This year, Halloween was celebrated in a decidedly untraditional but equally lovely fashion. The weather was 30 degrees, cloudless, and sunny and Katy, Alicia and I decided to set off on the ferry to go to Cheung Chau, one of the outlying islands around Hong Kong. The boat ride took us an hour (we decided to take the normal ferry instead of the fast one as it was leaving 40 minutes sooner than the other one - however, watching the fast ferry speed past us while we were still chugging along on our journey, made us ever so slightly regret our decision!) However, the wait was worth it and the island itself was beautiful! Compared with Lamma, the previous weekend, this island was sleepy and had a really relaxed, weekend feel. There were stalls and restaurants along the front of the Island as we stepped off the ferry however, if you walked about 10 minutes in, it was wodnerfully quiet and peaceful, with just a handful of tourists here and there, and most of the people going about their weekend business.The relative calm was a welcome break from the chaos and the daily hoards of people you have to push past to get anywhere or see anything, and it made for a really relaxing day.
We saw a beautiful temple, lovely old fishing boats, and some beautiful beaches. We stopped for lunch at a beach front cafe and watersports centre at Tung Wan beach, where Hong Kong's first Olympic gold medallist, Lin Lai- Shan, used to practice her windsurfing as she lived and grew up on the island - Katy even had the rice meal for lunch that they claim she used to eat! The beaches were peaceful and calm, being away from the roads. (Like many of the islands, there are no cars on Cheung Chau, it is only about half a kilometre in size across the island so perfectly manageable by bike or walking).
After lunch, we headed up and over the island on a path that wound around the hill around the coast. As you can imagine, the views were beautiful and there was some incredible rock formations, some of which have special names because of their shape like Reclining Rock and Vase Rock - I did not really see too many of these resemblances but they were really striking in their size and shape.
Cheung Chau is most definitely worth a visit for anyone in Hong Kong wanting some peace and quiet! I must just mention that it is renowned for the annual 'bun' festival, in May, where, I imagine it is anythin but tranquil, but would be quite amazing to see. The story goes that the Island was overcome by a plague in the 18th century, until local fisherman brought over an image of the god, Pak Tai to the island, which was paraded round the street and drove away all the evil and the plague. Thus, in thanks, the islanders organise a weeklong thanksgiving service every year, in honour of this god. Although, this is common practice in Hong Kong and many of the temples are dedicated to all kinds of gods (Tin Hau is a very popular one for this, being the god of the sea I think) the centrepeice of these festivals are the metres high bamboo towers which are constructed and covered with edible buns all over and apparantly at midnight every evening, young men climb up and steal and distribute the buns among the crowds of people.Apparantly, the participants in the bun snatching are so quick that thousands of buns disappear in minutes! So dangerous was this event that it was banned in 1978 but deemed safe enough to resume (not sure how that figures but anyway) in 2005. So the good news is you can see it as well as numerous other festival events including children dressed in costumes on stilts (I have seen the photos around the island - quite a sight!) and the more traditional lion dances etc. The buns are the traditional dim sum type buns for those of you who have had steamed dim sum buns. If you dont know,they are really white, very round like a bread roll and usually sweet. You can get them filled with savory and sweet things (I like the custard ones!) but I think the steamed pork ones are a popular choice! Anyway, for free buns, you know when and where to go!
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