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Inside Swatow Plaza

2011-01-01

Swatow Plaza opened about five months ago on Boulevard St-Laurent in Montreal’s Chinatown. It took three years to build, but its biggest would-be tenants have yet to move in, such as the Japanese restaurant on the ground floor, and a Chinese restaurant at its very top. In the meanwhile, small boutiques are occupying the first … Continue reading “Inside Swatow Plaza”

In the meanwhile, small boutiques are occupying the first floor. The alleys are wide and shops are arranged in alcoves. My impression upon visiting on a Thursday night before Christmas was that the boutique area on the first floor had too many people behind the counter than people shopping. Being on a first floor when the second and ground floor didn’t have shops open added to the awkwardness.

Foggy morning on the ferry

2010-12-19

The day before the very cold two days in Hong Kong (13℃ during the day and 7℃ at night in urban areas), there was an episode of fog for most of the day of Tuesday…

Found: 1970s Hong Kong Tourist Association Official Guidebook

2010-12-05

Hong Kong Tourism Association Official Guidebook (circa 1977) Before leaving for Hong Kong, I brought with me this copy of an “official guidebook” distributed by the Hong Kong Tourist Association (香港旅遊協會), the precursor of the Hong Kong Tourism Board (香港旅遊發展局). My dad had given it to me some time ago when he was digging up … Continue reading “Found: 1970s Hong Kong Tourist Association Official Guidebook”

Hong Kong Tourism Association Official Guidebook (circa 1977)

Before leaving for Hong Kong, I brought with me this copy of an “official guidebook” distributed by the Hong Kong Tourist Association (香港旅遊協會), the precursor of the Hong Kong Tourism Board (香港旅遊發展局). My dad had given it to me some time ago when he was digging up his junk, and presumably picked it up when he and my mom got married in 1977, at the Lee Gardens Hotel, where the Manulife Plaza now stands (see map).

Flipping through it, I saw that the exchange rate was HK$4.70 for each US$1, compared with the HK$7.77 pegged rate today. It was during a short period of nine years when the Hong Kong dollar floated.

Lee Gardens Hotel, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong (circa 1973)

View of the Harbour in late 1973

“Because only Pan Am fly the new Boeing 747SP”

Visit places like Tiger Balm Gardens in Tai Hang

And now the racier parts

Hong Kong Night Life

54 D’Aguilar Street, that’s at the middle of today’s Lan Kwai Fong

Do I need to say that this is an official guidebook produced for and endorsed by a government-funded organisation?

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The Nikkormat EL was Nikon’s first electronic camera…

…but my dad was actually a fan of Minolta and had one similar to the one in this advert. On the right, Braun also made video cameras with sound…

Wearing real fur in the 1970s was still very politically correct. I mean, look at this, it’s imported from Scandinavia!

The Dark Side

View of Kowloon in the 1970s

“Public transport in the 80s.” The Cross-Harbour tunnel and the MTR were still just a project… Wikipedia has a clearer map of the first MTR line that would open in 1979 between Central (Chater) and Kwun Tong. Other retro station names: Waterloo (Yau Ma Tei) and Argyle (Mong Kok).

Finally, we found that the publishers of the booklet, Kwun Tong based A-O-A Offset Press Limited is in business!

Central Pier #4 (Lamma) made into a giant advertisement and launch party for Cartier

2010-11-27

We have no idea what this is for, but in about two weeks, they built this giant red box on top of the Lamma pier (#4) in Central, Hong Kong. We theorized half-jokingly that it was perhaps a deluxe stripper’s club, because the flashiness just points to that. We finally had our answer this Friday … Continue reading “Central Pier #4 (Lamma) made into a giant advertisement and launch party for Cartier”

We finally had our answer this Friday night when what looked like an exclusive party was in the process of being hosted on top of the pier to the least anti-glamour outlying island of Lamma.

In general, this blog approves of urban development, but this is just wrong and a total eyesore — I was told that they were going to add such 2/F levels to all the other piers who don’t already have one. We wonder if they are going to take it down any time, or it’s going to stay there to forever block our ever-receding harbour’s view.

Fête nationale et de ma première année à Hong Kong

2010-10-05

October 1st is the day of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (in 1949) and otherwise National Day, and most importantly, a well-deserved public holiday in China and Hong Kong. It’s also what I consider the day of my arrival in Hong Kong last year. *** Le 1er octobre est jour de Fête … Continue reading “Fête nationale et de ma première année à Hong Kong”

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Le 1er octobre est jour de Fête nationale en Chine et à Hong Kong, et aussi le jour de mon arrivée à Hong Kong en 2009. Je me souviendrai de ce spectacle de feux d’artifice l’année dernière qui se terminait alors que mon autobus en provenance de l’aéroport longea le port de Hong Kong. Cette année, j’étais sur un bateau avec des amis… un bateau qui nous a donné bien des frissons, tant la mer était houleuse avec les dizaines d’autres embarcations civiles dans le port en même temps.

L’Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal recrute… par les médias chinois !

2010-09-14

Par hasard je suis tombé sur cette nouvelle publicité virale réalisée pour nul autre que l’Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal, un hôpital du CHUM ! En haut à droite, le nom de la » station de télé «, c’est 也不上哪, qui veut dire (je pense) que ça ne sortira nulle part. 🙂 Façon originale de … Continue reading “L’Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal recrute… par les médias chinois !”

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This is an advertisement for recruitment at the Sacré-Cœur Montreal hospital that I found by chance while surfing on a local Montreal news portal. Featuring a former baseball commentator and two professional hockey players, you would probably pick up pretty quickly that this is not real news. The Chinese characters on the top right corner 也不上哪 (ye bu shang na) mean that “it won’t be broadcast anywhere”. Interesting and original way to spoof mainland Chinese media in Quebec!

東宮西宮 East Wing West Wing & Les parlementeries

2010-08-28

Quebec: Les parlementeries Les parlementeries is a mid-late-90s comedy show that marked my youth growing up in Quebec. Two dozens of stand-up comedians would play the roles of fictional politicians in a parliament context, often based on their own trademark character. The “Parlementeries” title is itself a play on word, being a portmanteau of “parliament” … Continue reading “東宮西宮 East Wing West Wing & Les parlementeries”

Quebec: Les parlementeries

Les parlementeries is a mid-late-90s comedy show that marked my youth growing up in Quebec. Two dozens of stand-up comedians would play the roles of fictional politicians in a parliament context, often based on their own trademark character.

The “Parlementeries” title is itself a play on word, being a portmanteau of “parliament” and “lying” in French.

One of the YouTube videos I found featured an insult match between both “black” and “white” parties and their representatives, all pretty much household fictional characters impersonated by the best comedians of the time, many of which are still active today.

After a ten-year hiatus since 1997-98, Les parlementeries came back to the theatre in 2008, although received a bit of lukewarm welcome from reviewers. You can find many clips over on YouTube.

Hong Kong: 東宮西宮 East Wing West Wing

A little by chance, I saw this bus stop advertisement at Central Piers on 東宮西宮. After figuring out the characters and googling, I realized that this was in fact their ninth edition already!

This is a trailer made for their next show coming in late September. The advert is a spoof of Inception, but I don’t know what the show will contain. The title for this edition is 十大九官. Literally it means the ten big nine officials. But apparently the two last characters 九官 (nine officials) is the name for mockingbird in Chinese!

The big difference between 東宮西宮 East Wing West Wing and Les parlementeries is that the former involves real-life politicians from the executive council. Hong Kong might not have universal suffrage, but it can poke fun at its top politicians! Perhaps because of that, the focus is perhaps a little more political and focused on real-issues (rather than being of death matches between comedians on general-interest topics).

You will find lots of videos of this comedy show on the Internet. The ubiquitous figure with the bow-tie is Donald Tsang.

In previous years, real-life progressive legislative council member Tanya Chan even participated in the play. You can think of her as the darling of social liberals. She played a leading role in the play in September 2009.

東宮西宮 East Wing West Wing also has a Facebook page.

The Sea Superb 海永: A new ship on the Lamma Island ferry service

2010-08-08

Lamma Island has a new ferry ship! HKKF, the company that runs the ferry service between Central and Lamma Island has a new ship on this route. I don’t know when it first sailed (it could have been off rush hour), but I took it on both Thursday and Friday mornings at 8:20AM from Yung … Continue reading “The Sea Superb 海永: A new ship on the Lamma Island ferry service”

According to the ship’s manufacturer Cheoy Lee Shipwards, the Sea Superb (or 海永 / Hoi Yong / “Sea Forever” in Chinese) is different from other catamarans operated by HKKF on the Central-Yung Shue Wan route and also built by Cheoy Lee. It is 32m long instead of the 28m basic models, like I think the Sea Superior and Sea Smooth are. The rear deck of the Superb is indeed noticeably longer.

Now I wonder what they will do when the second boat arrives too. Is HKKF going to reassign the other boats to different routes from Central, or are we going to see the reappearance of a night ferry…

Rainy Lamma Island

2010-08-07

Trying to predict weather in the summertime, especially in a tropical region, sounds like a daunting task. It was perfectly sunny in the morning of Wednesday, and at lunchtime when I went out on my lunch hour, and just slightly cloudy when I got off work. Thus my tweet that day: “Good thing I left … Continue reading “Rainy Lamma Island”

Thus my tweet that day: “Good thing I left my umbrella at work; good thing I decided to take it home. Thunderstorms in the Harbour now.”

Once I boarded the ship, thunder started lighting up the skies, and rain was hitting hard on the hull. Once we were on Lamma, many people obviously forgot their umbrella somewhere, and were stranded at the Yung Shue Wan ferry pier while the storm was raging. As I finally decided to brave the ten minutes between the pier and my home, a man came rushing by with a large orange parasol, which could have been more suited planted on a sunny beach or on a terrasse than between someone’s arms.

I walked through the village. I came home early that day — it was just 7PM when I arrived on Lamma. Many shops were still open, but their owners were busy looking at the rain, chatting with each other from across the street.

It rained and thundered for the rest of the evening, but I was happy to stay home, coding away on my computer. It turned out that it was not one of those dreaded black rain storm alerts, although it made it to TVB’s late evening report as a red rain storm alert, the level just below.

Fresh eggplant on Lamma Island

2010-08-02

Last week, I was walking on the path behind the famous dessert tofu place in Lamma (where you need to pass to get to the Power Plant Beach), and saw an eggplant field, alongside other vegetable. It turns out that the farmer sometimes go down to Yung Shue Wan’s main street with his load of … Continue reading “Fresh eggplant on Lamma Island”