Since our hobbies of Chinese music and film were born a few years ago, our interest in all things Chinese began to grow. We knew that Hong Kong was Wakin Chau's birthplace and is the home of other artists we also admire. So we'd resolved to finally take a trip to Hong Kong when a good opportunity arose, and that chance turned out to be Wakin's charity concert on April 9, 2002.

We rode the old tram, which has been running since 1888, to the top of Victoria Peak, Hong Kong's highest point at 396 meters above sea level. Right away we were able to savor the scenic squash of skyscrapers from the summit. The tightly packed infrastructure of the city appears to be quite unique, particularly from a perspective like the Peak's. Tokyo certainly has its cramped corners too, but on the whole it doesn't compare. A local assured us that Hong Kong has never suffered a single earthquake, and speaking from the experience of riding out tremors in Tokyo, I sincerely hope that such perfect luck continues forever.... Can you imagine what an earthquake in Hong Kong might be like? The whole city would simply smash into itself and turn to dust in seconds!  

We found out that there are several foreign consulates, including Japan's, on the top of Victoria Peak and we were told that the building at left is one of them. I imagine that this could even be the French consulate where Jackie Chan's parents had been employed when he was a little boy.... I read later that about 40% of the land of Hong Kong is protected nature areas and that there are 23 national parks featuring a variety of hiking and walking trails. Up on the Peak we saw that there is quite a collection of tourist facilities as well, such as the Peak Tower and Peak Galleria where one can find Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum and The Hard Rock Cafe. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, we arrived much too early to check out those aspects of the Peak. So we were left to simply enjoy the cool of the morning, the fresh fragrances of the greenery, and the haze-blanketed but magnificent view of Victoria Harbor....

At right is a view toward the core of the Causeway Bay district, which has a pretty impressive skyline, in my opinion. Of course, as we tramped around the city we were properly on our guard due to the multiple warnings we'd been given on the ride from the airport to beware of pickpockets. It's common knowledge that Japanese tourists have been a favorite easy target of shady characters in all countries of the world. But by now they are largely aware of this unfortunate reputation, whether or not by personal experience, so most Japanese have become more prudent travelers. Security itself has become a high-profit industry in Japan — Japanese-designed money belts are truly the best!    But part of the reason for that is Japan's own growing crime rate.... *SigH*

As most fans well know, Hong Kong's famous Star Ferry inspired Wakin when he set up and named his own production company (I suspect that he may have enjoyed a little play on words in the process — "star" being celebrity and "ferry" representing his company as a vehicle for introducing new talent....). The green-and-white boats of the Star Ferry have been chugging to and fro between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island for more than a century. The trip is not such a long one but it offers a great view of the bustling harbor. We took this ride fairly early in the day and there was just a handful of people onboard.

We enjoyed exploring around in the crush of Hong Kong's various downtown areas. It was unusual for us to see how many commercial buildings had their signs hanging far out over the streets, so that the traffic was moving — or not — directly beneath them. We checked out many shops in Mongkok and all over the place and had hoped to find more Wakin stuff, but there was relatively little, as far as we could tell..... I didn't happen to see anything about him in the magazines I was able to open (often they were bound shut), and I didn't happen to spot anything I was looking for in DVDs and not much in the way of VCDs either — mostly I saw that shops and outlets had multiple copies of the '95 comedy Just Married among their random stacks of VCDs and that's about it. I was finally able to get Wakin's Yellow Submarine MTV, which I'd long been searching for, on an omnibus VCD I found in HMV. Otherwise, stocks of Wakin's music CDs seemed to be fairly similar to Tokyo's, which surprised me a little! I'd hoped that Wakin's new Cantonese EP might be released by that time, but I was out of luck.

The view of
the beach at Repulse Bay displays one segment of the upper echelon of Hong Kong's stacked society, a waterfront hill almost completely blanketed by buildings. It is here where Jackie Chan himself hangs his hat when he is back in Hong Kong. I was told that the 'brown building' overlooking the bay is JC's residence. He is reportedly very pleased by the good feng shui of this home with its back to the hill and its front toward the sea. On the other hand, I'd read that the address is No. 4 and that this number has been blamed as the cause of the accidents that have befallen him over the years.....
Apparently a fortune teller (not the chap pictured here — heh heh) advised Jackie Chan to plate his door number in gold so that the bad luck of his address would be absorbed. That is why, despite the allure of such a souvenir, people dare not swipe the golden 4 and risk being stricken by the bad luck of it themselves.....

We decided to indulge in an evening cruise one night, and I'm glad that we did. Because the cabin air conditioner was in full "arctic" mode and conversation was impossible with the din of the mini-disco, we quickly escaped onto the upper deck outside to enjoy the comfortable breeze and the exquisite view of the colorful waterfront cityscape, which was far, far prettier than what I was able to capture with my camera. [Superior Hong Kong night views can be enjoyed at this gallery.]

All in all, we had a wonderful first trip to Hong Kong. And it was icing on the cake to be able to attend Wakin Chau's April 9th concert!