Exploring Central

Friday 22 November

I got the tram to go the Man Mo Temple first of all. It’s a little oasis of spiritualism amongst the hubbub of commerce. A businessman was there doing a taxi tour with some guests. They were in and out rapido. I lingered a bit to take it all in. Buddhism is a mystery to me and I am amazed seeing people coming in and falling on their knees in front of an effigy. I need to read up on it all. 

Then on to the Dr Sun Yat-Sen museum. This is in a house originally built and owned by a rich merchant, and more recently owned by the Church of The Latter Day Saints. Anyway after a year’s negotiations the house was sold to the authorities to make way for the museum to this man, one of the founders of modern China. It’s a well-laid out and informative museum. What I got from it in brief was that China was in a dark age with the Quing dynasty in the second half of the 19^th century. Dr Sun visited  Honolulu and was struck by the difference between the modern west and backward china and decided China must modernise. He was living in Guanzhou and came to HK to study medicine where he also furthered his political thinking, joining up with three others. From HK, he planned uprisings in China and was eventually banned from HK. He travelled the world including a visit to London where he was kidnapped by the Chinese legation and freed by an English doctor friend. Eventually the uprisings proved successful and Dr Sun was the first president of the new China. I hope that's correct.

That evening, I went back to Central and walked around LKF and SoHo, taking in a noodle bar for a messy wonton and beef noodle. Although the area is full of restaurants and bars that are right up the Western street, I find the place a bit depressing. The restaurants seem to exist to take the money off people who have loads to spend and are desperate to find things to spend it on – to justify, I suppose, the effort of earning it in the first place. Many of the restaurants are supplying what we westerners normally go for - the French / Italian style. Although I feel naturally drawn to that ambience, it seems much more fun to go Chinese when one is here. As for the bars, they seem full of :

• Blokes (25-35) alone or in twos wishing they had a girlfriend
• Groups of more blokes (25-35) than girls (25-35) with the girls having a high old time with all that attention
• Older men who seem to have settled for the expat Hong Kong life long-term

An all too easy environment to have another drink in the forlorn hope of bolstering one's chat-up line and meeting Miss Right.