photographic highlights 2022–23: part 2

…continued from Part 1.

I was walking along an elevated walkway near Sheung Shui station in January when I happened to look down:

This is a typical display by a street seller of fruit, which looks quite surreal when viewed from this angle.

The next photo shows the last bridge across the Ng Tung River before it disappears over the border into China. It is located immediately west of the main railway line into China, shortly after it is joined by the Sheung Yue River:

Although I wrote about a visit to North District Park last month, I walked through part of the park back in January, when I took this photo of a banyan. It is just one tree:

You may just be able to make out two trees in the background on the right with hessian sacking around their trunks. This is because they have been afflicted by brown root rot disease, which is caused by the fungus Phellinus noxius. The sacking has been impregnated with a suitable fungicide.

Paula and I were walking along the path out of Ha Shan Kai Wat, one of the most unfriendly villages I’ve visited over the years, when I spotted these ceramic figures by the side of the path. The figure in the foreground is a laughing Buddha, but I can’t identify the heavily armed martial figure, although it certainly isn’t Guan Gung (‘Old Man Guan’):

I’m constantly amazed by the unexpected. I took the next photo in a small park/sports ground next to Sha Tau Kok Road. My interpretation may not be correct, but the girl guide is holding two masks representing tragedy and comedy. However, I can’t explain why the boy scout is holding a coffee pot in one hand and a potted cactus in the other:

The road from Kwan Tei North to Ha Shan Kai Wat passes a large pond at one point, and I often see lotus leaves around the edges. This photo has a solitary lotus flower in the foreground:

You can see Queen’s Hill Estate in the background on the left, while the other high-rise blocks are private estates in east Fanling. The giant pipe across the pond carries water from China.

The previous photo was taken while we were looking for a possible short cut, and during this ultimately fruitless diversion, I also took this photo of a cute dragon on a grave in the same area:

The next photo was taken in our neighbourhood, in the independent (not established by the Tang clan) village of Shung Him Tong:

I don’t understand why all the figures here appear to be laughing. At first glance, the row of three figures in the background would appear to be the three immortals, who aren’t supposed to laugh, but the central figure, Luk, who represents power and influence, has been replaced by a second Sau, who represents longevity! Why?

The next two photos were taken in Tsuen Wan, an industrial area (originally) that is in the New Territories, although in practical terms it is part of Kowloon. The first photo, looking west, shows the first of three suspension bridges that we cross when we travel to the airport, with the island of Tsing Yi on the left. The second photo was taken from the same point, looking back towards the east, with the sun reflecting off one of the high-rise buildings and back onto the water:

While I was unable to ride my bike earlier this year, I investigated the paths that lead off Po Kak Tsai Road. I don’t consider this area to be part of our neighbourhood, although it is within walking distance of where we live. And I came across this brightly painted house on one of these paths:

One of the blocks of Queen’s Hill Estate can be seen in the background.

The path that passes this house eventually leads into the grounds of Lung Shan Temple, a modern multi-storey building at the end of Po Kak Tsai Road. When I decided to walk around a meditation pond, I spotted two ‘dinosaurs’ constructed out of irregular pieces of limestone:

Although the British administration initiated some imaginative schemes to resolve Hong Kong’s chronic water supply problems, nowadays most of the territory’s water comes from China via huge pipelines like these ones:

This is a view looking north, with the main rail line into China on the right. The pipe on the left is about 1.5 metres in diameter, but those on the right are slightly smaller.

All the photos of the Ng Tung River that I included in Part 1 were taken from a bridge across the river, but this one was taken from the south bank:

We never used to follow the track on this side of the river, but the Drainage Services Department (DSD) access road on the far side is now blocked by construction work.

Ho Sheung Heung is a large village on the west bank of the Sheung Yue River. It already had a village arch on the main road into the village, but this one, which marks the entry point into the village from the DSD access road, has only recently been completed:

You can tell that it has only recently been opened because of the red ribbons. It is guarded by two lions, and there are two dragons on the top. The fine details on the lower crossbeam are incredible.

What’s the next photo about? I don’t think anyone will guess:

As part of the preparation work for construction along our local river, large numbers of trees were cut down, including three splendid eucalyptus trees. However, what you see in the photo is these three trees regenerating. Bush today, tree tomorrow (hopefully).

The next photo was taken from a footbridge over the railway a short distance south of the location of the photo of water pipes above:

I don’t know where the fifth pipe came from (there are just four further north).

During the covid-19 pandemic, I never cycled ‘down south’, because although any ride in that direction is entirely on cycle tracks, it involves close contact with people, especially when passing through Taipo, but I’ve started cycling there again. This photo is of part of the wall surrounding a school in the Tai Wai area:

The entire surrounding wall is like this!

And this is a mural that I came across on the wall of a nearby cycle track interchange:

Whenever I cycle ‘down south’, I always detour away from the main north–south cycle track around the area known as Providence Bay, an area of upmarket housing estates. I stopped to take this photo because of the bougainvillea, but you can also see that the cycle track is completely isolated from traffic on the road:

…continued in Part 3.