Nov 9, 2010

Shau Kei Wan aka 4 temples,1 museum,and a church

 Shau Kei Wan which means pail bay used to be a haven for ships and a typhoon shelter, it has a lot of temples dedicated to deities for fishermen for this reason.  Ok, so I went to Shau Kei Wan and as you can tell from the title I was stoked! One area with all these things equals grand excitement. However, I was not so excited when I got to the first temple -Shing Wong Temple- and found out that I cannot take photos...its illegal! Yeah that's right the temple is protected under the Chinese Government Temple society blah blah blah. So I took some photos of the outside and went on my way to the next temple- Tin Hau Temple (tin hau is the goddess of the sea)- yeah I got there and again no photos! Pfffft I turned my flash off and went into stealth mode. I think I got three and then got in trouble, apparently my stealth mode needs improvement. So next I went to the Tsung Tsin Church, this church was built by the Hakkas with the help of Swiss Basel Priests and during the Japanese invasion served as a military headquarters. Got there and it was closed so took some photos of the outside and then continued on to the next temple- Yuk Wong Temple (yuk wong is the protector from floods and saver of peoples lives). This one was a bit more difficult to find and a bit not worth the trek, haha. Although later i learned its more of a shrine than a temple which made more sense, and yes there was a no photo sign but I got the outside and inside anyway. Next on my trek was the museum of coastal defence, I was not so excited about this one as its about war and stuff and I don't really like war but it was awesome! So much history and cool exhibits and its up on the top of a mountain. It used to be a real fort used by the British to protect Hong Kong so theres a little historical trail that you can walk down to get a more vivid picture of what happened there. It covers the history of Hong Kong from the Ming dynasty to present day (1300's-now). They have all the uniforms worn from the 1300's on by the military, weapons, replicas of boats, and recordings of people who had fought in the wars. I listens to one by a man in the Royal Winnipeg Battalion talking about his capture by the Japanese. Very interesting and very sad, but at least he lived to tell his story and maybe we can learn from that and become better. They also had a replica of the Treaty of Nanking, the whole treaty half english and half chinese, amazing part of history. I was running out of time before I had to get to work so the historical trail was very rushed and I missed the torpedo station which I thought was going to be super cool, guess I'll just have to go back. Next I rushed to the last temple- Tam Kung temple (a patron god of fishermen and only known to Hong Kong)- There was a no photo sign again and I didn't really have time to go in anyways so I took some photos of the outside and then one from the door of the inside and ran to the train, barely making it to work on time. After work I went to the Wanch for an 80's quiz and failed remarkably at it (last place) but to be fair I wasn't there for the first 3 rounds and we did much better on the last three, although I did call my brother a few times for help.
Shing wong temple
little black turtle in tin hau


a replica of a war scene 

inside tin hau temple
more inside tin hau temple
tin hau temple
Tsung Tsin Church
Yuk Wong Temple

that one tent-y looking thing is the museum the big stone structure
 is where you take the elevator up




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