History and Culture in Sheung Wan

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, some people are back to work, while many more seem to away still.  My wife and I decided to take advantage of the day to prowl around Sheung Wan.  Our first stop was Lin Heung Restaurant (蓮香樓), which was said to be closing at the end of the month.  By 9:30 am, it was full of people.  Worse, there were dozens of people milling around or standing at the back of people eating, themselves waiting for a table.  We beat our retreat quickly.  

One reason I keep coming back is the nice paintings and calligraphy.  But today is not the right time to enjoy them.  

Next stop was Tai Kwun (大館), the old Central Police Station and Jail.  

It has a lot of history but was closed for years.  Now it has been nicely tidied up.  Ho Chi Minh (胡志明), the leader of the Vietnamese Communists in its war of independence in the 1940s and 50s, as well as the Vietnamese War in the 1960s and early 70s, was once jailed here in 1931.  

Peter Godber (葛柏), a notorious Chief Superintendent of the Hong Kong Police arrested for corruption in 1974, was once led up these stairs to be incarcerated in the jail here.  His case led directly to the creation of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), an establishment which did a lot to clean up the government of Hong Kong.  That is something we are very proud of.  Unfortunately, some developments since 1997 seem to be weakening the results of that hard work.  

From there, we moved up Tai Ping Shan to the Jamia Mosque.  

It was clean, quiet and welcoming.  The people were friendly and spoke Cantonese well.  

Giving us a look into the Muslim community in Hong Kong.  

We then moved westward to the Jewish Ohel Leah Synagogue.  In contrast to the mosque, the synagogue was closed to visitors, locked behind fences.  A security guard queried us when we tried to take pictures of the synagogue, in a polite way.  He told us that we can approach the synagogue to request for a visit.  

Moving down the mountain, we arrived at the Gong Fun Temple (廣福義祠).  

For a long time, starting more than a hundred years ago, it took care of people who were poor and sick, people who died in Hong Kong away from home, and other people in need. 

Now some memorial tablets (牌位) of the dead remain in the temple.  But no new ones are allowed, even though many people are willing to pay very large amounts to have their tablets set up there.  

Moving back east, we dropped by the very busy Man Mo Temple (文武廟).  It was filled with people and smoke from the burning incenses.  We didn’t stay long this time.  We had been here many times before, when it was less crowded so that we could study it more carefully.  This time, we simply want to get a feeling how busy it can be.  

Some people, all dressed up in brightly coloured clothes in a style popular many decades ago, were having their pictures taken amid all the hurly-burly.  It felt rather incongruent; but perhaps it was just me.  Those people seemed to be rather enjoying themselves.  

Towards the end, we passed by a Cha Chang Tang famous for Hong Kong-style milk tea (港式奶茶), with dozens of people lining up to get in.  Most of them seemed to be tourists from Chinese Mainland.  This kind of scene is now very common across Hong Kong.  

Such is the rich and diverse history of Hong Kong, all within a short walking distance, if you know where to look.