university waltz

It would probably be a stretch of the imagination to describe the Chinese University of Hong Kong (ChineseU) as a tourist attraction, but the university campus is a pleasant place to spend a few hours. I almost wrote ‘strolling’ there, but the university is built on a steep hillside, so you would have to be extremely fit to walk from the MTR’s University station to the highest point on the campus.

However, over the past two days, I’ve done just that. Paula, who works here, had asked me to join her for lunch. But not just any lunch! Students in the School of Business had been assigned the task of running a ‘restaurant’ for a day, and we would be customers. We enjoyed the food provided on both days, and it seemed appropriate to go for a walk afterwards.

On the first day, we stayed at ground level, where I took these photographs:

However, on the second day, Paula suggested that we visit some of the higher reaches of the campus. We could take the (university-provided) bus, she added as an inducement. But we didn’t! The following photographs are presented in the order in which they were taken, except where indicated.

I featured some of the various paving patterns to be seen around ChineseU in both Tile Styles and Pavement Mathematics, but here is one pattern that I didn’t include in either of these posts:

I took the next photo simply because I liked the geometry:

This is a wall that forms part of a building. The photo is of the entire wall, so it is clearly a decorative feature:

There are a lot of delightful, quiet paths away from the roads:

In the same area as the last photograph, I couldn’t help but notice four paper-bark trees growing so closely together that it’s hard to believe that they are separate individuals:

I do believe that they are separate though, because there is little difference between them, and if they did share the same root system, my expectation is that there would be some kind of preferential treatment for one of the four.

Between the location of the previous photo and that of the next, we had to negotiate a flight of several hundred steps, but at the top I couldn’t help but notice this entrance:

The writing announces that plants used in Chinese medicine are being grown within.

The next photo shows an ornamental species of bamboo to the left of the entrance in the previous photo:

Contrast this species with the type of bamboo that is used in scaffolding, which is seen in this photo of a building that we passed higher up the hill:

Not all the ‘tile styles’ hereabouts are outdoors. I photographed this pattern in the foyer of a building that I believe is part of the Faculty of Engineering:

The next photo is a view of the Run Run Shaw Science Building:

If the name seems familiar: Run Run Shaw was one of the Shaw Brothers, who produced a distinctive and very successful genre of kung fu films during the 1970s. The colouring of the windows appears to be random and thus not science-based.

I’ve not included the next photo, of the Li Dak Sum Yip Yio Chin Building, for æsthetic reasons. I just wanted to point out that it is nothing more than a glass façade, behind which the profile of the hillside continues uninterrupted.

The building in the previous photograph adjoins the university library, and this abstract sculpture is located in the middle of the piazza in front of the library:

I couldn’t help but wonder why the university authorities located the library so far up the hill—hardly an incentive for students to check out references provided in lectures—and I also imagined what would happen if this ‘stone stomper’ were to come to life!

And this is a view of the same location from even further up the hill:

I had the distinct impression that the colouring of some blocks in this retaining wall was both deliberate and significant in some way:

…like the next image, which is a bas-relief plaque set into the wall of a building:

I can’t interpret everything here, but I see a woman and child just right of centre, and a reclining man down and to the left. I’ve cranked up the colour saturation and contrast to make this more obvious.

I had to photograph the retaining walls seen in the next two photos because there were obvious abstract qualities to exploit:

In terms of where to go around the campus, I’m totally reliant on my wife, but when we ended up on the roof of a particular building on our way downhill, I simply had to take the next photo:

You can see why! In fact, Paula told me later that she had come this way deliberately because she knew that I would want to take this photograph.

My final photo is of a tile pattern that I’d photographed on the way uphill, but I decided to take this one from the opposite direction.

If, like me, you enjoy tile and brick patterns, then ChineseU is a must-visit location. But even if you don’t, there is still a lot to see.

jailhouse rock

When what we call the frontier road, which runs from northwest of Sheung Shui to Lok Ma Chau, was opened to the public in 2013—it had previously been part of a zone that had been designated ‘the frontier closed area’ by the British administration—it didn’t take long to check out the various options. There are only two road junctions: leading to the village of Liu Pok, and thence via Liu Pok Hill to Ma Tso Lung Road; and via Ma Tso Lung Road, through the village of Ma Tso Lung to the same point. If I didn’t want to go back all the way following the same road as on the outward journey, these were the only options.

Ma Tso Lung Road is reasonably rural for the first few kilometres, but as one proceeds southwards, the incidence of quasi-industrial premises, and the frequency with which one encounters industrial traffic, steadily increases. To the point where no sane cyclist would continue. On my first foray here, I did cycle as far as the junction with Ho Sheung Heung Road, but it was immediately obvious that I needed a better way to return to my starting point.

And I found it! A quiet road, unmetalled in part, allowed me to avoid all the industrial premises on both roads on the way back to the start. So the routine became outwards on the frontier road, back via Liu Pok Hill and Ma Tso Lung Road, then Ho Sheung Heung Road, which, after a short but steep ascent, includes a long downhill section where I can reach a speed of 45km/hr.

Mentioning the speed here is relevant to the continuing story. The start of the frontier road coincides with the end of Ho Sheung Heung Road, and the plan was always from this point to follow the Drainage Services (DSD) access road that runs alongside the Sheung Yue River as far as the expressway, which we could then cross via a footbridge before continuing out west. However, when travelling at the aforementioned speed, you cannot allow yourself to be distracted—your focus must be straight ahead—but on one occasion, as I passed the Lo Wu Correctional Institution, I couldn’t help but notice a car waiting to pull out of a side road on the right:

Where does that lead to? Naturally, I had to come back later to find out. It leads to the village of Ho Sheung Heung San Tsuen. Ho Sheung Heung (‘village above the river’) is the name of an important nearby village, and san tsuen simply means ‘new village’, so it’s clearly a kind of overspill, albeit with some obviously important buildings. However, was there anything else? I found a typical country path, which led—surprise! surprise!—to Ho Sheung Heung.

Here are some video stills of Paula on that path:

It will probably not be a surprise to learn that we no longer follow the DSD access road on our way out west. After exiting this segment, we follow ‘the heart of darkness’ and the serendipity alleyways to reach ‘long tall sally’. Even though a dedicated cycle track is currently being constructed in parallel with the DSD access road. Our new way is a lot more fun!

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you will probably have already deduced why I’ve named this segment ‘jailhouse rock’. Yes, it starts at the prison, but you will have noticed that I named a segment that I discovered two years ago ‘long tall sally’. I grew up with fifties music, and one of these days I’ll post an assessment of what I consider the top ten records of the decade. However, I can’t foresee any circumstance where I would name a newly discovered cycling segment ‘summertime blues’—the record of the 1950s, in my opinion—or ‘great balls of fire’. ‘Yakety yak’? Possibly.

here be dragons

In the early days of cartography, there would have been areas on a proposed map about which nothing was known, and rather than leave an empty space, the map-maker would fill that space with the words ‘here be dragons’. In the Christian tradition, however, dragons are the embodiment of evil, so the likes of Saint Michael and Saint George could be seen as heroes simply by killing one.

The Chinese have a different idea. Dragons are benevolent creatures, and seeing one is a sign of good fortune for the beholder. You may think that this is entirely fanciful, but if so, perhaps I can draw your attention to the photograph on the right, which I took from my balcony several years ago. The mountain is Lung Yeuk Tau (‘leaping dragon head’), so named because, according to local legend, a dragon was once seen leaping around hereabouts, and Lung Yeuk Tau is now the official name for this whole area, which even boasts a heritage trail!

Western and Chinese dragons don’t look remotely similar. The principal difference is that Chinese dragons don’t have wings. This doesn’t mean that Chinese dragons cannot fly. As supernatural beings, they don’t need wings to fly! And Chinese dragons are more obviously reptilian, as many of the photos below indicate. Neither do they breathe fire.

I’ve been photographing representative images of dragons for the past couple of months, but I want to start with some photos that I took in November 2015. I was cycling along part of ‘journey to the west’ with my friend Vlad when we encountered preparations for a dragon dance that involved a dragon far longer than any that I’d ever seen previously:

The third photo shows just how long this dragon was—I believe that it was part of the festivities for a decennial gathering of the local clan, members of which are nowadays scattered around the world. I’d never previously seen anything even remotely like it!

The remaining photos are presented in approximately chronological order.

When my cousin was staying with us last month, the first place I took him to was the Wun Chuen Sin Koon Monastery east of Fanling. There is a huge amount to see here, but one thing you could not fail to notice is the elaborate decoration both inside and outside the main buildings. And part of that decoration is recurring dragon motifs:

The lower strip also features phœnixes, which represent the female principle (dragons are male).

I was exploring an area north of Ting Kok Road, east of Taipo, when I rode past a small temple without noticing it. I stopped a short distance further on simply because I was unsure where to go next, and in any case I needed a drink of water. I looked back, and I decided immediately that I had to turn back:

The temple is dedicated to the goddess Guanyin, and this is a close-up of the supporting pillar you can see in the previous photo:

It’s customary for a tripod filled with sand to be located in front of a temple into which worshippers can plant their burning joss sticks, and in this case two dragons appear to be ‘supporting’ the sides:

In the same area, I also visited the Shuen Wan Temples. There is a lot of detail to admire here (I featured the door gods in More Door Gods #3), but these are the dragons on one of the gable ends:

The arrangement of two dragons facing each other with a pearl between them occurs again below:

Che Kung Temple is one of the best-known in Hong Kong, but while there is a lot to see, this wall plaque is the only thing featuring a dragon motif:

I was following the long way home recently when I spotted that the Peng Ancestral Hall was open—it had always been closed when I passed—and I found this dragon painted on the hinged screen behind the main doors:

I visited San Tin, which is a heavily developed village area west of Fanling, for the first time recently. There are several attractions here, including Tung Shan Temple. Like the small temple that I described above, there is a tripod for incense in front of the main door. This is the dragon on the side facing away from the temple:

…while this photo shows the dragons ‘supporting’ the two sides:

There are no door gods guarding this temple, but the door knockers (there are two) look suitably fearsome:

Ho Sheung Heung (‘village above the river’), a short distance west of the main railway line through Fanling, has a recently renovated temple with some interesting features. The tripod here is brass rather than stone, with two elaborately cast dragon ‘handles’:

…while this view from the back of the temple shows two ceramic dragons facing each other along the roof ridge:

The village has been holding a major festival recently, and although I wasn’t there to see it, the festivities will almost certainly have included a dragon dance. The temple is where the dragon ‘hides’ when it isn’t dancing:

There are more dragons inside the temple:

…and even the ‘windows’ feature a dragon motif:

This temple is also where I photographed a ceramic panel that features Ao Guang, the dragon king of the east sea:

Finally, here is something that I would have included in Stone the Crows, my account of how Chinese farmers protect their crops from thieving birds, except that I saw it for the first time while cycling on the long and winding road with Paula on Saturday.

It hadn’t been there a week earlier.