Hong Kong Heritage Museum

The Hong Kong Heritage Museum is located in the Sha Tin area of Hong Kong, which is part of the New Territories.

There are three different MTR stations circling the museum, but a combination of Google Maps and Citymapper informed me that my best bet was Che Kung Temple.

Outside of the station, while waiting for my phone's GPS to catch up with me, I managed to head off in the right compass direction, but unfortunately the wrong road. What I learned (fortunately only 30 seconds later) was that I had to head off in the wrong direction first so that I could cross the nearby river to a pathway that would take me directly to the museum.

As I approached the museum, I was treated to what sounded like traditional Chinese music, which I assumed was coming from the museum. However, it turned out to be music group practice from the Sha Tin Government Secondary School, which is located next door.

Outside the Heritage Museum, two of its main exhibits were represented outside by a statue and by illustrations on the pillars of the portico.

A number of the galleries in the museum are free entry, although the exhibition I was particularly interested in seeing was ticketed. After I had found the correct queue (no, not the one for local residents to pick up their discounted tickets) and paid the extortionate price of 20 dollars (Hong Kong dollars, which equates to about £2), I was directed up the escalators to the right of the centrepiece staircase (which appeared to be more an artifact than functional stairs).

The first gallery at the top of the escalator was the Cantonese Opera Heritage Hall, containing a substantial collection of objects that surprisingly concerned themselves with the heritage of Cantonese Opera.

Further around on the same floor was the exhibit I had trekked (okay, stood on an MTR train) halfway across Hong Kong to see: the Hall of Mental Cultivation of The Palace Museum - or to give the exhibition it's full title: The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series:  Hall of Mental Cultivation of The Palace Museum - Imperial Residence of Eight Emperors.

The Hall of Mental Cultivation is located in The Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing (in China) and is currently closed for renovation, leading to a number of the artifacts being used for a touring exhibit. 

The Hall of Mental Cultivation was the political centre of the Qing dynasty and used as the living quarters of the Emperors after the Yongzheng Emperor moved there from the Palace of Heavenly Purity, claiming that he could not remain there as it reminded him of his grief for his father.

The exhibit was laid out in a manner that I assumed was representational of the layout of the Hall itself, with furniture from the palace arranged as it would have been within the rooms, along with a number of artifacts, short films, and an odd bunch of security guards wearing large badges containing pictographs advising visitors that flash photography, eating, and drinking were all prohibited within the exhibit - which is a novel way of making sure that people read the signs.

After the Hall of Mental Cultivation, I wandered around the rest of the museum. Unfortunately, a number of the galleries didn't allow photography due to copyright restrictions (I'm not sure how long copyright lasts in Hong Kong, but some of the objects I wasn't allowed to photograph were centuries old).
A mini-highlight was the Bruce Lee exhibit. The museum has a gallery dedicated to Lee's life and philosophy, including a number of props and production-related material from his films. In addition to that exhibit, a further collection of Bruce Lee memorabilia was on loan to the museum at the time I visited.

The final gallery I visited, which I only spotted as I took a quick tour of the gift shop (didn't buy anything) was dedicated to Jin Yong.

Before I visited the museum, I had never heard of him, but Jin Yong (the pen name of Louis Cha Leung-Yong) is considered one of the three greatest writers of the Wuxia genre.

And for those who don't know what Wuxia is (I have to confess that although I'd heard the term before, I couldn't have told you) - it translates to "martial heroes" and includes films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; House of Flying Daggers; and Kung Fu Panda.

The exhibit detailed Jin Yong's history, and also provided an explanation of the illustrations on the pillars outside - they illustrate the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan, who are characters from Jin Yong's Legend of the Condor Heroes.

Hong Kong Museum of History

On my third day in Hong Kong, we had a level 10 typhoon - this is the highest that typhoons are categorised in Hong Kong.

On my seventh day in Hong Kong we had another - a mere level 8 though. Unfortunately this coincided with my peak tourist activity, so I spent an awful lot of time staring out of my hotel room windows at the rain (and catching up with Game of Thrones).

By mid-afternoon, the typhoon level dropped to a 4. This means that Hong Kong starts coming back to life. Although there might be a bit of activity on the MTR during the level 8 (and apparently it's a good time to go to the cinema), the shops are generally shut, the offices are closed, and the streets are deserted. Because no one wants to die.

Seizing my opportunity for a bit of sightseeing, I jumped on the MTR to head off for the Hong Kong Museum of History.


One of the useful extras my hotel offered was a loaner smartphone, which meant I had free Internet access throughout Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the GPS isn't too reliable, so it took me a while to orient myself.

And this is while the tail end of the typhoon is still blowing through town.

Eventually, after sheltering in covered alleyways from the gustier parts of the storm, I found the Hong Kong Science Museum and the Hong Kong Museum of History, which are situated next door to one another.

Only having a couple of hours before closing time, being more interested in history than science, I went for the history museum.

Entry into the main part of the museum, The Hong Kong Story, was free, which very nicely fit into my budget.

The early part of the exhibit is concerned with the geological history of Hong Kong, and created an early impression that the rest of the exhibit was likely to be quite small.

Only after leaving displays (and a short film) of rocks behind, the museum opened out into larger dioramas of the early natural history of Hong Kong.

Followed by the early people of Hong Kong.

And then a lesson in the Chinese history.

The early settlers of Hong Kong.

Including a replica boat.

A replica temple.

A replica farm.

A replica house.

Culture and theatre among the early settlers.

That's a mountain of (replica) buns, by the way.

And then there was a trip upstairs to begin the history of the British involvement with Hong Kong, starting with the Opium Wars (a lovely tale about how nice the British Government were at the time).

Which led us into a  replica dock.

And replica streets and replica shops.

In other words, the exhibit was a lot bigger than than the geology section.

In fact, I didn't have enough time to see the whole thing before the closing time announcement was made, so I came back again the following weekend.

Hong Kong Park

One of the best things about Hong Kong's MTR (Mass Transit Railway), is that all of the trains are air conditioned. In Hong Kong's hot and humid weather, anything less would be unbearable.

This meant that the first part of my journey to Hong Kong Park was pleasantly cool.

On exiting Admiralty station, that changed completely. Hong Kong's heat is such that after thirty minutes outdoors, I typically found myself ready for a cold shower and a change of clothes.

Admiralty is in Central on Hong Kong Island, the capitalistic heart of the city with its steel and glass buildings that wouldn't look out of place in any major city across the world.

The park, a short-but-steep walk from the station is a fusion of that metropolitan sensibility with distinctly local touches; one of the first places I encountered in the park was a museum of tea.

The park exists on a number of levels. Above the tea museum and a wedding registry, an ornamental lake complete with waterfalls and terrapins forms the centrepiece of the next level.

Climbing steps to a level above the lake leads to the Forsgate Conservatoryy. Free to the public, it is divided up into three sections.

The first of these is the season floral (and teddy bear) display area.

The second is a desert environment, which was heated at a temperature in competition with the outside heat. I lasted about two minutes.

I have no comment on the theming.

The third area, a humid rainforest area, was fortunately much cooler.

 Further into the park, Olympic Square is an open air venue, although aside from some building maintenance work and a couple of cosplayers, didn't have much happening.

Another long flight of stairs and a bottle of water later brought me to a set of even more stairs leading up a vertiginous column described as a vantage point.

At this point I declined increasing my risk of heat stroke and instead walked through to the Tai Chi garden. Apparently suitable for Tai Chi exercise, it was only occupied by a handful of people wandering sedately through it.

Unless that's how you do Tai Chi, in which case it sounds like the type of martial art that I could enjoy.

Past the garden were Hong Kong Park's bird collection. Signposts pointed towards an aviary, although at first all I could find was a zoo like enclosure with birds in large cages.

Opposite that though was an unassuming little entrance that led into something that looked like the pterodactyl enclosure from the Jurassic Park films.

The nearest park exit to the aviary led out to the Peak Tram, the funicular railway that runs up Victoria Peak. Thinking I might see if I could chance it, I took a wander by - but the queue seemed a teeny bit long.

The Dark Tower / It

I've read the first four books in The Dark Tower sequence (still haven't managed to get around to the remaining four), so I had a fair expectation of what a faithful adaptation should look like.

Fortunately, going into the cinema to see The Dark Tower, I had been forewarned, both by the filmmakers and the scathing reviews that this would not be a translation of any of the books as such.

I had also been warned not to expect anything other than a stinking pile of manure from the film. Judging by the tone of some of the reviews, this was one of the worst films of the year.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised to discover that it wasn't one of the worst. It was completely ... mediocre.

There's something of an 80s vibe to the story - teenager discovering an Otherland, half the action being back in the real world (presumably to save on the production budget (which reminded me quite a bit of the Dolph Lundgren Masters of the Universe movie)). If that was the intent of the filmmakers, then tonally they were reasonably successful.

The problem is that it doesn't stand out in any way. It feels more like a TV pilot in terms of scale. The set pieces are unremarkable, the special effects nothing that the SyFy Channel doesn't put out on a weekly basis.

And as an adaptation of Stephen King's work, it completely fails to replicate any of the atmosphere of his writing.

On the other hand, there is IT (capitalised for the sake of clarity).

IT has a definite 80s vibe, considering that's the era in which it is being set. Minus the swearing, violence, horror and sexual abuse themes, it doesn't feel a million miles away something that would have fallen into genre of kids on bikes with an  'Executive Producer Steven Spielberg' seal of approval.

It's definitely not for the squeamish. It's also not for people who can't watch scenes of unpleasant things happening to children - and it's shockingly unpleasant in some cases.

It ranks up with the best of the films made from his work, and unlike something like The Shining, which regardless of its status of movie masterpiece (although I'm not a fan), isn't really true to King's storytelling, it feels faithful in content and tone.

The changes that have been made to the story (yes, that scene), and the structure make it work better on the big screen than a rabid adherence to the written word would have. Even though it only tells half of the story, it is still a complete entity and it works really, really well.

So in summary: IT - see on the big screen. The Dark Tower - wait for streaming and don't expect much.