3 June (Mon) Comfort food...

An old-day congee shop at The Central area. Nice! It looked like one of those I saw on screen. The settings, the people, and the food! The shop is also known for its noodles, but having eaten noodles the day before, the highlight today would be the congee... I like the congee with pork kidney and pork stomach 👍. 

No QR code to place order, obviously - but this is what's recorded, including the price - and how the figures were added. The figures were perfectly correct... ok, not marking down its working presentation 😜

The day ended with dinner part (2) - 裕记 another well known & popular old shop that sells roasted goose in 深井, a town where many popular goose shops gathered. Though its location is rather out-of-place, it received many Michelin accolades since 2019... decorating the front of the shops 👍 .

It's also the first time I saw, with my eyes, like what's shown on dramas and movies - the car park area is monopolised by the shop. One has to drive up then hand the keys to the "valet" to park the car.

3 June (Mon) Taking a tram

It's not the first time I took the tram, but got to know more about it this time because, we were lucky in the last trip when it was a day when one could travel free in a tram the last time I took it. 

The double deck tram is one of the unique features in old Hong Kong, and learnt the road in Central is also known as 电车路 because it runs across a long stretch of the road, side-by-side with buses and other road vehicles. 

Sometime different from what was overseas - one has to board from the back. The automatic one-way entry prevented one from exiting from the back. It focuses the passengers to the exit by the front door where the driver is the gatekeeper. 

It's a flat rate, HKD 3 - but accepts payment via Octopus cards or cash only.

The tram could be quite pack at peak hours, which I noticed that one is "allowed" to stand on the upper deck, which is usually not the case for buses. 

3 June (Mon) A disappointment in this trip...

One of the reasons for this trip is to learn and be immersed in the "wuxia" stories... to visit the exhibitions to "re-indulge" in something that I was fond doing in my school days.

Based on what I watched in the HK documentary, I was expecting the more hands-on or interactive  experience in the exhibition at the Edinburgh Place. We had a hard time finding the site. Unknown to me, the info in the official website was not up-to-date, not highlighting that it was closed - only came to know about it when I chanced upon the info in the HK Tourism Board website. In addition, it could have indicated it was right in front of the City Hall. I registered my disappointment with the organiser. 

3 June (Mon) Hong Kong Palace Museum

It's a new museum only opened in the recent years - where the showcase focuses on the exhibits from the Palace Museum in Beijing. 

It’s a museum that’s worth visiting - not because of its collection (in this case), but a great learning journey of China’s history - in particular the last Dynasty (Qing 清). I visited Yuan Ming Yuan 圆明园 onsite twice in my previous trips to Beijing, but none left such a deep impression of what it was, how it looked like and the architecture (certainly since what’s presented was just the ruins). 

The multimedia reconstruction of the summer palace added much meaning and understanding behind the intention of many details to the place. The drawings were very interesting, which I had no impression that I saw something like this onsite. Indeed, one of the floor plans that awed me is this one… never thought that anything that’s ‘behind’ could be presented in this manner: 

Perhaps it’s the layout - find it much easier to appreciate the exhibits in this museum, compared to the actual place. I guess it’s the crowd that makes a difference. Here’s a much quieter environment where one can slowly read and move around. I can’t imagine how it's like if it's located at the actual palace museum in Beijing or onsite. In addition, because of the layout, we can take a much closer look of the items here. All these may sound minor, but makes a huge difference to the visitors’ experience. 

One interesting thing to take away (from another gallery): 

While the paintings were supposed to depict the life of the Qing royal family, a number of them were painted with the characters on Han attire. Similarly, one of the portraits of an emperor was in the Han attire. It demonstrated how the degree of appreciation and admiration of another race or culture, and the respect - not just a commoner, but even from the royals. Obviously! The Manchus were the one who took over the country from the Hans/ Mings! 

One new learning point - even the emperor adopts a very discipline life! It's essential for one who needs to attend to so many things! Time management is critical! Not for the past, not for the royals, but also for us, for today's context.

A dose of the culture through hands-on... like the subtle approach that the museum takes to engage its visitors. See how engaged this lovely couple was...

 

3 June (Mon) Breakfast… nice buns!

Something not to miss in HK - the bolo buns 菠萝包 from Mei Xin… they definitely taste different from what we get back at home. Equivalent price, but more filling, and taste better!

This morning, also had the century egg cake 皮蛋酥 - tried the big one… still, prefer the medium size one that we normally have.