Friday November 2, 2007
The next morning (erev Shabbat), we were up bright and early and went for a walk in the area. There were people cleaning the streets everywhere and many locals were out doing Tai Chi exercises before heading off to work.
Fran in front of our Hotel Nikko
In front of every restaurant along the way were these massive bags of noodles that had been dropped off in the early hours of the morning by foodservice supply trucks. There is an enormous amount of noodles consumed in this city.
We headed down to the waterfront and passed the famous clocktower along the way to the Star Ferry which has become a Hong Kong icon.
The Star Ferry, founded in 1888, carries passengers across Victoria Harbor, between the island and Kowloon. The fleet of twelve ferries currently operates two routes across the harbour, carrying over 70,000 passengers a day, or 26 million a year. Even though the harbour is crossed by railway and road tunnels, the Star Ferry continues to provide an inexpensive mode of harbour crossing. The company's main route runs between Central and Tsim Sha Tsui which costs about $0.20 Canadian. The famous ferry boat has been featured in many movies over the years.
Upon arrival on the other side in the area of the island known as Central, we were amazed by the way the Hong Kong city planners had dealt with the large amount of pedestrian traffic and the cramped quarters for vehicular traffic. They solved the problem by constructing overhead sidewalk walkways that connect many of the downtown buildings. That way no one has to wait for a traffic light in order to get to the other side.
Imagine finding a Chinese Laundry in China :-)
We headed immediately to the western part of the island to explore some of the most unique culinary parts of the local culture....and so we decided to go by subway....a modern and immaculately clean subway.
When we emerged from the station we were at the intersection of Ginseng and Bird's Nest Streets.
Here is a worker cleaning crabs for sale that day...
Swallow Nest company; edible bird nests, a Chinese cuisine delicacy, are among the most expensive items consumed by humans. The most famous use of edible birds nest is bird's nest soup. When dissolved in water, the birds' nests have a gelatinous texture, and is used in salty or sweet soup, as well as an ingredient in many other dishes. There were many stores selling this delicacy as we walked through the area.
Next to these stores we found Shark Fin stores. Shark fin soup dates back to the Ming Dynasty and is considered by Chinese as one of the eight treasured foods from the sea. The popularity of shark fin soup rose in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as standards of living began to improve. The dish is popular at important occasions such as weddings, banquets, and important business deals as it symbolizes wealth, power, prestige and honor. This staple of gourmet Chinese cuisine is a show of respect, honor, and appreciation to the guests.
How about another Chinese delicacy....dried lizard skins???
There were markets all over; this one selling vases of all shapes and sizes.
One of the most amazing things that we saw was the use of bamboo scaffolding in the construction or renovation of buildings. If you look closely, you can see that the bamboo rods are tied together to create a scaffold that enables the workers to scoot from one level to another along the outside of the building. It looks like a Spiderman movie. In the photo below, look closely and you can see the workers. No straps, no safety standards....wonder how many workman compensation claims there are in China???
This system is not used just on low rise buildings but also on high rises as in the picture below.
It was now time to eat and we decided to go up to the JCC on Robinson Road at what they call midlevels. It is basically halfway up the mountain that dominates the center of Hong Kong Island. You can take a cab, you can take a bus; but we decided to take the escalator. In the photo below, to the left of the pathway, you can see the escalator that takes you all the way up to Robinson Road. It comes in really handy on Shabbat if you are staying down near the Harbor. However, you have to check the timing because at certain times of the day, the escalator only goes up and at others it only goes down.
The JCC is housed in a beautiful modern high rise building situated in front of the original Ohel Leah Synagogue built in 1901.
The Jewish Community dates back to the 1840's when the Kadoorie family arrived to this trading island. The earliest community, largely Sefaradic and dominated by the Kadoorie and Sasoon families, was formed in the 1880s with 70 families that grew to over 100 by 1920.
The Ohel Leah synagogue was built in 1901 by Sir Jacob Sassoon in memory of his mother Leah. It is an absolutely beautiful structure.
In the early 1900's the Kadoorie family established the Jewish club which is the precursor to the JCC. The club was looted and destroyed by the Japanese in WWII and has since been rebuilt. The synagogue survived the war, tho' Jewish life came to a halt during the war.
Today there are 240 families affiliated with the shul; many more tourists attend the services and use the wonderful facilities.
In the ark of the shul are a number of Torah scrolls that were discovered in 1974 by a German friar, Hubert Vogt, while he was shopping in the Cat Street Market. They are believed to have been owned by the Kaifeng Jews in China.
The Torahs were purchased by Sir Lawrence Kadoorie for $5000HK and gifted to the shul.
The new high rise was built by the community and it provides ongoing income for the community. Areas of the high rise were reserved for the community and include an Olympic Swimming Pool, a gym, meat and dairy restaurants, a kosher market, day school and community offices.
The rest of the building was sold off as condominiums. There is extensive security and you have to have ID to enter the jewish areas of the building.
We enjoyed a wonderful lunch and then headed back down to the centre of town to do some pre-Shabbat shopping.
In the covered area near the Star Ferry dock on the Island side is a wonderful supermarket that carried many "western" products, many with hechsherim. There, we were able to find "western" milk; the most popular being Paul's milk from Australia which is carried in the Hong Kong area as a UHT (long life unrefrigerated) product. We bought some for use in the hotel as the local rabbanim have ruled that Rav Moshe Feinstein's heter to use "unsupervised" milk only applies in countries where one can trust the government regulations. They do not feel at this time that this heter would apply to China or many other Far East countries.
We took the ferry back and headed to our hotel to prepare for Shabbat.
No comments:
Post a Comment