photographic highlights 2022–23: part 1

I shall be heading back to the UK for the summer in a few days, and as I’ve done for the past several years, I’ve compiled a collection of what I regard as the most ‘interesting’ photos among the more than 2,000 that I’ve taken over the past eight months in Hong Kong. As usual, I’ve not included any photos that I’ve used to illustrate other blog posts.

My first photo is one of several that I’ve taken along our local river (the Ng Tung River) this winter (see below). This one was taken in late afternoon from the first footbridge that we encounter when heading downstream from our village:

Although there are light-controlled pedestrian crossings at regular intervals on Sha Tau Kok Road, the only road out of Fanling to the east, this is a view of the only footbridge across the road. I like the receding tunnel effect:

There is a footpath in our neighbourhood that leads from Tung Kok Wai, one of five walled villages hereabouts, to Sui Wan Road. The reason for taking this photo is the spectacular bougainvillea, but there is also a story attached to this section of the path:

A couple of years ago, I was cycling along this path. The handrail wasn’t there when I discovered the path, but now, in order to avoid it given how wide my handlebar is, I had to cycle close to the edge on the right. Suddenly, the sun shone in my eyes and…. You can guess the rest. I went over the edge on the right into a small nullah (storm drain). I wasn’t hurt, but the nullah was full of untreated sewage, and I stank as a result. My phone and camera were both buggered.

Here is another photo of the Ng Tung River, taken much further downstream. The high-rise buildings in the distance are in Shenzhen:

The next photo was taken from the same footbridge as the first photo above. You might be able to make out the construction work where the totally unnecessary ‘Fanling North Bypass’ will eventually cross the river:

Another ‘receding tunnel’ effect, this time near the end of Tunafish Road. The point I would make here is that on the right it’s Hong Kong; on the left it’s China, although the roads on both sides do continue for a short distance before encountering the border fence:

When Paula and I visited M+, a new visual arts museum in West Kowloon, back in the autumn, there was a point where we passed a large window with views of the harbour. Everyone was taking photos of the view, but I thought that this view, looking in the opposite direction, was æsthetically more interesting:

Because of pollution that originates north of the border, we don’t often see nice sunsets, and this photo, taken from our roof, was the best I could do:

At the point where we rejoin the Sheung Shui to Yuen Long cycle track after following San Tin Tsuen Road whenever we cycle ‘out west’, there is an underpass below the expressway that leads to the village of Shek Wu Wai, where I saw this artwork on one of the walls:

I’ve seen other works elsewhere in a similar style.
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We were walking along our local river on one occasion when I spotted what is essentially a makeshift shrine. The glasses probably contain rice wine—as an offering to the gods—while the Chinese note translates (approximately) as “Covid has lasted three years, this road is still closed, so you must stop here to enjoy the flowers and the wine, crying miserably for another year”:

We don’t often cycle out to Plover Cove, a British-era attempt to resolve Hong Kong’s chronic water supply problem in the 1960s, but when we did, I took the following photo after cycling along the dam (on the left):

The mountain on the right is Pat Sin Leng (‘Eight Fairies Ridge’). You can count the summits correctly here, but from other angles, there appear to be either seven or nine summits. You can also see, in the distance on the left of the photo, the 76-metre tall statue of the goddess Guanyin in the Tsz Shan Monastery.

I could title the next photo ‘Sunset on the Ng Tung River’:

There is a small park immediately north of Fanling station, and on one occasion, I was walking along the elevated walkway/cycle track that leads away from the station when I spotted three groups practising forms of kung fu. Naturally, I took a photo:

Although you often see groups practising tai chi, none of these are doing so.

The next photo is a view of the Kam Tin River with the Tuen Ma Line viaduct, which I stopped to take while cycling along the riverside:

This is a view of the river further downstream, with an unnamed tributary coming in from the right:

As you can probably guess, the Kam Tin River is tidal, and this is a view at low tide. There are a couple of egrets on the water’s edge, but there are often many more birds here. I wrote about the round holes in the foreground in The Mystery of the Holes, as a result of which I learned that they are created by a fish called tilapia.

This is another view of the Tuen Ma Line viaduct as it crosses the river, taken a week later:

Whenever we go for a walk in our neighbourhood, Paula and I often pass along Po Kak Tsai Road, and on one occasion we noticed this strange collection of objects next to the minibus shelter on Lau Shui Heung Road:

Notice the discrepancy in spelling between the two signs on the right of the photo. The lower sign bears the logo of the regional council, but on its sign in the actual village, the spelling corresponds to that of the road sign. Somebody clearly screwed up!

We don’t often see egrets in our local river, but as a result of the construction here, the water level is often unusually low nowadays. All the birds in this photo are lesser egrets:

This is a gate leading into a small cultivated plot in Po Kak Tsai. I will leave readers to form their own opinions on what the images represent:

Shortly before the border was reopened earlier this year, Paula suggested that we visit the Peak before it was flooded with mainland tourists. In addition to shooting a video of two juvenile wild boars on our circuit of the mountain, I also took this photo of Hong Kong’s harbour (Kowloon is on the far side):

While I was unable to cycle earlier this year, Paula and I did some long walks out east of Fanling. I spotted this mural of a lion, which I’d probably cycled past several times without noticing it, on the road between the villages of Tai Po Tin and Sheung Shan Kai Wat:

…continued in Part 2.