Hiking in Hong Kong – From Lung Fu Shan to the Peak

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Toothpicker

A view of Hong Kong from the Peak trail

Every time I visit Hong Kong, I have to fit in either a day hike or take the ferry to the outlying islands to unwind and get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

One of my favourite hikes is the Lung Fu Shan trail, which leads you either up to the peak or towards Pok Fu Lam reservoir. I would start from Conduit Road in mid-levels, walk along Hatton Road, pass Lung Fu Shan country park, hike up to the Peak, and then walk down via Old Peak Road. The hike can be completed within 2 hours, but it can be stretched to a 1/2 day hike if you decide to have lunch or do sightseeing around the peak area. I once did this hike on a sunny morning (around 26 degrees) before my long-haul flight back to the UK in the evening, and I felt immensely exhilarated after the sweaty but fulfilling hike.

When I am hiking up the trail, I am always amazed by the greenness around me; and it is hard to believe that the city centre is only 20 minutes away. I especially love walking through the bamboo forest, which tends to remind me of Japan or specifically Kyoto.

On Hatton Road, you can still see one of the city’s seven boundary stones erected by the Hong Kong Government in 1903. Now six of these stones remained – one of them disappeared in 2007 – and they marked the city’s historical boundaries.

Established in 1998, Lung Fu Shan Country Park covers an area of about 47 hectares, and it includes the disused Pinewood Battery as well as the Pinewood Garden picnic area. The disused Pinewood Battery is a historic military site constructed between 1901 to 1905, and it received a Grade II conservation status in 2009.

Lung Fu Shan Country Park and Pinewood Battery

From Pinewood Battery, one can walk along the Lung Fu Shan Fitness Trail – a 2750m long trail that leads up to the peak or another trail that heads towards Po Fu Lam reservoir. Being a semi-tourist, I have opted for the grand harbour view than the reservoir view, hence I have yet to do the reservoir trail.

I started to appreciate Hong Kong more when I do these hiking trails, partly because they remind me that the city has much more to offer than shopping, eating and drinking. There are many inner city hiking trails that are minutes away from the crowded and polluted streets, so if you get a chance, try to explore the city’s hidden nature through these trails.

Wall trees in Hong Kong

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Toothpicker

The remains of the banyan wall trees on Bonham Road

Unsurprisingly, the image that is often associated with Hong Kong is its famous skyline and high-rise. Yet personally, I consider the city’s banyan wall tress to be its most unique sight and heritage. In recent years, trees have become a hot topic in Hong Kong, especially after four banyan wall trees in the mid-levels were cut down by the Government last year due to an earlier accident where a tall tree on the same road had collapsed during heavy rain. The Highways Department claimed that there were cracks on the stone fence above them, thus they decided to take ‘swift’ action without proper assessments nor public consultation. This action caused public outrage, tree experts and university professors described the action as “collateral murder” and they criticised the government for its inadequate tree maintenance over the years. The government has had a poor track record of tree management in the past, but this incident was the last straw for tree lovers in Hong Kong.

The history of these trees can be traced back to the early colonial period when the tenacious Chinese banyan trees were chosen by the government in the hope that their strong roots could strengthen retaining walls on slopes to prevent landslides during the rainy typhoon seasons. In 1996, Hong Kong was estimated to have 1,275 trees growing out of 505 retaining masonry walls. Yet only 40 of these trees are registered and considered as significant to the government. Most of these trees can be seen on slopes in Central, Mid-Levels and Western District, and they form a truly unique landscape in Hong Kong. I cannot imagine what the city would look like without these beautiful wall trees; in my opinion, they should be listed as the city’s heritage and be protected and maintained properly.

It is almost magical to see how these trees managed to grow and merge with the masonry walls over the decades. These tree reveal their resilience and adaptability, and yet humans continue to destroy them in the name of ‘development’. In many cultures (including the Chinese), trees are considered as sacred and have been worshiped since the ancient times. The Japanese and Scandinavians respect trees and forests immensely, hence wood is often used as the main building material and in furniture-making. The Japanese also believe in Kodama – spirits in Japanese folklore that inhabit trees that are similar to the dryads of Greek mythology. In Studio Ghibli/Hayao Miyazaki‘s environmentally-conscious film Princess Mononoke, Kodama play a crucial role and they appear as small and mask-like creatures. And in one of the studio’s earlier film My Neighbor Totoro, the adorable Totoro acts as the forest keeper to protects the forest. So perhaps what Hong Kong needs is a group of Totoros to protect the endangered banyan wall trees!

The factors that are threatening these banyan trees include the stability of the walls, and the lack of tree doctors in Hong Kong. Insufficient tree knowledge and expertise means that trees are not properly maintained – and like human beings – they would suffer from ill health as a result. I think it is time for the government to take this issue seriously and regard these trees as an important heritage of Hong Kong.

Over the years, I have taken many photographs of the amazing wall trees in Hong Kong, and here are just some are were taken around mid-levels and the western district. If all of us can pay more attention to our surroundings and environment, then we would inevitably notice that beauty is around us all the time. Trees are urban treasures, and we must save them before it is too late.

Cherry Blossom in London

Posted on April 16, 2016 by Toothpicker

Believe it or not, but you don’t have to travel to Japan to view sakura/cherry blossom! These photos of sakura were taken in London’s Swiss Cottage!

I wasn’t aware that the Camden Council had planted rows of cherry trees between the Swiss Cottage Library/leisure Centre and Hampstead theatre, so I was slightly in awe when I encountered a sea of pink as I was walking towards the library one day.

Nature, like life, is ephemeral and unpredictable. Last year in Tokyo, I missed the peak bloom of sakura by a few days when rain, wind and a sudden drop of temperature hit the city. It was a tremendous disappointment for me, but it also made appreciate the few remaining flowering cherry trees that withstood the sudden weather fluctuation.

Yet this year, the sight of cherry blossom in London took me – and other passerby – completely by surprise. I never expected to see rows of pink cherry trees in this part of London!

I was aware that within days, the pinks petals from the flowering Prunus trees were likely to drop and wither away, but the fleeting scenery still had a profound psychological effect on me as it indicated that the long and depressing winter has finally ended.

As the saying goes, the best things in life are free. Sometimes joy and pleasure happens when you least expect it, and since these moments rarely last, it’s best to enjoy them before they disappear!

The London Coffee Festival 2016

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Toothpicker

I have never been to The London Coffee festival at the Old Truman Brewery before, but I was curious to see what was on offer this year. As a coffee enthusiast, I can’t seem to resist coffee-related activities, and one of my favourite is coffee cupping.

Since I wanted to avoid crowds in the weekend, I intentionally visited the festival on one of the trade days, which to my surprise, turned out to be extremely packed too (don’t people need to go to work?).

At the festival, I was genuinely stunned by the number of coffee-related brands available in the market today. Judging from the event, the coffee craze is definitely here to stay. According to a report from The International Business Times, the UK coffee market is worth more than £1bn, whilst the tea market has been shrinking over the last few years.

Aside from famous international brands like DeLonghi, Illy, Lavazza, Baileys and UCC (from Japan) etc, there were also many new independent start-ups at the festival, which was encouraging.

Union coffee‘s stand

Many of the well-known London-based coffee roasteries took part at the event, including Caravan, Ozone, Clifton Coffee, Climpson & Sons, Workshop and Union. I was particularly impressed by Union’s stand, not only because they had a tasting area, but they also had coffee cupping sessions with detailed explanations of the origins of their beans and farms.

Top row: Teaforia’s matcha, Bottom left: leaves for chai at Prana Chai; Bottom right: Karma Cola

Coffee aside, there were also many tea, food and other beverage companies at the festival. After tasting various coffee – and was feeling slightly lightheaded – I decided to go for beverage with lower caffeine levels. I tried Karma Cola, a fairtrade and organic beverage company that produces fizzy drinks. The graphics of this company is cool, and even though I am not a fizzy drinks fan, I liked the taste of their drinks, especially Gingerella.

Another interesting brand is the new green tea company called Teaforia. I would rarely buy green tea or matcha from non-Japanese beverage companies, but I was impressed by the tea I tasted at their stand, hence I bought some to try at home.

Overall, I enjoyed my visit to the festival, and it was fascinating to see how much this predominantly tea-drinking nation has changed over the years. I think the Brits will always have a soft-spot for tea, but at least they are taking their coffee more seriously now, and that can’t be a bad sign.

How I fell out of love with Zaha Hadid’s architecture

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Toothpicker

The Peak leisure club – Zaha Hadid’s competition winning-design in Hong Kong (1982-83), though the project was never realised

Like most people, the death of world-renowned British Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid came as a shock when I heard it on the radio one afternoon. Suddenly, memories came flooding back, as she was someone I admired when I was an art student. Yet over the years, my admiration faded; while many of her star architect friends paid tribute to her and her legacy, I would like to contribute in my way, which consists of both positive and negative views of the controversial architect.

When I was doing my art foundation course in London years ago, I considered studying architecture partly because my cousin was studying at the Architectural Association (also known as AA) at the time. I started hanging out with her and her AA friends, and I thought it was ‘cool’ to be around these future architects. It was also around that period that I became interested in all things avant-garde – art, film, music, design and architecture – especially in visionary architecture and Archigram (an architecture movement of the 1960s formed at the AA).

The model of The Peak Leisure Club

I was fascinated by the idealistic visions derived from utopian notion, and even wrote a thesis on the subject at university ( though I was studying graphic design at the time). The highly conceptual architectural movement broke all the rules – it was provocative, imaginative and artistic. And one of these visionary architects was the Pritzker Prize-winning Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, who founded the world-renowned architectural practice OMA. Koolhaas studied and taught at AA, and Zaha Hadid was one of his students in the 1970s.

When I first encountered Zaha Hadid‘s work, I was mesmerised by her stunning blueprints and sketches esp. the ones she created at the AA. Her earlier designs were heavily influenced by Russian avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich and Suprematism, the art movement founded by the artist. It was notably palpable in her winning project for The Peak in Hong Kong (see the blueprint and model above), which unfortunately failed to realise and now the site is occupied by a hideous and obtrusive building.

In the 80s, Hadid’s designs often featured angular and geometric forms – rather than the curvy styles that she was later known for – and most of her buildings were deemed as too conceptual, thus, unbuildable.

Mobile Art Chanel contemporary art container, Paris (2008 – 2010)

As an Iraqi and female architect working in a male dominated industry, Hadid did struggle for a long time. For more than 10 years in the industry, she only had a few small-scale commissions – mostly from outside of the UK – and it was only at the beginning of the 21st century that her luck began to change.

The exterior of MAXXI museum (2010) in Rome

It would be fair to say that the building that established her as a star architect was the MAXXI museum (1998–2010) in Rome, which also won the prestigious Stirling prize of 2010. I visited the museum a few years ago, and as you can see in the photos, it is an impressive building full of bold and futuristic elements influenced by the two Russian art movements of the 1920s: Suprematism and Constructivism.

The interior of MAXXI museum in Rome

However, as she became more prolific, she also became more controversial. Aside from being criticised for her extravagant style, personal attacks on her character, ethics and responsibility as an architect also became newsworthy. Hadid, the dormant architect for decades, was suddenly the talk of the town.

As someone who has been following her career since the 90s, I began to lose interest in her work as stardom and fame struck her. In my opinion, her later works became more egocentric and narcissistic (like many other star architects from her generation), and they were more about making statements than fulfilling briefs. Their conspicuous and distinctive buildings are similar to designer handbags stamped with logos all over. Hadid’s curvy and fluid style was instantly recognisable, and she applied this to her vast range of products including lighting, furniture, jewellery (for Caspita and Georg Jensen), shoes (for United nude, Melissa, Lacoste and Adidas etc) and handbags (for Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Chanel). Her name became a commercial brand, and her designs were often criticised as style over substance.

Roca Gallery, London (2009–11)

About 5 years ago, I attended a talk by Zaha Hadid and another architect at the Southbank Centre. It was one of the most boring and odd talks that I have ever attended. She and her friend were chatting among themselves on stage, making in-jokes about their architect friends, it was as though they were having a conversation at home! They completely neglected the audience, and I, like many others were rather flummoxed by the talk.

The Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London (2009-2013)

Despite my disappointment with Hadid’s later designs, I still consider her as one of most influential architects of our generation. Like I mentioned earlier, her earlier conceptual projects were ground-breaking and unconventional; she was a true visionary architect. However, she became a victim of her own success as her commissions grew grander and more improvident, and only time will tell whether her legacy will last.