Saturday, August 27, 2011

Ching Chung Koon Temple and Symphony of Lights at Victoria Harbour


So we finally got a rest from the orientation craziness of the past few days yesterday, which means it was high time for some sightseeing! After meeting up with another exchange student from Sweden (who could speak Cantonese - great!), we took a light rail train a few stops to Ching Chung Koon Temple. The entrance doesn't really look like much - a small gate surrounded by high bushes - but you know there's something special about it when it's surrounded by skyscrapers and high rises.

First thing we notice is how quiet it is - this will make a nice place to get away and relax! So it is a Taoist temple,  which means there are some special buildings. There's a main hall where you bow and present an offering of incense - my friend said that it's a way to pay respect at the temple. There's also rooms and rooms full of small placards, about the size of bookmarks, with the photos and names of the deceased. People come here to present incense and offerings of food (oranges seem to be popular) to them. From classes I've taken at W&J, it also is customary to burn special paper money that the deceased can use in the afterlife (not REAL paper money - it's a special kind made exclusively for this purpose).

Favorite place
There's also room after room of special altars with gorgeous decorations, and a heavy scent of incense wafting through the air. Our favorite place was the rock garden featuring a waterfall and pagoda. The bonsai trees were also impressive - these aren't the small dinky ones they sell at the mall! They're about as thick as me around, haha. I read that this is a relatively new temple as well, dating only to around 1949.





Holy cow, this is ridiculous - in a good way!
After a few hours nap, it was nice to go to the big city - yes, Kowloon and Hong Kong Island! We went in the evening, partly because it's a lot cooler, and mostly because we went to see the Symphony of Lights, the Guinness Book of World Record's official largest permanent light show! The lights are installed at the top and side of buildings on either side of Central HK, and it was amazing to think how long it must have taken to synchronize the lights with the music. We stood with people from around the world taking in the grandness of it all, the lights reflecting on the water as the ferries went back and forth in the Harbour.

1 comment:

  1. Simply Amazing! Thanks for taking all of the pictures.
    -Lance-

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