Hong Kong, continued

Location: Hong Kong SAR, China

Friday morning, Ben went back to Shenzhen to pick up the suits; he had a multi-entry visa into the mainland. I used the morning to walk around some more. I walked through a park in Kowloon, which was very nice, and had an aviary. The birds were behind a caged in area, not surprising given the bird flu scare. There were some neat looking birds in the area:

After this, I walked over to the ferry area, passing by the clock tower that was once a part of the Kowloon station of the Kowloon-Canton railway (the station is no longer there):

I took the ferry again over to Hong Kong Island. The skyline is just as impressive during the day:

I took a walk over to Hollywood Road, which actually was named before Hollywood, California came into existence. It is a street lined with antique shops, and is well known for being in the film The World of Suzie Wong. I wasn't that impressed with it, honestly. I eventually reached the Man Mo temple, which is for Man, the god of Literature, and Mo, the god of war, and is used by adherents of Buddhism and Taoism. The building itself wasn't very large, but the inside was interesting, as I had never been inside a Buddhist (or Taoist) temple before. There was a lot of incense burning, and people hitting drums. What I found the most interesting were the incense burners hanging from the ceiling. Long sticks of incense had been curled up into the shape of a cone, and were slowly burning away. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures; I'll try to do so if I see more of them.

After this, I met up with Ben, and we shipped the suits to Singapore. They came out really nicely; I'm glad I had the opportunity to buy them. We then decided to see another Buddhist temple-the Monastery of 10,000 Buddhas. This temple lives up to its name, and in my opinion, it is a must-see for anyone visiting Hong Kong. It's a little off the beaten path-you take the suburban train route from Kowloon into the New Territories, and get off at a stop called Sha Tin. Once we arrived at Sha Tin, we walked over to the entrance to the temple. The path leading to the temple consisted of many many steps. Lining these steps were statues of Buddha in different poses, with different faces, different styles of dress, etc. This actually makes sense, as Buddha is not actually one particular individual, but rather anyone who has attained enlightenment and experienced Nirvana. "The" Buddha is Siddharta Guatama, who founded Buddhism. Some pictures below:

Some of the poses were really funny. A few of my favorites below:

Once you reach the top, you enter an outdoor shrine area, with even more Buddha statues around, the temple on one side, and a beautiful 8-story pagoda on the other. You can climb this pagoda, though you can't really see out the windows, as they are all blocked by more Buddha statues. Here are some pictures of the outdoor area and pagoda:


Finally, I walked into the temple. There are small statues of Buddha lining all the walls, all the way up to the ceiling. This temple is still functioning, and people were offering their prayers here as well:

This was one of the coolest places I've seen in my life. It is a great stop for anyone who wants a break from the energy of Hong Kong, as it is on a hill with great views of the surrounding area, it has a very unique and entertaining presentation, and it is relatively undiscovered by tourists. The staff of the temple were also very very nice and welcoming. At one point, I asked Ben to take a picture of me in front of the pagoda. One of the staff members started coming over, motioning about something. Ben thought that she wanted us not to take a picture. In fact, she was offering to take a picture of both of us (Ben declined; we were both kinda gross looking after sweating through the walk up).

Anyway, after this, we headed back to the hotel, and spent the night and the next day taking it easy. One more post coming up...