordering.

Cell Phones

I'm actually quite happy with the cell service here in Hong Kong, in spite of this picture. Calls are very cheap and a $10 USD prepaid card goes quite a long way. I'm using CSL which also offers pretty cheap rates to most of the world's developed countries, but not all. Anyways, usually outgoing calls to the US cost me a dollar or two for 20-30 minutes on the phone.

I was surprised when I arrived in Hong Kong that the market for cell phones was so limited. Most of the reputable stores had only Samsung, Nokia, Ericsson, Blackberry, and a really cheap Chinese brand that I had never heard of. Anyways, I thought that I would see similar phones as are available in Japan, but no such luck. Apple is a pretty small player in Hong Kong and the iPhone doesn't seem to have gotten much traction.

I ended up purchasing a Nokia N79, which has been perfect for me. My favorite feature is the 5 megapixel digital camera. Although I take my point and shoot out sometimes and my digital slr even less frequently, this camera phone has taken some excellent shots and it's always with me.

One aspect of cell service that isn't hot is the fact that 3G data networks are only available on "post-paid" plans, i.e. contracts for 12+ months where you buy a quantity of minutes, data, etc. Like I said, I'm on the prepaid so I can't work w/ any data unless I'm in a wifi hotspot. Well...there is one other exception. I have maps everywhere because of the assisted-GPS linked to the maps program. Unfortunately, all of the preloaded maps are in Chinese. Haha...good luck finding Pennington Street with that!

*Second photo is the HSBC Building photographed from my phone.

Subzero Fun / Introducing My Roommate

This picture was taken two days ago when I went out with my roommate, Iana. Of Slovakian parents, her background is half-Aussie, half-Slovak, resulting in a good sense of humor but an accent which is at times incomprehensible to me.

We were at the Russian subzero bar, which was actually a decent pub but an utter disappointment for an icebar experience. I have only read about belowzero in London, but my expectations were right up there when I heard that tehre was an icebar in Hong Kong. After all, it seems like Hong Kong refuses to be outdone by Europeans in every other way. Alas, the room that I was standing in might not have even been sub-50's, which made the fastidious tending of the anteroom and cold chamber doors suspicious.

Shots in the cold chamber were $6 USD and up. Bottles were starting at about $100...not bad except you have to stand in a room that is not freezing, not even refrigerator cold, but just kind of damp and heavily air conditioned.

Stanley Beach

Yesterday was my first experience at a Hong Kong beach. It wasn't bad although I was suffering from a cold last week that has still got my lungs congested so swimming was kind of difficult.

Stanley Beach is just a short walk from the small district of Stanley. Not much is going on in Stanley...mostly just relaxing and sports. Windsurfing is really popular in Hong Kong and rentals only cost about $30 for three hours.

The beach is netted off. I don't know why, but the netting and buoys separate boaters and windsurfers from swimmers. The water is dark and there are warning signs that people shouldn't swim in the wake of rain storms because of contamination from polluted runoff. However, it was actually very pleasant to swim in and the nearby changing rooms and shower facilities were very clean and useful.

The tradition of gouging beach goers is alive and well at the cafe which charges about $8 for food and drink that would otherwise be no more than $3 in Central, but it's hard to complain with the beautiful view of the beach from the cafe's roof deck.

Rice Pizza

Warning!!! Of all the attempts at fusion cooking in Hong Kong, this is probably the only one that I will advise people against. The concept is strangely alluring and I bought into it even though warning signals went off in my head. The problem: it just doesn't work as a functional pizza. It disintegrates into a soup of rice, cheese, and sauce which is much less appetizing than crispy white bread as the foundation of a pizza.