mauve magic

I would normally be back in the UK by now, but the airline that we’d booked with (BA) suddenly decided to cancel all its flights into and out of Hong Kong for three months. We’ve managed to rebook (with Cathay Pacific), but we won’t be heading home yet for another 10 days. However, looking on the bright side, I thought that for the first time in many years, I’d get a chance to see flame trees, which normally flower in June, in full bloom. That hasn’t worked out though. Flame trees are quite common around Fanling, but every one I’ve seen recently, including the two that are visible from our balcony, has provided only a patchwork display, not the full-tree coverage that I’ve seen in the past. And what flowers there were are gone already, thanks to the almost constant heavy rain of the past fortnight.

On the other hand, a tree species that I’d originally noticed on the Drainage Services Department (DSD) access road that runs alongside our local river has been flowering recently. Almost all these trees have since been destroyed to make way for the so-called Fanling North bypass, but I’ve noticed examples in a few other locations, and although they are nowhere near as spectacular as flame trees in full bloom, I’ve taken a few photos, which I present here in a sequence that I would follow if walking home from Fanling station.

There is an elevated cycle track/pedestrian walkway leading away from the north end of the station, and the first photo was taken from this overbridge:

After seeing this photo, you might be questioning the title I’ve given this account, but it’s quite common for tree flowers to fade if the colour was a pastel shade to begin with.

The overbridge reaches ground level again in front of the North District government offices, at the end of which my route turns right into Pik Fung Road, a relatively minor road that connects San Wan Road and Jockey Club Road, both of which are major north–south dual carriageways. The next two photos were taken in the car park attached to the government offices:

The flowers on these trees are mauve (or is someone going to argue that they’re actually purple?). The building in the background of the second photo is the Fanling Law Courts Building, and this is a view of that building from Pik Fung Road:

The next example is located at the junction of Pik Fung Road and Jockey Club Road:

The building behind is the Fanling Family Medicine Centre (aka Fanling clinic), while the fencing on the left encloses a new construction site—I’ve no idea what will be built here, but there’s room for just one high-rise building. The site was still occupied by tennis courts—a singularly inefficient use of a scarce resource (land)—last year.

After crossing Jockey Club Road, there are no more of these trees to be seen until you reach Luen Wo Hui, the district of Fanling closest to where we live. I photographed this one in the ornamental garden in front of Union Plaza, one of four private housing estates in Luen Wo Hui, each with its own shopping mall:

The high-rise blocks in the background are part of Wing Fok Centre, which I believe is an estate for first-time buyers. I base this assessment on the architecture and also on the absence of a shopping mall as an integral part of the estate.

Until last year, the most convenient route home was across the fields of Ma Shi Po, but this is now a gigantic construction site. However, there is still a path to the river, which I follow. As I’ve mentioned, most of the trees like the ones I’ve included here have been destroyed, but upstream from where the proposed bypass will cross the river, there is a ‘sitting-out area’ with a Chinese gazebo:

Gazeboes like this are very common around the northern New Territories, although most have just four supporting pillars. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve used one to shelter from torrential rain when out cycling. Incidentally, I expect this one to disappear eventually in the name of ‘development’—although the bypass will not come this way, I suspect that a new connecting road is in the plans, because three large eucalyptus trees a short distance further up the DSD road have been marked ‘fell’.

Here are two more views of the tree next to the gazebo:

…and a close-up of the flowers:

The round seed pods will split open in six places when ripe.

At the upstream end of this sitting-out area, there is another example of this tree:

Finally, although I wouldn’t pass this way on the route home that I’ve been describing here, this is a view of the path we must now follow if we want to go into Luen Wo Hui by the shortest route:

Paula and I never use this path when cycling, because it’s used by a lot of pedestrians, but that doesn’t deter local cyclists, many of whom represent serious hazards for people on foot. The green area on the right is Suen Douh Camp, some kind of outdoor pursuits centre run by fundamentalist Christians, who simply do not interact with the locals. It has been closed since the start of the pandemic, although the grounds are still being maintained.

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I’ve not been able to find out much about this tree species, although I’ve tentatively identified it as queen’s crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia speciosa). According to my observations, it grows no more than 6–7 metres tall, except when crowded for space, when they might reach 10 metres.