We began the day by traveling by ferry to Central District to watch the well-known event that many of us had researched before the trip: the take-over of HSBC by Filipino maids. The spectacle happens every Sunday, but it was far greater than I could have ever imagined. From the research, I thought that the Filipinos just remain below HSBC; but in fact they gather all over Central District: beneath the sky walkways, underneath building alcoves, in plazas, and the list goes on. Every corner we turned, more Filipinos were informally gathering in public spaces. The experience was splendid to observe, and it mad me miss my Filipino nanny back home who feels like family. I tried to take in the moment, able to recognize some of the words in Tagalong as the women took over the street level; playing cards, eating food, and laughing hysterically with one another.
As afternoon approached, we met up with the entire UD program below the HSBC building and headed to Lamma Island. The journey to the ferry posed an interesting experiment: can we get to the ferry terminal only using elevated walkways? Indeed, the answer was yes. The experiment made me realize that my initial research on Hong Kong Island, and the loss of the human scale at street level to the transportation, was an important layer of Hong Kong culture. The juxtaposition of this realization and the informal takeover of the street level by the Filipinos emphasizes the need for human scale to be reconsidered in Central (a point well on my mind as I am reading Jan Gehl’s Cities for People).
Forty-five minutes later, we arrived on Lamma Island. Lamma is located just to the southwest of Hong Kong Island and is notorious for its beautiful hiking paths and local fishing culture. We entered Lamma through a small village on the waterfront, with a few stilt houses and a marketplace. From here, we hiked to the other side of the island where we were told there was a delicious seafood restaurant we had to experience. The paths meandered and the slope only seemed to get higher and higher, I started to think a requirement of the trip should have been to be fit J Although the path was grueling at times, the views were well worth it. The best part of the journey was happening upon a beautiful beach where we decided to relax for a small period of time and take in the scenery. I enjoyed the view from this beach because on one side you had the scenic mountains with the sea behind, and on the other the mountain was taken over by a factory. Although the trip did not feel fully related to my project, I enjoyed being away from the city and experiencing another side of Hong Kong: a more relaxed, hiking environment with few residents and simple structures.
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