chinese national day
My second week at work started with another public holiday, this one is Chinese National Day, I guess it’s like their Waitangi Day. Suns out guns out so it was off to the beach. Having been so far disappointed with the beaches but in constantly very hot weather I was extremely keen to actually swim in the ocean that surrounds you here. We jumped on a couple of buses and made our way to Cheung Sha Wan beach, you get off the bus walk down a hill and a lovely wee bay opens up in front of you. It’s got a row of restaurants along the front which are very relaxed, with outdoor seats spilling onto the sand. There are a few houses dotted between the restaurants and that’s about it. Oh, and there is a board hire place and an umbrella hire place. All the essentials sorted really. I headed straight for the water and YUSSSS clean as a whistle and even some little teeny waves. The ocean having worked its magic we found a spot for lunch and enjoyed a huge and yummy but extremely expensive Pizza before renting an umbrella and lazing around. Such a simple day but it was just so good to be at a proper beach and be able to pop in and out of the water when it got too hot. This is the sort of place I will bring family and friends, to show the chilled and quiet side of Hong Kong.
We then headed from chilled and quiet into the heart of the city in preparation for the annual fireworks display. Friends in the know had gotten there early and reserved some space in the waterfront park, so we joined them and settled in. It was a perfect spot, facing right out at the harbour where the 31,888 “pyrotechnic shells” would be set off from 4 barges, during a show lasting 23 minutes. Fireworks are super hard to photograph of course and any photo is never going to come close to the real thing, but I had a go anyway as my fancy new phone has a fireworks mode. Regardless of the photos, it was an amazing display and definitely worth considering planning a trip to be here for it. A quick google shows me it probably cost around $1.5 million NZ dollars, so no wonder it was so good. I am looking forward to the New Years Eve one already.
