Misc Pictures Taken in Hong Kong

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A Day On The Beach 1/3

A few snap shots in the Wu Kai Sha beach.

The beach is not exactly sandy and quite small. Almost all visitors are 'locals'.

Ma On Shan is a new town that has grown with a tried-and-true formula.

The government would first build subsidized housing, thus moving a large and general low income population to the new town. After a few years, the area would have enough shops, roads, schools, playgrounds, and other supporting facilities. Then the governement would start to auction off the prime waterfront sites at high price for private development.

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A Day On The Beach 2/3

The beach is at the head of a bicycle trail, so lots of visiters came by bikes.

Some kids mounted loud speakers and amplifiers to their bike, which bacame a moving boombox.

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A Day On The Beach 3/3

The pier that used to be the only access to Wu Kai Sha is under renovation.

The wages in Hong Kong are getting so high that local Chinese are no longer interested in construction jobs. Lots of the construction workers are either local South Asian minorities or imported from mainland China.

In the last two years when the economy was at a very low point, some politicians talked about trying to bring back manufacturing and construction jobs back to Hong Kong people.

Unfortunately I think the times has long gone for manufacturing in Hong Kong. The clock cannot be turned back.

Hong Kong people not only need to adapted to the structural changes in the economy, equally important they need to accept the new yet very old identity.

In my opinion, it was the confusion of identity that is the core problem in Hong Kong.

In good times, the problem is masked and everyone is happy. But when the bad time comes, the problem surfaced and manifest in a thousand new faces.

How can you embrace changes and appeciate what you have, if you don't know who you are and with whom your fate is tied.

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C171 Red Fireball

On my last trip to the Sha Tin Race Course (see Cathay Pacific International Races 國泰航空香港國際賽,) I saw up close the power and excitment of horse racing. So I decided to visit the track in the morning to check out the horse work out.

The track work starts at 5am. Some horses will just trot while others gallop.

This horse was playing with its tongue with slowly gallopping. Perhaps a tongue tie is needed.

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Jockeys

Every Tuesday and Friday morning there are barrier trials on dirt. And Twice a month the Jockey Club will have barrier trials on turf. And today is one of the two days for the month. Lucky me.

The jockeys and their horses are moving toward the barrier gate.

Delpech wasn't very happy that I was getting so close on the rail to take pictures.

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Barrier Trials

15-Mar-05.

Taking good pictures of horses running in the morning is difficult. The light is low and they move fast.

When the horse raced pass me, I can heard many jockeys are yelling - I am not sure they are yelling to their horses or each other.

In the bottom picture, the horse farest from me, with red hat and white dots, is named Can Opener. It was the most expensive horse in this years horse auction held by the Jockey Club. It went for HK$6.5 million, if I rememebr correctly.

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Trotting Ring Actions

19-Apr-05.

Today I decided to check out the actions in the trotting ring - where the horses were mounted and dismounted before and after trackwork.

In the first picture, jockey Shane Dye was chatting with trainer C.S. Shum lively after working horse "Winning Kevin".

In the second picture, the horse was very unsettled and jumpy. The rider actually slapped the horse on the neck, then a little kick to "tame" the horse.

Both pictures were processed with a special effect called Gothic Glow.

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Waiting

The Ma Foo (stable staff) were waiting for the return of their horse, while the jockey was perhaps waiting for the next ride?

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Turf Actions

19-Apr-05.

After each run on the turf, workers would go on to the turf to fix and patch up the turf surface. This track worker was playing with the leader horse.

In the second picture are the authorized photographers. They have the best position for the finishing photo. I tried taking pictures from that position but was kicked out by the security guard. I was told that I must be an authorized photographer or a horse owner to be in that spot.

Maybe I should own a horse so that I can have the better photo spot.

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Turf Barrier Trial

19-Apr-05.

Barrier Trial 4, with Fradd riding Romantic Winner leading in the front.