William Sievers

March 28, 2020

Dispatch #0022: HONG KONG COVID19 CORONAVIRUS UPDATE (March 28, 2020).

William Sievers

March 28, 2020

The following is an update that I just published on another popular website:

As many of you know, Hong Kong was hit by the COVID19 Coronavirus crisis very early on around third week in January.

We had three things going for us at the time.

First, we did not have many Chinese New Year visitations from China on account of the negative goodwill created by the protests.

Second, we have a very competent medical establishment here particularly when it comes to infectious disease control. This is primarily a result of the traumatic SARS experience which hit the medical profession very hard. A medical emergency was declared in January, schools were closed and work from home policies were activated across the private and public sectors. Borders were tightened somewhat belatedly for political reasons, by first week in February.

Third, the adult segment of the general population here still remembers SARS well and knew instinctively what to do: mask, wash isolate.

Macau, Singapore, and Taiwan were similarly positioned.

As a result, Hong Kong did not have to "flatten its curve" it never bulged. The case count grew linearly instead of exponentially. We had an initial TP/Mask style panic run, but that subsided in a week or two and the stores here have been fully stocked for weeks. Restaurants and bars remained open, although that industry has been hit very hard and many catering primarily to tourists have shut down. The streets are not empty. People are out and about, but briskly with an immediate sense of purpose. Masks are worn by 99.9%. Wash, wash, wash...

Foreign tourist visitations and all inter-country connections through the airport have been suspended until further notice.

So what changed recently?

During the past week or so we have experienced a surge of resident returnees from Europe and North America. These consist of HK overseas students and residents (many of whom ran away from HK in the early days), as well as returning foreign expatriate residents who similarly left then figured out that it is relatively safer here. The bankers and embassy people were among the first to send their families home.

During this recent period, the number of cases per day jumped significantly 30 to 40 to 50 to 60 etc. The Health Department sounded the alarm. Additionally, a group of bars managed by the same group has suffered a cluster of cases infecting the Filipino cover band members and bat staff. There have been numerous reports of returnees violating self-quarantine orders. Those very selfish people are being tracked down and forced into government facilities. It’s pretty easy to self-quarantine for 15 days. All kinds of food are deliverable.

Yesterday, new controls were announced for the next two weeks initially. All public venues with large crowds, parks, theaters, sports facilities, gyms, etc have been shut. All restaurants are required to implement table separation (1.5 meters) and parties of 4 are the maximum. Bars are required to cut their capacity in half, take mandatory temperature checks and provide cleaning gels. Group gatherings of more than 4 persons in public places are prohibited.

So this is where we are at the moment. A population of about 7.6 million people, 518 cases and 4 deaths. So far as I know, the hospitals here are stressed but not in a state of imminent collapse. They want to reverse the recent trend ASAP.

The bottom line is there is no magic light at the end of this tunnel yet. You have to remain vigilant. If you do not, this thing will jump right back and bite you. And no. I don't believe the data from across the border. Although I can see how having extreme authoritarian measures in your tool kit can be advantageous in controlling this type of situation, I do not believe the outbreak can be eradicated so quickly.

I also do not believe that the whole world needs to be totalitarian to prevent future pandemics. We need to educate people on how to prepare and react and we need to have a competent method for early warning, testing and tracing. All the "experts" agree the time to nip this at the bud was in December or perhaps sooner. And yes, transparency and truthfulness are key.

AS OF MARCH 28, I am still conducting limited private tours. As always, the health and safety of my clients is my paramount concern. You can be certain that I am applying great effort in keeping well informed on this emerging health threat.

For this reason, I have modified my tour itineraries to minimize or avoid unnecessary exposure to crowds or enclosed areas. I am providing protective masks to those of my clients who do not have their own and I am reminding everyone to apply appropriate hygienic precautions such as frequent hand disinfecting and regular fluid intake. I am extremely cautious about which public restroom facilities I deem safe for clients to use.

I am also strongly recommending vehicular tours as an alternative to using public transportation in order to limit crowd exposure. It is possible to see a great deal of Hong Kong staying out in open areas.

Please note that many public attractions and venues have been temporarily closed.

Screen Shot 2020-02-03 at 6.25.36 AM.png

For your information, I was living in Singapore during the SARS epidemic and was responsible for the health and safety of my employees there as well as my own family. Consequently, I am very familiar with appropriate health safety countermeasures applicable in this instance.

It is obviously a serious personal decision of each traveler as to whether or not to proceed with their travel plans and I fully respect whatever decisions may be made in these circumstances.

A medical emergency has been declared to address ongoing concerns and various government departments are deploying their respective resources accordingly.

As a result of the earlier SARS experience, Hong Kong now has one of the most advanced medical establishments for dealing with this kind of health threat. The Department of Health’s Guidelines can be viewed here.

I will be updating this dispatch as I deem relevant and appropriate. If you have any questions please feel to inquire.

I know that this pandemic is disrupting the lives of so many. For myself, I can only say that I really miss doing private tours with regularity. I miss the exercise, the fresh air, the connection with the streets, but most of all I miss the steady stream of great company. I was very thankful for my own good fortune and as many of you know, I made no secret of it.

Naturally my thoughts and prayers are with all of you whom I have had the great privilege of spending so much quality time with inrecent years. Take good care of yourselves and your loved ones and we can all look forward to meeting once again when this crisis is over, hopefully in the not to distant future!

Safe travels,

William

End of Dispatch

I am an American of Asian descent from NYC who has spent many years living and working throughout Asia, most recently based from a very old Chinese neighborhood called To Kwa Wan in Old Kowloon for 15 years. I am also a retired international lawyer with strong Asian roots and I have reinvented myself as a professional artist, photographer and street savvy Hong Kong premium tour guide.

I specialize in premium private walking tours with an emphasis on street culture, local history and, for those so inclined, all levels of photography. My private tours are personalized to match your unique interests. Inasmuch as I am a professional photographer, all of the points of interest covered in my repertoire have a very strong visual appeal coupled with a well informed narrative adding dimension and context to your images.

Whether you are into simple travel snapshots, social media image sharing or serious landscape, architectural or urban street photography or just enjoying the Hong Kong experience, I am in a position to maximize your time spent in Hong Kong and its surrounding locales to the fullest.

Hence, my mission can be encapsulated as follows: To provide all of my clients with an entertaining, deeply informative and street savvy premium travel experience ultimately leading to cherished memories, a portfolio of stunning on-tour photographs, an urge for further investigation and a strong desire to navigate your way back to this wonderfully engaging city.

My premium walking tours are ideal for acclimating and orienting first time visitors to Hong Kong as well as for returning visitors eager for a new experience.

I accept engagements up to one year in advance or, subject to my availability, last minute and/or same day. Families with children are always welcome and children 16 years and under are free of charge. Special needs clients are also welcome.

You can book a tour or send me an inquiry now by going to my Contact/Booking Page.

William Sievers

July 13, 2018

Streets of Hong Kong Premium Private Tours--Dispatch #0017: A TOUR THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

William Sievers

July 13, 2018

What if someone offered you a tour that " will change your life?"

I know what you are thinking. That's ridiculous! What is this guy thinking? How can a tour change your life?

Well, I once accepted a tour that absolutely did change my life and I can tell you that with 100% certainty.

Now of course you are wondering what kind of a tour could that possibly be that changed this fellow's life? Did he travel to meditate in a monastery in Bhutan? Did he scale the highest peaks of the Himalayas? Did he travel the entire length of the Asian Continent by foot? Did he spend a month roughing it in the African bush? Did he ride the entire length of New York City's A train? Did he circumnavigate the globe? etc. etc.

Well it certainly was a unique tour as far as I was concerned and it did change my life. It is a tour I took roughly 3 years ago. It required a great deal of training, preparation and encouragement from my family and closest friends. At first I was also uncertain about the results that could be achieved.

My Dad spent a great deal of time helping me in my preparations. It was one of the last things he did before he passed away following a tragic accident. His knowledge and common interests were invaluable in my preparations. I also did a great deal of reading and training in the field. It was the middle of the summer so it was very hot, humid and not very comfortable. Thankfully, during the course of my life I developed many skills that helped me with this tour. And it sure paid off in the end.

Now you will ask me to share with you the exact nature of this tour that changed my life. And if it is not already obvious, I will tell you now. It was the very first private walking tour I performed on the Streets of Hong Kong!

The day I learned that I finally had my first tour booking (following two months of waiting), one of the first people to hear about it was my Dad. He was literally brought to tears because neither of us was 100% sure if it would ever happen. Well thanks to a referral from my good friend and fellow tour guide Jamie Lloyd it certainly did happen.

My good friend and colleague Jamie Lloyd of J3 Tours Hong Kong

A few days later my Dad had his accident on Labor Day and within the next 24 hours he was gone. I had to decide between cancelling my first tour or missing my Dad's funeral the following Monday. After thinking long and hard, consulting with my family and my friend Jamie, I decided to stay in Hong Kong and do the tour (which turned out to be a two day tour) because, I concluded, my Dad wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Dad was a globe trotter and international businessman all his life.

Well I mustered every inch of positive thinking as my Mom would say and proceeded with the tour as originally planned. My client Mary was a brave and lovely American lady had recently been widowed and set about adventuring the globe with her camera as her primary travel partner. My kind of lady! As a matter of fairness, I met with her the day before the first tour and explained what I was doing and why. I assured her I was in a very positive frame of mind and she was 100% supportive!

Needless to say, I put 1000% of effort into those two days and we both had a terrific time! Quietly, I thought of that tour as my simple way of honoring my Dad.

Now then, thinking back, that tour certainly did change my life! in Japan, there is an expression called "ikigai". Roughly translated, it means one's reason for getting up in the morning. Much has been written about the positive effects of ikigai. There are many who believe that finding one's ikigai is one of the secrets to living a long and healthy life. In my case that remains to be seen. But during the three years following that first tour I can tell you with 100% certainty that I now know that my ikigai is being a private tour guide. And it just keeps getting better and better!

My wife Esther says I am the luckiest man in the world, why?: "you get up in the morning to go and meet new people which you love doing, you get to share everything you have learned and show people beautiful things which you love doing, you walk around in the fresh air getting exercise all day long which you also love doing, you take lots of photographs which you really love doing, you reinvented yourself from being a lawyer and you get paid doing so to boot. Who else gets to do all that?" Not many I am sure. And I certainly do feel like the luckiest man in the world.

And yes, that first tour certainly did change my life!

So William, is it possible that your tour will change my life you may ask.

It certainly is possible and in my own modest way I certainly hope it will. Perhaps not dramatically, but I am sure what I have to offer all of my clients is something much more than a simple Hong Kong highlight tour and a bucket full of "hidden gems from off the beaten path." Trust me, if you want to be in this business at the level of the game I am playing in, that is simply the price of entry. If you want to even think about being a premium private tour guide you had better be able to do that blindfolded.

But, in a manner of speaking I certainly do offer hidden gems. However, the gems I offer come from off the beaten path of life. And if you take a look at the path of my life, you will surmise that there were plenty of hidden gems I discovered along the way. And I am happy to share as many of those as possible during our time together on tour.

Now, I have a confession to make. In addition to history, culture and photography, I also love to write. And as you can see from this dispatch, I have decided to indulge my right brain lobe this morning by freely doing so. So until my next dispatch, I would like to leave you with the following quote by Bruce Barton, one of the principal founders of the famous advertising agency BBDO. Think of this quote when you decide who you want to be your guide:

"Here is an important distinction that many people overlook:

"God made the world but he does not make your world.

"He provides the raw materials, and out of them every man selects what he wants and builds an individual world for himself.

"The fool looks over the wealth of material provided, and selects a few plates of ham and eggs, a few pairs of trousers, a few dollar bills and is satisfied.

"The wise man builds his world out of wonderful sunsets, and thrilling experiences, and the song of the stars, and romance and miracles.

"Nothing wonderful ever happens in the life of a fool--an electric light is simply an electric light; a telephone is only a telephone--nothing unusual at all.

"But the wise man never ceases to wonder how a tiny speck of seed, apparently dead and buried, can produce a beautiful yellow flower. He never lifts a telephone receiver or switches on an electric light without a certain feeling of awe."

---Bruce Barton, More Power to You (1917)

Don't you just love that quote? I certainly do!

To view more of my images of Hong Kong and Macau, please visit my Flickr Stream or visit me on Instagram: @williambanzai7.

Hope to see you soon on the Streets of Hong Kong or Macau!

WB7

End of Dispatch

ABOUT STREETS OF HONG KONG PREMIUM WALKING TOURS

My premium walking tours are ideal for acclimating and orienting first time visitors to Hong Kong as well as for returning visitors eager for a new experience.

You can book a tour or send me an inquiry now by going to my Contact/Booking Page.

William Sievers

June 30, 2018

Streets of Hong Kong Premium Private Tours--Dispatch #0016: What Do I Mean By "Raw Cantonese Street Culture"?

William Sievers

June 30, 2018

Earlier this week, one of my clients asked me what I meant by the phrase "raw Cantonese street culture". I coined this phrase shortly after I began offering tours in old Kowloon. Contrary to what some may think, it is not a marketing buzz word or overused cliche. I am pretty sure that I am the only one using that precise phraseology although others have described what I have in mind in their own way sometimes even using flowery adjectives such as "seedy magnificence," a term used in the Kowloon Walled City Exhibit in Kowloon Walled City Park.

I was initially exposed to Cantonese culture beginning as a kid. When my family lived in Brooklyn NYC, our walk up apartment was adjacent to a Chinese restaurant, which in NYC in those days meant Hong Kong Chinese. I remember the food aromas (BBQ duck, moo shoo pork, chow mein and egg rolls) wafting up through the open window during the summer and the loud and boisterous banter of the restaurant employees cleaning dishes and hanging out in the back alley. We ate there once or twice and my Mom was not satisfied with the cuisine. What did I know. That back alley was my earliest exposure to Cantonese culture.

We also lived a few subway stops from China Town in Manhattan and my parents would often take my brother and I Sundays for dinner or dim sum lunch in China Town. That was NYC China Town in the old days. I hear the dim sum restaurant is still there on the famous old "crooked street" even though many of the surrounding establishments now offer Thai or Vietnamese. It was a real old school joint serving delicious dim sum on a tea trolley stacked with dishes of different sizes and colours to denote the prices. I had no idea what "yum cha" meant at the time. Naturally, there would always be a stroll around the neighborhood.

**China Town Manhattan, By chensiyuan (chensiyuan) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons**

I lived in a very ethnic neighbourhood in Brooklyn which meant there was plenty of urban street culture. But way back then, China Town was one big adventure for me. The aromas wafting into the apartment were magnified exponentially and the mixture of fresh and half rotting produce and fish parts in the surrounding market stalls was not for the squeamish on a sweltering Summer evening. Nevertheless, the food was awesome, the streets were one big strange and mysterious outdoor market and very very messy and chaotic indeed. And we always brought home a bag of steamed pork buns to keep in the freezer. Little did I know, this was my earliest exposure to Cantonese street culture.

**Main Street, Flushing Queens NYC--Yanping Nora Soong at English Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons**

Later we moved to Northern Queens. Very close to Main Street, Flushing. I used to travel through Main Street on the way to school. Back then Main Street was more of a melting pot of mixed ethnicity. It still is a melting pot complete with with pizza, potato knishes and fishballs. But today it is also known as one of the biggest overseas Chinese communities in the world. As I grew up, I watched it gradually transform. We would often go there to do our Asian food shopping or stop for a meal on the way to Shea Stadium. A few years back, I took my lovely wife, who is Thai but speaks Cantonese like she was born in Hong Kong, to Main Street and we had a ball, I mean fish ball! We shopped in the markets and haggled in the shopping stalls. We had street food and stopped for wonton soup in a real local joint and we found fresh red hot chili peppers. Her comment: This is just like the streets of Hong Kong. My thought: This is Cantonese street culture.

When I lived in Japan during high school, I made several visits to Hong Kong in the early 1970s because my Dad had an office here. I distinctly remember two of my school pals, the Tam Brothers, who were real Hong Kong Chinese showing me around the seedy old streets of Hong Kong and Kowloon, including quite memorably, the so called poor man's night club, a working class venue of outdoor entertainment that I love to recount when I am on night tour. What an eye opener that was for me. Once again, Cantonese street culture.

So now I have been living in a purely Cantonese neighbourhood of old Kowloon for 15 years. My genre of street photography is what is also known as a "raw street", as in no holds barred. And, I can walk you through any part of Kowloon, Hong Kong Island or Macau pointing out myriad quintessential examples of "raw Cantonese street culture". But what exactly does one mean by raw Cantonese street culture? The following quote by Supreme Court Justice Potter is one approach:

"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [of "hard-core pornography"], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that."

So, I could just say, I know it when I see it and here it is. But as a savvy cultural tour guide that certainly would not suffice. So here is a more polished explanation of what I mean when I say Cantonese street culture.

Understandably, one could assume it means a place where the local people speak Cantonese. And in Hong Kong that is indeed the case. However, it goes much deeper than that. At the most basic level, we are speaking of the culture of the Cantonese people. Who are the Cantonese people? The following is an excerpt on this subject from the great all knowing Wikipedia:

"Cantonese people (simplified Chinese: 广府人; traditional Chinese: 廣府人; Jyutping: gwong2 dung1 jan4; Hanyu: Guǎngdōng Rén; lit. people of Guangdong) are Han Chinese people originating from or residing in Guangdong Province, China, formerly romanised as Canton Province. The term "Cantonese people" is often synonymous with the Punti (本地; bun2 dei6) people. They are also referred to as "Kongfu" in Malaysia and "Konghu" in Indonesia and as "Hoa" in Vietnam.

The Cantonese people were historically responsible for establishing the Cantonese language's usage in Hong Kong during the early migration to the colonial era. Today, Hong Kong and Macau are the only regions in the world where Cantonese is the official spoken language; most people in Guangdong, as elsewhere in Mainland China, speak Mandarin in addition to Cantonese."

[Continuing]

"Until the 19th century, Cantonese history was largely the history of Guangdong.

What is now Guangdong was first brought under Qin influence by a Qin dynasty general named Zhao Tuo who later founded the kingdom of Nanyue in 204 BC.The Nanyue kingdom went on to become the strongest Baiyue state in China, with many neighboring kingdoms declaring their allegiance to Nanyue rule. Zhao Tuo took the Han territory of Hunan and defeated the Han dynasty's first attack on Nanyue, later annexing the kingdom of Minyue in the East and conquering Âu Lạc, Northern Vietnam, in the West in 179 BC.

The greatly expanded Nanyue kingdom included the territories of modern-day Guangdong, Guangxi, and Northern Vietnam, with the capital situated at modern-day Guangzhou. The native people of Guangdong remained under Baiyue control until the Han dynasty in 111 BC, following the Han–Nanyue War. However, it was not until subsequent dynasties such as the Jin Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty that major waves of Han Chinese began to migrate into Guangdong. Waves of migration and subsequent intermarriage meant that existing populations of Guangdong were displaced, but some native groups like the Zhuang still remained. The Cantonese often call themselves "people of Tang". This is because of the Inter-mixture between native and Han immigrants in Guangdong reached a critical mass of acculturation during the Tang dynasty, creating an new local identity among the Guangdong people."

[Continuing]

"The Lingnan culture or Cantonese culture, refers to the regional Chinese culture of the Southern Chinese/Lingnan twin provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi. Strictly speaking, the term "Lingnan culture" has two definitions:

In a purely geographical sense, the term includes not only Cantonese culture, but also the cultures of minority groups (such as the Hakkas and Teochews, as well as the non-Han Zhuangs) within the Lingnan region.

More typically, it is only used in referring to Cantonese culture, the historically dominant cultural-linguistic force in Guangdong and Guangxi...

With the migration of the Cantonese people to the neighboring Hong Kong and Macau, as well as in many overseas communities, Lingnan/Cantonese culture has become an influential cultural force in the international community, and forms the basis of the cultures of Hong Kong and Macau.

The sinicization of the Lingnan region was largely complete by the time of late Southern Song Dynasty (12th to 13th century). During 15th to 18th century, Lingnan (especially the area around Guangzhou) served as one of the main ports for the Ming Empire. Cantonese people were exposed to Western European cultures and incorporated European elements into their own cultural artifacts. It was by that time when Lingnan culture has largely attained its current form."

[Wikipedia, Cantonese People]

[Wikipedia, Lingnan Culture]

Bingo! Cantonese/Lingnan culture is the basis of the cultures of Hong Kong and Macau. Taking it one step further, we know, for many reasons, the substantial part of the Chinese overseas diaspora was also Cantonese. That may well change in the future. But for now it certainly does remain true. It is interesting to note once again from Wikipedia:

With Guangzhou being major a port(sic) for both the Qing Dynasty and the People's Republic of China, Cantonese people have often dominated Han Chinese immigration to the Western world, resulting in Cantonese historically being the lingua franca in most Western Chinatowns. They also helped establish the Chinese term for Chinatown: "Tongyan gaai" (唐人街; Tong4 jan4 gaai1), pronounced as "Tang ren jie" in Mandarin. This term literally means "Street of the Tang people". This is said to reflect the fact that the sinicization of Lingnan was most prominent during the Tang Dynasty, which resulted in the Cantonese people having an especially strong affinity to that dynasty.

[Wikipedia, see above]

Double bingo! Little did I know as a youngster visiting China Town NYC, that I was actually visiting the Street of the Tang People! It is also interesting to note that the area surrounding Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island, was in the very early days referred to as China Town. It sounds like a joke until you consider that that was the place where the original migrant Chinese population, preceding the acquisition of Kowloon, was required to reside. Man Mo temple is a cultural icon in Hong Kong and it sits squarely in the centre of that neighbourhood.

So now we understand the general theory. What does it mean on the Streets of Hong Kong and Macau? It is impossible to say that the streets of Hong Kong and Macau are pure unadulterated Cantonese/ Lingnan because what makes these two cities unique is the interaction of that culture with foreign influences (East literally did meet West for the first time in Canton, Macau and Hong). However, in neighborhoods like old To Kwa Wan, Yau ma Tei, Mong Kok, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City, Kwun Tong and many others in Kowloon, it is possible to glimpse and experience a decidedly more authentic or less gentrified version. It is rough, it is gritty and seedy magnificence is a fine way of characterising much of it. One's initial reaction would be to say, wow this is authentic and truly local and it truly is. I like to say this is street jazz. It is surprisingly creative, colourful, very spontaneous and raw.

What are the cultural markers that exemplify Cantonese culture on the street? Well there are too many for me to list here. But you see it in the style of the hawker markets, the shops, the business clustering, the street food, outdoor restaurants and tea rooms, the bamboo scaffolding, the neon signage, the street tradesmen, the music, the old tong laundry style buildings, the awnings, the mahjong parlors, the massage parlors, the pawn shops, the scarce remnants of squatter villages and roof squatters, the informal street shrines and folk temples, the bamboo laundry poles, the bird men, the exterior surfaces of the old buildings. The list is endless.

It has been said that Cantonese culture is essentially a culture of the street. There is more to it than that. But all of the things you see on the streets, contribute to a uniquely local style of what has been referred to by urban planners as "messy urbanism", the use of public spaces and surfaces in ways not originally contemplated by city planners. Messy urbanism can be found in every great city. Those who have traveled the region know there are wonderful examples of messy urbanism all around South East Asia and it is similar but very different in every country one visits. There is even a fascinating book on the subject: Messy Urbanism--Understanding the "Other" Cities of Asia, Edited by Manish Chalana and Jeffrey Hou (2016). It is cultural by nature and and observing its curious manifestations with a camera is something I find to be immensely enjoyable. The zen of the Cantonese street is what I am after.

The local writer and journalist Christopher DeWolf published another interesting little tract: Borrowed Spaces--Life between the Cracks of Modern Hong Kong 2017. I enjoyed reading this book because it mirrored a great deal of what I had been seeking in my street photography, thinking about since the occupy protests and more recently mentioning on my tours, particularly about Hong Kong messy street culture and its nexus with local cultural identity. DeWolf says the following in the opening of his book:

"In many cities, the best places are the ones that have been planned the least: the informal spaces, borrowed and altered from their official uses. What makes Hong Kong special is how many of these borrowed spaces exist within the rigid framework of concrete housing estates and skyscrapers that are decidedly not human scaled. I began to realise that if you stripped away all its accoutrements... Hong Kong would be little more than a barren landscape of ugly concrete buildings...The charm of Hong Kong is the way the people have transformed this often hostile and inhuman city into something vibrant and liveable...Hong Kong is in an existential crisis...[T]he city's urban fabric is being radically reshaped, with hawkers cleared off the streets and entire blocks of small buildings being bulldozed to make way for new shopping malls and towers."

A recent editorial in the South China Morning Post begins with the headline:

It's not for everyone, but Mong Kok is the real, raw and raunchy side of Hong Kong culture we should be fighting to preserve--Noisy, congested, polluted, vibrant, creative and colourful, our city is all these things and the government must protect our heritage, not turn us into another cookie-cutter metropolis with chain stores and bland malls.

Just yesterday, I was in Mongkok photographing the sad demise of one of my favorite old buildings on Canton Road. I understand this will be a temporary renovation quickly followed by demolition. Go figure.

There, now getting back to the best way to describe "raw Cantonese street culture". For me it is with a camera. And that is essentially what I am constantly doing when I post my Hong Kong street photography. You can find much of it here. Eventually, there will be a book. In the meantime, raw Cantonese street culture is precisely what you are going to see when you join me on the Streets of Hong Kong!

Oh, and one more thing about my photography tours. It is my firm belief that the best way to enhance one's street photography is to familiarise one's self with the back ground of the subject matter you are photographing. Context to go with your your images. That is why I am writing this post. I hope this post will provide the reader who is out and about photographing the streets of Hong Kong with some useful food for thought, call it street food!

ABOUT STREETS OF HONG KONG PREMIUM WALKING TOURS

My premium walking tours are ideal for acclimating and orienting first time visitors to Hong Kong as well as for returning visitors eager for a new experience.

You can book a tour or send me an inquiry now by going to my Contact/Booking Page.

William Sievers

June 29, 2018

Streets of Hong Kong Premium Private Tours--Dispatch #0015: THE PENINSULA

William Sievers

June 29, 2018

I just received a message from someone with the Peninsula Hotel. As you can see, they liked the above image (posted to Instagram) that I snapped during one of my many quick passes through the lobby of the hotel.

I first stayed in the Peninsula Hotel in the early 1970s because that was my Dad's "go to" business hotel in Hong Kong. Needless to say, he put many of his visiting business guests and colleagues in that hotel. His Kowloon office was literally minutes away and that building is still standing although it now houses the Hang Seng Bank. The hotel as it stands today has a slightly different exterior owing to the subsequent height extension. But the lobby is still as I remembered it. Back then I was already playing music in my own bands and you can imagine what I thought arriving in the hotel and hearing a string orchestra playing the Beatles Eleanor Rigby in the lobby! I had already stayed in such upscale hotels as the Okura in Tokyo, so I was already a seasoned young traveler. I was suitably impressed by the Peninsula Hotel! My first real watch and tailored suit were purchased in the streets surrounding the hotel and I remember doing that vividly. Naturally my parents were on the hotel's A-List and my Dad continued to receive the Peninsula magazine many years afterwards. There is still a pile of them sitting in the basement of the family house.

In any event, I consider the Peninsula Hotel to be a historic Hong Kong landmark and it is one of my regular stops on tour as well as during the Christmas holidays. My wife and I still enjoy having high tea there, we take pictures of the annual Christmas tree and I have a bunch of stories about the notables we have met there (the exiled former Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Sinawatra, being the most famous/infamous).

Naturally, I was touched when I received this message for the sentimental reasons recounted above.

To view more of my images of Hong Kong and Macau, please visit my Flickr Stream or visit me on Instagram: @williambanzai7.Hope to see you soon on the Streets of Hong Kong or Macau!WB7End of Dispatch — To view more of my images of Hong Kong and Macau, please visit my Flickr Stream or visit me on Instagram: @williambanzai7.
**Hope to see you soon on the Streets of Hong Kong or Macau!**
WB7
End of Dispatch

ABOUT STREETS OF HONG KONG PREMIUM WALKING TOURS

My premium walking tours are ideal for acclimating and orienting first time visitors to Hong Kong as well as for returning visitors eager for a new experience.

You can book a tour or send me an inquiry now by going to my Contact/Booking Page.