cycling in the sticks

Yesterday, Paula and I cycled down to Shatin, where there is an extensive network of dedicated cycle tracks. The plan was to check out some of these tracks that we’d never cycled along before, but I also wanted to photograph a mural that we’d cycled past last week without stopping. This photo was taken from the northernmost bridge across the Shing Mun River that carries a cycle track:

It isn’t obvious from this photo, but there is a cycle track running along the riverbank here. The existence of a major highway directly behind the cycle track is indicated by the road sign.

It isn’t possible to get far enough away to capture the entire mural in a single photo, so I’ve arranged the following photos in order from left to right so that you can get some idea of the layout of the imagery.

This is the left-hand section of the mural:

…and this is a closer view of the left-hand end:

I didn’t notice the waterfall and lake when taking the photos, and I have no idea of the intended purpose of the vertical columns, whether they are supporting the sky or the highway above and behind the mural.

This is the central section:

It may not be obvious, but there are two monkeys in the background that are also riding bicycles. I did think that they could have been intended to be bears, except that there are no bears in Hong Kong, while macaques are indigenous, although I haven’t seen one for quite a few years. This is a closer look at one of them:

This is the right-hand section of the mural:

…and this is a closer view of the right-hand end:

Notice that the ‘columns’ extend all the way to the corner where the mural bends forward towards the cycle track, which isn’t the case at the left-hand end.

I imagine that this mural is intended to celebrate cycling in Hong Kong, although when we cycle along this track there isn’t a lot of traffic. However, we never come this way on weekends and public holidays nowadays, because based on our experience more than a decade ago, when we used to cycle to Sham Chung on the Sai Kung Peninsula, all the cycle tracks hereabouts are literally clogged with cyclists, and it isn’t a lot of fun to have to navigate a way through.