Happy Chung Yeung Festival

Last Wednesday we celebrated our last official festival and public holiday during our stay in Hong Kong. The Chung Yeung Festival is often referred to as the "Double-Ninth Festival," as it falls on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. On this day people traditionally visit the graves of their ancestors to pay their respects. Many also hike or hill walk together.


The custom of hill walking has its roots in an old folk story. Long ago, a man called Huan Jing received a prophesy that on the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar an evil spirit would attack his village. Fearing for his family's safety, he hid them in the nearby hills and returned to the village to face the beast alone. Huan Jing was successful in defeating the beast. Other nearby villages had also been attacked, but the evil spirits had all been slain. From then onwards, to commemorate the day families would gather together and hike into the hills.


So on Chung Yeung Festival day, we gathered together some of our Hong Kong family and put a modern twist on "heading to the hills." Janet is newly arrived in Hong Kong from Grand Rapids to spend three years here as the CFO of Steelcase Asia. Her two daughters, Catie and Michele, are taking a year off from their college studies to join mom in her newly adopted city. Since they had only been here a few days, we joined together along with Rommel and set out for our "hike."


What we actually did was cheating, I guess. We went to Kowloon to the International Commerce Center building. It is the fourth tallest building in the world and a stunning addition to the skyline.

The 100th floor is an observation deck with 360 degree views of Hong Kong and the surrounding islands. We bought our tickets and made our way into the queue for the elevators.

The 100th floor is the observation deck but is not the top of the building. Floor 101 is a restaurant and above that begins the Ritz Carlton Hotel which lists itself as the tallest hotel in the world. The elevator ride from ground to 100 takes 60 seconds. It is quite the ride and your ears pop pretty quickly. Upon alighting, the floor of the entry area is a diorama under glass of Hong Kong. It is fascinating because you can find where you live or work pretty easily.

Sadly, the day was quite overcast and hazy so the views were limited. Bur even with the haze it is breathtaking.

As you walk the streets of Hong Kong you are aware of how populated it is, but never more so than when looking down from up high. It is mind boggling to see how dense the city is.

We also spent some time walking through Elements Mall at the base of ICC. It is very large and has almost anything you can think of - including an ice rink.

It is marked off for hockey games as well as figure skating. And our favorite part was watching the little ones learn to skate with a little help from a friend.

We continued on to Langham Place (another mall) and had afternoon tea in a Japanese tea shop. It was a wonderful day and even though we cheated a bit, we did get to high ground (or floor) which is said to bring you success in business. Here's hoping.