HK Green Route
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Big Bus Hop On Hop Off – Green
Route, Hong
Kong  We left the Red Route bus at the start
point – Star Ferry Terminal and after waiting ten minutes got on the next bus
for The Green Route
. Plus the inset map (bottom right corner) – far left Aberdeen
(sampan ride and Jumbo Floating Restaurant), middle Repulse Bay and right
Stanley, a stop for those who fancy
an indoor market.   Sitting
at the top front of the bus Bear was very taken with this black Tesla, because of the gull
wings.  We left
the Ferry bus stop and no sooner than we had pulled into traffic, we saw a
really odd shaped
building.........   ......the Prince of
Wales Building opened in 1979 as the head office of the British Army
until Hong Kong was handed back to the Chinese. This twenty-eight storey
building now has the pithy title and officially called The Chinese People’s
Liberation Army Forces Hong Kong Building fortunately shortened to PLA Forces HK
Building. No wonder locals still use Prince of Wales or more commonly
Upside-down Gin Bottle because it resembles an upturned Gordon’s Gin Bottle. The
crucifix that was on the outside wall was taken down and now the building is
full of crack shots patrolling and keeping a lookout sporting machine guns and
those stationed here, seen as a plum posting - never allowed to leave the
building....... The IFC (International Finance Centre) was built
in 2003 on reclaimed land and at that time was the tallest building in Hong
Kong. The fifty-fifth floor is were the banking chaps look after the Hong Kong
dollar against any mishaps in value. The IFC was designed by Cesar Pelli, born
in 1926, this Argentinian American is still going strong aged ninety-two. We
have visited two of his landmark buildings – the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur
and the World Finance Centre in New York City.
  The Bank of China building had the feng-shui devotees
panties all in a bunch because of all the sharp edges and strong angles.
Designed by I M Pei, who is still going strong at one hundred and one (clearly
something to do with architects and longevity ???) was married for over seventy
years until his wife, Eileen died in 2014, Together they had three sons and a
daughter. The BCB was completed in 1990, I M Pei’s dad was the first manager of
the Bank of China during the Nationalist era. I M Pei has an incredible list of
designs all over the world, just to name one we have visited was the Louvre in
Paris, famous or infamous for the glass pyramid that had Parisians at the time
snarling at the designer in the street. The Lippo Centre – so want to say liposuction at this point
– is actually two towers at forty-four and forty-eight storeys – I could only
fit one in as we shot past. The distinct ‘C’ shapes had the feng shui followers
knickers strangling them but eventually the building was given the all clear.
However, since it went up in 1988 its fortunes have been very mixed. The one
point three million square feet that has seen some huge corporate failures is
now in the hands of an Indonesian company. Most locals now fondly refer to the
buildings as The Koala Tree or simply Koala as they thinks it looks just as the
nickname implies. We rather liked it.   In the
centre of town stands The Pawn, a four-storey iconic
landmark and historical site dating back to 1888. Acquired by the Urban Renewal
Authority is listed as a local heritage conservation and was leased to tenants
after its restoration, currently a high-class restaurant. The name is a clue to the type of business that originally
ran here, its original tenant came from a famous family who had been in the pawn
business for over a hundred years. Woo Cheong
Pawn Shop is
now a
high-class restaurant but now simply called The Pawn. St
John’s Cathedral was built in 1847 held its first Sunday Mass in 1849 and
our audio guide told us it is the oldest Anglican Church in the Far
East.  The Happy Valley or Hong Kong Cemetery has seventy-nine WWI Commonwealth burials scattered through the cemetery and sixty-two from WWII cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Christian families gather to be with their relatives on All Souls Day and party during this annual clean up. William Brodie was the oldest known Western burial in Hong Kong. He died on the 17th June 1841, aged fifty-six of malaria. He was the commander of the troopship HMS Rattlesnake, (half the crew was stricken down with what was believed to be malaria). It appears he was initially buried in Happy Valley – in those days a mosquito ridden swamp area and then relocated to Whan Chi Burial Ground. William was moved back to Happy Valley along with many others when Whan Chi was developed for housing.
  In 1982
the Aberdeen Tunnel opened. We disappeared
underground through the tunnel that eighty thousand cars use each day, popping
out at the other end the scenery changed
dramatically.   We
passed the popular attraction called Ocean Park that has a cable car, we guess
with amazing views over Repulse
Bay.   There
are mixed tales as to where the name Repulse Bay came
from but a very popular one is the fact that many, many pirates sheltered here
and began to cause grave safety concerns to merchant shipping coming and going
so in 1841 the British Navy repulsed the pirates. The
road we followed runs just back from the beach and the sandy beach is
only peeped through the trees.  The
“Building with the Hole” is The Repulse Bay, a
private residential building that from 1920 to 1982 was the colonial-style
Repulse Bay Hotel. The building comprises of four towers (the tallest being
thirty-seven floors) now houses apartments ranging in size from ninety-one to
five hundred and forty-two square metres. Bearing in mind that each square foot
in this area can fetch upwards of fifty thousand Hong Kong Dollars, the biggest
pad could fetch just shy of three hundred million pounds........ Why has it got that big hole. The feng shui bods know
that when a dragon wants to come down the mountain at the back he can take a
short cut through the hole to go paddle in the sea. Oh,
OK then, just what you expect
really........  Had we
have not known the price of real estate here we may have been surprised to come
across a Ferrari shop.   We
passed the entrance to the Cyberport, a huge area in Stanley
and went by the waterfront watching the many sampans (we intend to come over tomorrow and take a ride as
part of our bus ticket) spuddle about in the harbour. The Chinese name for
Stanley means Red Pillar or Bandits Post, another popular hang out for pirates
back in the day. The British made Stanley their temporary administrative centre
and the British troops side by side with the Canadians made a last stand during
The Battle of Hong Kong. The survivors surrendered to the Japanese Forces in
December 1941.  The
reputable Queen Mary Hospital was opened on the 13th
of April 1937 by the then Governor Andrew Caldecott and today this teaching
hospital has one thousand seven hundred and six beds.  Back through the tunnel. Amusing Planet wrote five years ago: The private cemetery on Pok Fu Lam on the western side of Hong Kong Island is an amazing sight. Built into the mountainside in terraced steps and interconnected with staircases, the cemetery resembles a giant outdoor amphitheatre. The Pok Fu Lam Cemetery, also known as the Chinese Christian Cemetery, was built in 1882 on the hills in the Pok Fu Lam neighbourhood of Hong Kong, sandwiched between Pok Fu Lam Road at the top and Victoria Road near the bottom. The cemetery was built from the higher contours and as the cemetery grew, it was expanded downwards towards Victoria Road. Today, a part of the cemetery lies beyond Victoria Road.
Everyone
has a favourite picture and mime is an odd one, a
road, but what a road, it runs along at about eight storeys high and
drops down after the left turn into a tight sweep that spirals to ground
level.    We were so cold by the time we left the bus that we went at speed to the end of the Pier, passed a Chinaman with a Red Indian headdress playing Andean pipe music and hurried on to a cafe for a cappucinno and a piece of cake. Fortified we joined the queue at six for the night tour which begins this side and ends up on the other. ALL
IN ALL A REALLY ENJOYABLE – IF COLD –
TOUR
VERY
INTERESTING |